Friday is the day when we sent some random questions to our roam festival artists.
Rebekah is a herbalist, mother, composer and researcher. Their replies, during our fourth week, include stories, ideas about creating their own music and tips on parenthood .

1 When did you start playing bass ? What was your first influence ?

I think I was around 8 when I first started playing, but I focussed on bass a bit later, hearing tracks like ‘Colonial Mentality ‘ by Fela Kuti, influenced by the nature of repetition and holding sound together, but then people like Jaco Pastorius influenced my more melodic side of playing that is still heard in my bass playing now.

2 What film would you recommend ?

The last film I watched was ‘Shirley’ , based on the author Shirley Jackson. It’s funny, but also incredibly dramatic and sad. It hits many spots. With of course a wonderful soundtrack composed by Tamar Kali.

3 You are the mother of a young child. How and when do you give yourself time to create music ?

I use the time while my daughter is at nursery very wisely. I have my own studio, a space I use just to work. I try not to attempt to make music at home. As you can imagine it will always be a collaboration between me and a 3 year old in the background. But the studio has been a huge help to my practice and I feel very happy and lucky to have access to this space close to my home.

4 Is there any encouragement, or tips ,you want to give to music-making mums ?

I feel like I am still figuring it out 3 years on, but all I can say is, any moment you get, if that’s a nap, while they are at nursery, school etc, just try to produce some kind of idea of a sound, even if it’s 5 minutes or an hour. Something that you can keep revisiting in these moments. then soon it will become what you want it to be. This is as vague as how it is for me! (apologies)

5 Where would you like to live if you could choose anywhere? Any reason?

Anywhere with a strong community, I feel rooted where I am. I think when you are a single parent, the options of living anywhere do shrink as there is a lot to think about. But I do feel fulfilled in my current space with my community!

6 Why is your ongoing project called ‘Dandelion’, any particular reason?

Outside of music I have a huge interest in herbalism and have been studying for around 10 years now. Dandelion has always been a herb that has stuck with me, it has so many healing properties, such a huge positive impact on the body and yet it’s still considered a weed or a pest, and constantly de-rooted. I feel like this can be a metaphor for how a lot of Black composers/artists were treated in the past, and in ways also today. But I focus more on the healing properties of Black composers!

7 Your new path continues with the MA at Goldsmiths. What are you working on as a MA theme?

From my research into Julius Eastman it created many more roots/routes to follow. Looking at how little existed on Eastman, highlighted how this is a theme for Black composers and how their work or history are not preserved and archived. So I will be looking at the systems of archiving today both physically and digitally. specifically archiving Black composers.

Another strand of my research will be looking at the influences of pre colonial western musical patterns that can be heard in Black composers’ works, I hear a crossover of these two sounds being presented in western classical music which is very interesting. I am looking forward to getting deeper into this.