A.A. Williams on lockdown, live performance and As The Moon Rests

Having performed a sell-out Purcell Room show in March 2020, she returned to play our Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2022, and also has one eye on the big stage nextdoor.

A classically trained multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter, Williams is seemingly as industrious as she is multi-talented. Her 2020 debut album Forever Blue, has since been followed up with the EP arco, the acclaimed covers record Songs from Isolation, and now her second album, As The Moon Rests.

Post-rock, and post-classical have both been used to describe Williams’ atmospheric sound, as too, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, has ‘death gospel’. In September 2022 she was joined by her band and the Mayfield Strings ensemble for a performance in our Queen Elizabeth Hall, ahead of that gig we caught up with her to discuss her musical memories, her favourite venues and, of course, that new album.

What is your earliest musical memory?

My first piano teacher used to put on small concerts for her pupils at the end of every term; I imagine her intention was for us to learn to perform with a small audience and also to showcase the pieces we’d been working on. The concerts were great, you’d have tiny children performing nursery rhymes and older pupils performing complex repertoire in the same event.

Did you always want to have a career in music?

I began learning music from a young age and always loved it and felt that it came naturally. Though I didn’t make a definitive decision to be a musician, I’ve never entertained the possibility of doing anything else.

What does being a professional musician mean to you?

Being a musician is incredibly special. We use a language of expression that permits us to speak without words and affords us many different feelings along the way. One certainly doesn’t need to be a professional to be able to do it or enjoy it, but I’m very grateful to have a means to articulate myself emotionally and do what I love for a living.

How does it feel to be back performing at the Southbank Centre again?

It’s an absolute pleasure! I’ve always loved the Southbank Centre and to be able to return to perform at the Queen Elizabeth Hall is a real dream come true.

Right after your last performance here he first Covid-19 lockdown hit, within which your Songs from Isolation series originated; tell us how that came about.

Songs from Isolation was initially borne from two slightly unrelated incidents; one was a social media post where I asked fans for suggestions of songs to rework with piano and voice where I failed to specify that I meant my own tracks rather than those of other artists. The second, was me trying to find a way to produce video content without succumbing to creating one of the sometimes not-so-great Instagram/Facebook Live videos that were starting to appear online. I wanted to ensure that any video and audio quality was as good as it could be within my means. The two conversations began to morph into one idea, and Songs From Isolation began.

Every week fans would suggest new songs to cover and I’d spend my days working on the musical elements and editing videos. I was surprised at how many listeners got involved to suggest material, it was a great way to stay in touch with my fans during a time when we were all confined to our homes.

With those Songs from Isolation suggestions coming from fans, did it take you to any artists you perhaps otherwise wouldn’t have contemplated covering?

Not really – there were hundreds of song suggestions, but within them there were many artists that would crop up time and time again. I have listeners who listen to pop music, listeners who listen to black metal and listeners whose record collections span everything in between, but there seems to be a lot of common ground. Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, The Deftones, Nick Cave, The Cure – these artists all have a ton of fans and each produce quite varied music, so I’m not too surprised that they arose time and time again. Conveniently for me they’re all artists I love too, so it made picking songs quite easy!

October sees the release of your second album, As The Moon Rests. How are you feeling about the album? What were the key inspirations behind it? And what do you hope fans will take from it?

When you record an album, you’re so wrapped up in the process that it is easy to forget that other people will one day listen to it. Then you start to release singles and see listeners’ reactions and you’re reminded that sooner rather than later it will be out in the world for all to hear. It is a bit nerve wracking, but I’m proud of what I’ve created and definitely feel that it’s a positive expansion from my first record.

When I wrote Forever Blue I spent a lot of time looking inwards, finding flaws within myself and trying to find ways to eradicate or fix them. In As The Moon Rests there is a sense of trying to accept and manage those flaws with grace and kindness – certainly not an easy ride, and one met with anxiety, sadness and stress at every turn, but culminating in an album that is as much about making a friend of the dark as it is being afraid of it.

Your appearance here is part of a tour that’s taken you through 11 countries. Do you notice any difference in audience reaction to your music from different audiences around Europe?

There’ll be major differences between countries in terms of how an audience acts between songs, how animated they are and the kind of tracks that they respond to. Also in the less musical things, like the kind of merchandise they’re interested in, whether they pinch set lists or and even if they take photographs of the show! My main goal is that I can introduce new listeners to my music and that they come away from a show having had a positive introduction to me as an artist. Sometimes it is hard to tell how an audience feels about you, maybe they don’t move much or make much noise, but then after the show large numbers of them will flock to the merch desk and buy my entire back catalogue on vinyl, you just never know.

On the subject of audience reaction, how much attention do you pay to reviews of your music?

It is hard to ignore them entirely, though I never particularly seek them out. I think it’s certainly good to make sure people are responding to your music in the way you hope they will, but I’m usually more concerned about live reviews than an album review because I want to make sure my band and I are producing the best show we can. Once an album is recorded there’s no more improvement you can add, whereas with a live show there will always be room to polish your performance.

You’ve performed at a great variety of venues, but which is your favourite to have played so far ? And is there a venue you’d really love to play one day?

The Purcell Room show was one of my favourites – it was such an important performance for me, my first ever headline show, and it was especially poignant in its timing, landing right before the first Covid lockdown. In terms of future dream venues, definitely the Royal Festival Hall! I’ve seen so many amazing concerts and performances there over the years, it would be amazing to finally play there myself.