Christina Alden & Alex Patterson is a British folk duo based in Norwich, England. They have been playing and singing together for the last seven years, touring extensively in the UK and Europe. With beautiful vocal harmonies and compelling compositions driven by the guitar and fiddle, Christina and Alex produce soulful and emotive folk music.
With their latest album on the horizon, due to be released on the 7th of May, we have caught up with Christina and Alex to get to know a little bit more about them, their inspirations and future projects.
For our readers that haven’t yet discovered you, how would you describe your music?
Folky, acoustic original songs and tunes.
You’re based in Norwich on the east coast of England. Could you tell us a little bit about the area and folk scene there?
Norwich is a lovely historic city and we live in an old house in the centre near the river. There’s lots of people playing music and sessions (when allowed) and we have lots of projects on the go with friends in the area. Norwich is fairly small and it’s also quite out of the way so everyone knows each other on the music scene and there is a good sense of community.
What inspires your songwriting and composing?
A lot of our songwriting is based on stories either fictional or true, often focused around the natural world. We really enjoy crafting songs that give an impression or feeling through imagery rather than a single continuous story. A song can come from the smallest idea, such as a word or phrase you’ve heard in passing.
Your debut album ‘Hunter’ will be released May, 7th. How was the recording process?
We recorded everything at home in our cellar – one of the things about doing the recording yourself is that there is less pressure from time restraints and studio fees. We ended up recording a lot in the evenings when the street outside was at its quietest. Because of this freedom we were able to be really creative in terms of trying out different instruments and ideas.
What can we expect from the album?
Hunter is a collection of nine original tracks and one traditional song. We are both really proud of this album and it’s been really enjoyable to live it for the past year or so. It’s a celebration of our musical partnership, instrumentation, harmony singing and passion for songwriting.
Musicians have had a tough time with the COVID19 pandemic, but it seems that restrictions are easing around the world, are you excited to get back to playing gigs?
The pandemic has made us re-evaluate our work/life priorities and although we are really excited for live gigs, touring for us will be a little different than before.
We’re always excited to know what people are listening to. What are some of your favourite artists at the moment? All genres welcome!
Ye Vagabonds, Mari Joyce, Tom Moore and Archie Moss, Devon Sproule.
What does the future hold for the duo, and yourselves individually as artists?
We are really excited to have lots of shows booked and to be promoting (and hopefully selling) our new album. We’re also looking forward to working on collaboration projects with The John Ward Band and The Shackleton Trio and we’ve got a tour later in the year with our trio Alden Patterson and Dashwood too.
Thank you for taking some time out of your day to have a chat with us! Anything you’d like to say to our readers?
Thanks for reading! Christina and Alex x
Like what you hear? You can pre-order ‘Hunter’ here:Digital Album Physical CD