Swallowed By The Thicket
Swallowed By The Thicket is a one-woman dark pagan folk project from New England, blending haunting strings and ethereal vocals into an immersive, forest-like soundscape. Inspired by folklore and nature’s mysticism, her music evokes the eerie beauty of shadowy woods and blurs the line between humanity and the wild.
Tell us about the origin of Swallowed By The Thicket. How did you get started in music?
This response is lengthy, so grab a drink and snack...I started singing as early as I can remember and began whistling around 2. My late father was a pianist who played jazz/rock music for a living before later becoming a business person. There was always a baby grand piano in the house that I could tinker on and I had a lot of access to my father's collection of tapes, vinyls & CDs alongside a beautiful stereo system in our living room where I could listen to music. I listened to the local radio a lot as well as all of the classical, jazz, and rock music my father listened to. My mother, an Anatolian Greek immigrant from Turkey, played a variety of genres/styles of Greek music and, sometimes, traditional Turkish & Kurdish music. She was also a bit of a hippie and had Cat Stevens vinyls hanging around.
By the age of 9, I spent hours listening to music while whizzing around on my razor scooter in the house, which helped me learn how to listen and figure out what I liked. I was also learning how to play the classical violin at this age, at school, and through private lessons. Violin is the only instrument I was formally trained on where I learned music theory as a child. I became very familiar with Bach and baroque music in general. Today, I don't really consider myself a violinist. It's not my favorite instrument and my playing has changed significantly in my opinion because of this lack of interest. I'm just sick of it! Probably because of the strict and competitive culture that I feel goes along with classical music. When I first started, I was a major people pleaser and followed the rules a lot. I didn't push myself to explore other instruments or do what I wanted - besides singing.
This is important to note because by the time I was 11 or 12, I began listening to neofolk artists, heavy metal, punk, anything obscure and alternative that I either found on my own terms or through my older siblings. I was majorly exposed to music through platforms like Napster or Limewire. This significantly shaped my music listening and general outlook on life, which I generally kept to myself. I lived in a small, isolated Connecticut town and telling people that I liked anything different was a big risk for me. It was a musical safe space for me to keep my musical interests to myself, and though I never played anything like this as a child, I was spending a lot of time connecting to these genres in my psyche and spirit alone.
By age 14 or 15 I became more outwardly expressive, especially anything dark for I was becoming depressed. I began playing piano by ear at age 14 and would try to play songs I heard in recordings. This was a pivotal point where I started writing my own songs, mainly sad ones. I've forgotten a lot of them, unfortunately. I was a very easily discouraged person and felt what I did was meaningless. So, though I played, I didn't think anything would come of it. I also had a classical guitar that my mother gave me, but I barely played it. I didn't have the confidence. I'd improvise on it sometimes, but didn't trust my intuition enough to believe that what I was doing had meaning.
By the time I was 18, I thought I wanted to be a classical violinist...but the reality of it was that the idea seriously depressed me. It took courage to understand that it was an instrument I was told to play, it wasn't in my heart to focus on it. I did know, however, that I wanted to focus on my singing voice. Though I sang in school choirs and took choir very seriously as a child, I had only taken a couple of singing lessons by this point. So I eventually worked with opera singers and finally got lessons from a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music. I did study jazz theory and participated in jazz and blues groups in college as well as dabbling in post tonal theory. I took one semester of beginner guitar, but it made me nervous and I am not sure I really retained anything.
I think it is safe to say I am a late bloomer when I *really* started playing the guitar, which is my favorite instrument and play most of the time - besides my voice. I began dabbling on guitar a lot at my music job around 24. I later borrowed my coworker's steel string guitar and started figuring things out on my own and writing little songs. I would say the songs I began writing for Swallowed by the Thicket didn't really start until I was 27, right after I had my second child and bought my first steel string guitar. This is when writing songs on the guitar became crucial in my mental survival. I was sick of the violin, I had no piano at the time, and the guitar was the only instrument I felt connected to while singing. I was seriously depressed, struggling with my mental health, and needed an outlet. It became a necessity to write music this way and writing songs, I felt, was all I had to keep me going.
Long story short, I'm 35 now and I know now that music is in my blood, my soul and my spirit. I cannot live without it, I have to create it, and music has been with me since the beginning - in many different forms and I will never let it go.
I can hear a wide variety of styles in your music. What are your influences?
The wide variety of music listening has made a great impact on my song-writing. The great openness and exposure to all kinds of music from my parents, community and siblings has influenced my writing. I think primarily, I have been very influenced by neofolk, traditional European music, Americana folk, alternative music - such as heavy metal - as well as classical music and electronic music styles.
I will attribute a big chunk of my musical influences to my eldest brother. He had such a major impact on me stylistically, expressively, and musically.
I don't think about it TOO much, quite honestly, on a general basis. I just write whatever comes to mind. Everything I write ALWAYS begins on the guitar and then I sing with the guitar later after writing lyrics along the way. Everything else formulates later. I don't know how else to explain it. But in retrospect and upon reflection, I think neofolk has been the greatest stylistic influence - unconsciously speaking. I didn't expect or purposely create my music based on anything specific or intentional. I think it has just manifested itself based on what I like and who I am as a person, authentically speaking.
Tell us more about your debut album, Songs Of A Recluse. What inspired the name and the music? What instruments are you playing on the album?
I don't really socialize very much in person and feel that I have spent a lot of time by myself creating and writing music over the years. This is an integral aspect of my music creative process - being alone, especially at night and getting in touch with the deepest, darkest parts of who I am.
Writing music in the woodsy region where I live is when I have created most of my music for my project. The name itself comes from a line of a tune I have not yet released. In time, the phrase, "swallowed by the thicket" really stuck with me, because it represents several aspects of my music and myself. I feel very connected to nature and spend a lot of time in the woods. This is my sacred space and this is my honest place. I find that my true self lies here. It is a simple message.
On the album, Songs of a Recluse, I play a few instruments. I mainly play guitar and sing, but in some tunes I play what we call here, the dulcimer guitar, otherwise known as a stick dulcimer in some places, which is inspired by the Appalachian dulcimer. Another instrument I play is the violin in the three part piece, Forest Folk. That's the only song I play violin throughout the album.
Alongside most of my tunes, I do play the frame drum. I have a few frame drums I work with, but most notably a very large one I bought from a region in Serbia. It has a very deep sound and I love it. In Forest Folk I play a Native American shaker crafted locally here in New England and a crystal singing bowl.
Furthermore, I do work with the synthesizer. In Songs of a Recluse, it's generally quite simply used. Nothing fancy. Except maybe in Aching Earth and Since The Last Fall. Lastly, I play the drums and other percussive instruments such as the tambourine.
Did growing up and living in New England influence your music and artistic vision?
This question is very relevant to everything I replied to in the previous question. I would say absolutely! Yes, growing up and living in New England has had a major influence on my music and artistic vision. I draw a lot from the nature around me to express what I am saying in my music. I have lived here the majority of my life. I feel that New England is my home and will always be considered home, even if I weren't to live here any longer. It's incredibly familiar and I have spent countless hours outside here in nature since I was extremely young.
How does paganism influence your life and music?
I would say paganism does influence my life and music. Mainly from a nature-oriented perspective. It's not intentional. I would say I am quite spiritual as well in this regard. I was raised as an Eastern Orthodox Christian, so this has had a huge impact on how I see life. I see a lot of pagan influences in the type of Christianity I was raised with and have questioned the validity of Christianity quite a bit. Though I do see some positive aspects to it, there are other aspects that I just don't understand nor totally agree with.
I think this led me to being more connected to nature and learning more about my heritage from the pre-christian era, which I think has directly affected my music. I am very connected to Greek, Scandinavian, and Celtic paganism especially, since they connect to my heritage. I do believe in Gods and Goddesses, yet I am very open to other spiritual concepts that are relative. I practice witchcraft as well, generally speaking. I do weave pagan concepts into my witchcraft practice. I am most interested in Scottish witchcraft.
I will say that it's hard to say that something didn't create me, call it whatever you want. It could be an ultimate God, it could be the universe, but I admit that I am not too sure what or who it is. I just feel that it exists. I'm still regularly exploring this as the truth progressively unfolds throughout my life. Hopefully this all makes some sense!
What’s next for Swallowed By The Thicket?
This is a bit of a secret!
Listen to Swallowed by the Thicket: Spotify Youtube Bandcamp
Social Media: Instagram