Kim Thompsett

I learned the rudiments of music encouraged by my parents growing up in South East London. We had a piano in the front room which I played all the time and a little later I took up the flute and then dabbled with guitar. I also had a talent for writing poetry which had a resurgence later on when I started writing lyrics.

My musical adventures came to a halt in my 20's as I concentrated on family and ran a pub for a while. Having not written anything in my younger years, it came as a bit of a surprise when I started writing songs in my mid-30's. Having a close connection with nature and being an avid reader (primarily of the classics and medieval stories), these manifested themselves in a flurry of songs based around these themes. My favourite way of writing is to set a scene but use language that allows the listener to paint the scene how they personally interpret it.

To me, there is nothing more satisfying than finishing a song and the whole process that surrounds it. It's like you tap into something outside of yourself, like a waking dream. I have found it to be the most emotionally expressive thing you can do and have cried happy tears on the culmination of a particular piece. And this outpouring of emotion never really comes out as you expect it to. For example, when my (devoutly Christian) mother died a couple of years ago, I wrote Woebetide Hill, which with its references to coven meetings and 'cloven feet' would probably have her spinning in her grave.

So, a few songs later and after some forays into the recording scenario, assisted by friends and people who have become friends, I am just a couple of months away from releasing my second commercial album. With the last album, Songs from the Uglee Meadow, I tried to direct it so it would appeal to the traditional folk fans and radio shows, but after meeting with a resounding silence on that front, I have decided that I should just indulge my own whims and those in the spotlight can make of it what they will.

I haven't yet found a genre description that adequately places my music in a specific category, so it's a bit open to interpretation. Likewise, I have difficulty in saying who else I sound like. Influences are wide and varied and possibly not what you would expect.

I am also part of a Hastings-based band called Moss Pigs who play a mixture of originals, traditional songs and covers by Jethro Tull, Pentangle, Small Faces and Jefferson Airplane.