for you who are the wronged follows on from Kathryn Joseph’s 2014 debut bones you have thrown me and blood i’ve spilled, and her 2018 from when i wake the want is. And though her sparrow-boned musical structures are as slight and sparse framed as their singer – they burn with a fearsome new certainty.
The sound is spacious, honouring the rawness of her original demos, written in early 2020. The subject matter is violation – of power, of love, of access – a pain that may not belong to her alone, but she strives to make sense of what’s being enacted on others. In crafting these songs, Joseph offers a window into these toxic patterns that she hopes could save someone.
“Partly, it feels like the only thing I can do in terms of saying it out loud,” Kathryn shares. “It’s like code. No-one will hear their name, or recognise themselves, but in years to come, they might. For me, I think maybe there’s someone who might not even realise that they’re being abused until they listen to these songs. The ones who are already – I know how strong they are. They’re in my life, and they’re surviving it.”
Recorded at The Lengths Studio in Fort William, with producer Lomond Campbell, the converted old school-house offered a week-long solace to let Joseph focus solely on the music. It’s her first co-production credit, too – and given the heart-close nature of the subject, only fitting that she’d shape its execution.
Release: April 22, 2022, Rice Is Nice/Rock Action