FIONA BRICE is a British composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist (violin, piano, voice) whose music spans contemporary classical and indie alternative worlds. She writes, records and tours with a diverse roster of artists including John Grant, Elbow, Kelly Jones / Stereophonics, Johnny Marr, Placebo, Anna Calvi, Liam Gallagher and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Her orchestral collaborations with the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, the Philharmonia, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Heritage Orchestra have been broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 3, 4, BBC 6 Music, MTV Unplugged and the BBC Proms. She is a regular arranger and conductor for BBC Radio 2 Piano Rooms with the BBC CO and has written string and brass arrangements on over 60 albums.
Her favourite incognito® products are the repellent, the hair & body wash, and the aftersun / moisturiser.
This June marks the tenth birthday of my first solo record, "Postcards From". Released on 3rd June 2016 on Bella Union Records, the album was mostly written on the road while touring the world with British rock band Placebo. It was an incredible time in my life where my two passions — music and travel — became permanently intertwined.
Travel is a constant source of inspiration. It teaches me about others and it teaches me about myself. I gather my best ideas together while moving. Fragments of melodies come to me in hotel rooms, on planes, trains and tour buses. I scribble it all down then re-work it when I get home. I recorded Postcards From in stages, recording with friends in London when I had time off. The music is instrumental, for violin, cello and piano, and each track is named after a different city or location around the world, representing my state of mind while in that particular place, rather than describing the city itself.
Any piece of art is a snapshot of its artist's mental health, and on reflection I see that this record came about in a state of hope, of opportunity, of peace. You can feel this in the meditative bliss of Berlin or Koh Yao Noi; you can hear sunlight in the cascading pianos of Verona. Darkness is present in Dallas and St Petersburg, while Glastonbury is hypnotic, kaleidoscopic. I performed some of these tracks live recently and someone in the audience said to me afterwards that my music "made their brain calm". That's important. That's something vital that music can do.
Ten years on and my personal landscape has changed significantly. I am now more composer-orchestrator than performer, which means I work a lot harder and travel a lot less. I feel my world getting a little smaller. Brexit has restricted musicians' ability to tour and I have let go of my original dream to perform the album in every featured location. But the biggest shift since this record first saw the light of day is the global spread of devastating conflict we see unfolding daily. Music is powerful, connecting hearts and minds across borders, irrespective of creed or regime. Placebo visited both Ukraine and Russia multiple times, we spent weeks in Siberia, we also played in Tel Aviv and Beirut, encountering audiences as one global community, connecting with them for a fleeting moment of shared joy. War means these are distant, unreal kinds of memories, tainted with deep concern for those now under fire. I doubt I will see these faces again in my lifetime.
The positive thing about making a record is that it exists (hopefully) in perpetuity, and while streaming is problematic for musicians financially, its ability to reach people all over the globe is a strength. Music can still travel, even when musicians and audiences cannot. I sincerely hope that my music brings a tiny bit of peace and calm to someone, somewhere out there.
Links:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0QPIMyM7f8axOhpaod8hE4
Apple Music: music.apple.com/gb/album/postcards-from
Instagram: @fionabrice
Facebook: facebook.com/fionabricemusic
Bella Union Vinyl Shop (for CDs + LPs)
Portrait by Abbey Braden Raymond.