The Budapest Bardroom

Rachel Hammond is an England born South African; previously an advertising assistant; currently a kindergarten teacher and always a singer.

After studying singing and song-writing through the National School of Arts in 2001, Rae taught herself guitar (with the help of an old primary school teacher). Shortly afterwards she embarked upon her travels where she discovered the London music scene and fronted a flurry of bands of varying genres from rap rock to Ryan Adams fanatic melancholies. An avid practicer of capoeira, she was lead her to love and lives here in Budapest – and this is where she lays her hat.

1. What was your first (poem / piece of writing), and how bad was it?

“My first piece was a poem-turned-song called ‘Don’t Leave’. My singing teacher helped me turn the chorus into something catchy (something I hadn’t yet mastered) and I performed it at the end of year concert. Surprisingly, I found out I was the only student that year who performed their own work instead of a cover and that resulted in a fellow student, also a debuting South African artist, approaching me to get rights to record ‘Don’t Leave’ as her first release single. I was (am) pretty chuffed, but have yet to see a copy of that CD.”

2. Are you currently working on anything, and why’s it taking so long?

“2009 unfortunately has been less than fruitful lyrically and I’ve been stuck in a cliched writer’s block.  I decided to go back to my roots, listening to every single different genre of music I can, and learn new songs.  I make them my own and cover them in a contrasting genre. Sounds complicated and it is. But it never fails. Before I know it I’ve learnt (or made up) four or five new chords, used my vocals on a new level, and practiced how to not sound like someone else. So yes, I’m working on how to be me.”

3. Do you actually have moments of inspiration or is writing just a process of slogging day in and day out?

“Moments. It’s all about the moment. Sometimes I write three entire songs one after the other in the space of an hour. Sometimes seven months can go by without even the motivation to pick up my guitar. I’ve just come through the latter and spent an hour last night writing two poems, that’ll become songs by Monday. It’s a great feeling of relief.”

4. Name a writer/poet who you’d be most psyched to see show up at your Bardroom gig and how would you return the compliment if he/she liked your set?

“KT Tunstall. I’ve no idea how I’d ever return her compliment. I’d ask to have a coffee with her to get to know her a bit better.  I’d ask her who she wrote about in her song ‘Heal Over’.”

5. Does poetry matter anymore?

“To me, yes. As I mentioned above, going back to the roots is as good as a holiday. Whether it be reading Shakespear or Dr Seuss, listening to some country or rap, or counting the syllables in a new song that just ‘doesn’t go’.  I don’t and have never used mind expanding drugs and writing a poem or lyrics is my only release and means of expression. Poems can be novels, they tell a structured story whether they’re a jingle, a middle eight or an entire album. And sometimes rhyming’s fun. Rappers, country singers and even thrash metal’s impenetrable growling rhymes.”