In the summer of 2021, Brighton-based, Scottish-Thai songwriter Helen Ganya's grandmother passed away.
The grief hit the artist hard, not only because it marked the loss of her last remaining grandparent, but also because it felt like her links to being half-Thai were disintegrating, roots quaking and shifting in uncharted territories. Ganya grew up in Singapore, but spent her summers in the northeast of Thailand where her mum's side of the family is from, visiting her grandmother. Where would all those memories go now that the person at the centre of them was gone? What was her relationship to this place without that glue? And so, in an attempt to process it all, Ganya began to write.
"I got my diary and wrote every single memory of my time as a child in Thailand, spending time with her, my grandad, my aunts and cousins and everything," she explains, "I had these snapshots of memories that I just wrote down because I just suddenly panicked: it was like, who am I, then?"
It was for this reason that, while Helen Ganya was waiting for her acclaimed 2022 album, polish the machine,to come out, she was already working on what would become her arresting new record, 'Share Your Care'. Ganya has been releasing music since 2015 (formerly under the moniker Dog in the Snow). In the records she's put out over the years, she's shown a proclivity towards dark and artful rock and off-kilter sounds, garnering praise from the likes of the Sunday Times, Uncut, Clash, Loud & Quiet and more. But Share Your Caremarks a new era, building on Ganya's past sonic worlds and interspersing them with traditional Thai instrumentation, resulting in a plush, luminous, psych-tinged affair that is full of feeling.
The result is a triumphant, abundant record, teeming with heart and cinematic warmth.
The grief hit the artist hard, not only because it marked the loss of her last remaining grandparent, but also because it felt like her links to being half-Thai were disintegrating, roots quaking and shifting in uncharted territories. Ganya grew up in Singapore, but spent her summers in the northeast of Thailand where her mum's side of the family is from, visiting her grandmother. Where would all those memories go now that the person at the centre of them was gone? What was her relationship to this place without that glue? And so, in an attempt to process it all, Ganya began to write.
"I got my diary and wrote every single memory of my time as a child in Thailand, spending time with her, my grandad, my aunts and cousins and everything," she explains, "I had these snapshots of memories that I just wrote down because I just suddenly panicked: it was like, who am I, then?"
It was for this reason that, while Helen Ganya was waiting for her acclaimed 2022 album, polish the machine,to come out, she was already working on what would become her arresting new record, 'Share Your Care'. Ganya has been releasing music since 2015 (formerly under the moniker Dog in the Snow). In the records she's put out over the years, she's shown a proclivity towards dark and artful rock and off-kilter sounds, garnering praise from the likes of the Sunday Times, Uncut, Clash, Loud & Quiet and more. But Share Your Caremarks a new era, building on Ganya's past sonic worlds and interspersing them with traditional Thai instrumentation, resulting in a plush, luminous, psych-tinged affair that is full of feeling.
The result is a triumphant, abundant record, teeming with heart and cinematic warmth.
TRACK LISTING
1. Weera
2. Share Your Care
3. Mekong
4. Interlude 1 - Sam Law
5. Fortune
6. Horizon
7. Morlam Plearn (Luk Khrueng Surprise)
8. Interlude 2 - Look That Way!
9. Barn Nork
10. Hell Money
11. Chaiyo!
12. Interlude 3 - Conversations At The Catfish Lake
13. Myna