FAC Insights: Hello To Normal Land by Rich Legate (Episode 3)
FAC Insights is a forum for us to showcase and share long form pieces looking at various parts of the music industry and the society that shapes it. Pieces take the form of videos, interviews, discussions, articles and more. This week we are delighted to share this very special episode of the Hello to Normal Land series by Rich Legate from Attitude is Everything(AiE).
In 2020 FAC and AiE launched a strategic partnership to work towards ensuring that the rights and interests of Deaf and disabled artists are fairly represented within the music industry. As part of this partnership, Hello To Normal Land was created - a series of short conversations with artists from AiE’s Next Stage initiative, exclusively for FAC Insights.
In this third edition Rich checks in with our very own FAC Ambassador, Ruth Patterson. An artist, singer and composer of intense honesty, Ruth bares her soul with courage, conviction and vulnerability. Growing up in the moorlands of North Yorkshire, Ruth inherited a romantic melancholia equally from the land and from the music of such pioneering pop dreamers as Kate Bush and Nick Drake. Through her brooding lyricism, atmospheric vocals, and oceanic arrangements, Patterson’s unique take on baroque pop also lends a nod to contemporary writers including Aldous Harding and Angel Olsen.
Since 2019 Ruth has released three singles, with support from Spotify, BBC and Radio X. In 2020 Ruth was Sage Gateshead’s Artist-In-Residence and received the coveted PRS Women Make Music award. BBC Introducing In The North East have recently announced Ruth as one of their Top Tips for 2021.
As a wheelchair user and passionate activist Ruth is an ambassador for Attitude Is Everything, who campaign to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live music. As a spokesperson she has appeared on panels at The Roundhouse, Glasgow Jazz Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival as well speaking at the 2020 APPG parliamentary session diversity in music. Ruth has been published in Hey Girl, NME, BBC, PRS M Magazine. In 2020 she was nominated for the ITV positive role model of the year award.