Frankie Archer - Pressure & Persuasion
Last week, Frankie Archer released her brand new EP Pressure & Persuasion to a symphony of acclaim. Across four tracks, she tells the stories of several women and girls from centuries past whose experiences share a stark resemblance to today. The release is yet another jewel in the crown of Archer’s growing oeuvre, coming hot on the heels of her debut Never So Red, born into the world late last year. Ahead of the release of Pressure & Persuasion, Frankie and I convened in opulent surroundings, sitting down in the corner of the canteen at a grandiose independent girls school to discuss her introduction to folk music and her brand new EP.
“A lot of the time in trad music there is a family legacy and people come from big traditional folk families, but that's not me” she explains as we settle into our conversation, shortly after her performance at Deer Shed Festival earlier this summer. The grandeur of our surroundings casting an ironic shadow over our conversation as we reflect on modest upbringings in our respective parts of the North of England.
Although her introduction to traditional music wasn’t inherited, it came early and quickly captured her imagination, “I started violin lessons in school and then got into folk music through that” she reflects. Many of the songs that were so integral to her education have remained with her through the years, eventually becoming central to her work as an artist, “they settled in the back of my mind, I’ve forgotten them and I’ve come back to them after they’ve percolated and evolved, then I’ve made my own thing of them”.
Credit: Frankie Archer by Rob Irish
Archer’s “thing” is a truly unique blend of traditional British folk, electronic instrumentation and modern production techniques. A cocktail that is reflected in her early influences that extend far beyond the Northumbrian Minstrelsy and included “lots of electronic inspiration, people like Bjork, Little Dragons, a band called Sonnymoon, James Blake” but perhaps most surprisingly, Archer confesses, “when I was first getting into traditional folk music, I was a big time Emo and I don’t know if it comes across in my music, maybe it does in the drama”.
Her breakout single ‘Oxford City’ is resplendent with such drama, a reimagining of a song found in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, it tells of a jealous lover who murders his sweetheart with a glass of poisoned wine. Archer’s adaptation retains the same tragic narrative but is punctuated with electronic stabs and adorned with foreboding violin strokes that play out as the sounds of a pub scene descends on the track, enveloping you in the theatre that unfolds in your mind's eye. The single is a masterclass in dramatic storytelling and immediately set her aside from the crowd.
Having caught the attention of television producers, she soon landed a spot on Later… with Jools Holland, allowing her the opportunity to share these rich tales with a whole new audience. As we discussed their beautiful, enduring usage of language, her reverence for the source material became abundantly clear, “The songs are like stories, I don’t need to go looking for more eloquent or padded out versions, the essence of the story of human experience is there in the lyrics”.
On her new EP, Archer continues to espouse the salience of the aged-old wisdom of the British folk songbook, this time through the lens of four heroines, “Barbara Allen”, “Lovely Joan”, “Fair Mabel of Wallington Hall” and “Elsie Marley”. The collection captures the provenance of misogyny and sexism, inherited by generation after generation, further evidenced by the song's continued relevance. “These are songs from hundreds of years ago telling a story about what a woman has been through and it’s just history repeating itself, same shit different century” Archer contemplates. The EP in its entirety rallies against the prevailing presence of this systemic, cultural prejudice, “there are lots of wins and there has been lots of progress but at the core you can see that misogyny and the patriarchy is alive and strong”.
Credit: Frankie Archer by Rob Irish
On Pressure & Persuasion the songs' central protagonists are shut out and exiled for a variety of reasons. For instance, “Barbara Allen”, who Frankie previously explained, "is summoned to the deathbed of John, a man she doesn’t really know, so he can tell her he loves her, and expect her to love him back. In some versions of the song he tries to guilt-trip her into it “For I am sick, I’m very bad // One kiss from you will cure me.” Barbara rejects this random man and is branded ‘cruel-hearted’. In most versions she actually dies of sorrow the day after he does (often this is told as a warning to girls not to be so cruel)." In her retelling of the story, Archer is able to set the record straight, “I don’t owe you anything / I didn’t ask for your attention / Lechery is not a compliment', she sings, liberating Barbara from her eternal guilt and making a defiant statement against the continued plague of female objectification.
Across the project, Archer’s vocals, steeped in her rich northern dialect, takes centre stage, lavishly coating the instrumentation across all four tracks, imbuing the stories with an echt quality and rooting them in context. In a genre and an industry where regional representation is sorely lacking, often overshadowed by the polished, neutral RP that dominates the folk scene and wider popular music, Frankie Archer’s presence is a breath of fresh air. Although she admits, “I didn’t consider myself a singer or vocalist until really recently,”. This absence of regional voices isn’t just a quirk of the industry, it reflects deeper patterns of exclusion. Folk music, despite its origins in the everyday lives of the working-class, often fails to celebrate the full range of regional identities. Archer’s commitment to embracing her heritage, offers a reflection of the landscapes from which these stories were originally plucked.
Overall Pressure & Persuasion is a triumph of individuality that celebrates the rich lineage of British folk music while liberating the ghosts of its past and reaffirming the vital lessons they can teach us. As the project demonstrates, Frankie Archer is not only a custodian of traditional folk music but a bold, visionary voice shaping its future. Her ability to give new life to age-old stories reflects a growing demand for artists who challenge convention and amplify forgotten voices. With Pressure & Persuasion, she doesn’t just remind us of folk music’s enduring relevance—she reshapes it in the image of the modern world.
Pressure & Persuasion by Frankie Archer is out now.
