‘All the Bees’ are Kirsty McGee and Gitika Partington, two highly experienced writer-musicians who have created an exciting new album of gentle yet deep, pastoral alt-folk that brings together their distinctive styles into a crisp, fresh new collaboration that weaves its stunning, reflective songs like gossamer threads around the ear.

McGee is an award-winning wandering maverick and spellbinding live performer who has been releasing music and performing all over the world for over twenty years. Her fans include Emma Watson and Danny Boyle, for whose 2014 thriller ‘Trance’ the song ‘Sandman’ provided a cornerstone, both in its original version and covered by lead actress Rosario Dawson.

Partington, has had a similarly vibrant and varied career in music to date, releasing seven albums which have achieved critical acclaim and national airplay from likes of BBC 6 Music. She has created 4 books of multi-genre choral acapella arrangements published by OUP and Hal Leonard and multi layered vocal tracks for Warner Chappell and Peermusic. During the lockdown of Spring 2020, she directed nearly 100 community singers and produced 9 award winning, original, quirky virtual choir videos of her choral arrangements.

Introspective, heartfelt and unashamed of straying into poetry, the pair’s lyrics focus on nature themes and cycles including loss, death and rebirth – take for example their debut single ‘Wildflowers’, which is a hazy, ethereal track that conjures a fragrant meandering reflective walk in the countryside, as autumn turns to winter, remembering the wildflowers and the abundance of summer.

On the inspiration behind the new single, McGhee reveals, “Having grown up pretty wild in the country, as a child I was fascinated in a Victorian tradition called ‘floriography’ that allowed lovers and friends to deliver clandestine messages to one another using a symbolic ‘language of flowers’. This is such a fun well of unspoken meaning for a lyricist. ‘Yarrow’ – a British wildflower whose Latin name ‘millefolium’ translates as ‘one thousand leaves’ has been used to secretly communicate everlasting love, bravery and even has the country name ‘bad man’s plaything’. Meadowsweet, by contrast, means beauty, happiness, peace and protection but was also thought to deter snakes. For years I’ve enjoyed a ‘private language’ when choosing flower names in my lyrics. All the Bees, steeped in countryside folklore, is a perfect project for me to use this forgotten language.”

McGee and Partington crossed paths by chance on a lockdown film and TV sync music zoom course and started working together remotely. Over the next 3 years, through major grief from close family deaths, illness, the crashing lack of usual musical ventures and the whole trauma of the pandemic, McGee and Partington immersed themselves in their new-found collaboration and created the debut, self-titled All the Bees album, which is due for release this winter.

The duo have only met three times in real life – most of that time was spent cooking and eating seriously healthy and beautiful plant-based food. Their perfect blend of harmonies and musical flow on ‘Wildflowers’ and through-out the new album suggests some kind of pre-destined deeper connection.

All The Bees debut single ‘Wildflowers’ released on 27^th October via Hobopop Recordings, with the self-titled debut album to follow on 8^th December 2023.

How did the collaboration between Kirsty McGee and Gitika Partington come about?

GITIKA: We met in an online course from the US, and while muted in the Zoom meeting, I noticed Kirsty in the chat as another UK-based musician and asked her if she fancied trying some form of musical collaboration. Luckily, she said yes.

The name “All the Bees” is intriguing. Could you explain the significance of the name and how it relates to your music?

KIRSTY: The music is a hive in which each member happily and equally provides their skills. Something sweet comes about when all the bees work together. After we named the band, I found a lovely reference to ‘all the bees’ in the poetry of Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886), which ties in nicely:

“It’s all I have to bring today, This, and my heart beside, This, and my heart, and all the fields, And all the meadows wide, Be sure you count – should I forget, Someone the sum could tell, This, and my heart, and all the Bees, Which in the Clover dwell.”

GITIKA: At the time we came up with the name, one of us was based in the UK’s first Bee Town, and the other was based in the UK’s City of Bees.

Your upcoming album is described as “gentle yet deep, pastoral alt-folk.” Can you tell us more about the sound and themes that listeners can expect from the album?

KIRSTY: The music is quiet, reflective, and yet not weak. I think one thing I realized in getting older is that femininity is a quiet power, but an extremely potent one. The music is feminine, and in being so, it’s very strong. It has a poise and beauty that I like to think comes from a concentration on themes that are pretty timeless – nature and the soft, layered strength that comes out of the turning of the year and the natural cycles of life and death that, ultimately, we all must bow down to. The sound is layered, multifaceted, and delicately put together like lacework. We wanted to create something in which, like a spider’s web, the strength comes from fragility rather than anything strident or obvious.

GITIKA: The instrumentation has an early ’70s slightly psychedelic folk feel about it. We have mellotron, vocoder in between piano, banjo, organ, double bass, flute, and acoustic guitar with layered additional vocals.

“Wildflowers” is the debut single from your upcoming album. Could you share the inspiration behind this song and how it fits into the overall theme of the album?

KIRSTY: Wildflowers is a song that talks about the battle of the sexes in the language of flowers. It’s something that’s always fascinated me – the Victorian tradition of “floriography,” where people would use individual blooms to indicate hidden meanings and convey love or other messages in a world that was built strongly around the symbolic. There’s something a bit ‘witchy’ about the song that I find amusing. I enjoy playing with words, and this is a way in which meaning can be layered like leaves – the songs are filled with different layers, both of voices & instruments and of wordplay. In the context of the album, this is a song that probably most embodies this playfulness.

Gitika, your background includes creating choral a cappella arrangements and virtual choir videos. How does your choral work influence your collaboration with Kirsty?

GITIKA: I love Kirsty’s voice. It is a magical thing that the layers of vocals I create support Kirsty’s beautiful voice so well. One of the loves of my life is harmony and multi-layered vocals. I learned to sing harmonies with my family at a very early age. We sang together as ‘The Partington Family Singers’ from me being about 6 to about 14 years old, and I also sang in the church choir. The love of harmony always stayed with me. I am dangerous left in a room with a microphone and a multi-track recorder as I will almost always just keep adding harmony over harmony. I was quite restrained in this project. I think my ability to layer and blend creates one of the strengths of the music Kirsty and I have created.

You both have had diverse and successful careers in music individually. What has been the most rewarding aspect of working together as All the Bees?

KIRSTY: It’s been great working with Gitika – she’s such an inspiring and incredibly talented musical arranger. I’d say we have taught each other a great deal as we’re equally stubborn and yet able to surrender control to the other in certain situations. She has a talent for taking a song and transforming it in the most unexpected ways. A good partnership is always one that allows the individuals to express themselves, and we definitely have that unity and come to it through trusting one another’s vision & letting go of ego in ways that aren’t always easy but are always rewarding.

GITIKA: Yes – I second all that Kirsty says about good partnerships. Working closely with such an experienced incredible woman has been inspirational. Being a woman, I have to add that you need to ignore people who tell you that you are too old to be in the business.

Your lyrics often focus on nature themes and cycles, including loss, death, and rebirth. How do these themes influence the emotional depth of your music, and why do you choose to explore them in your songs?

KIRSTY: The lyrics reach for a type of universality. I want to be involved in the writing of songs that are ‘common’ enough and filled with enough shared experience to feel familiar. Songs are stories set to music that I would like to be little insights into worlds that help us understand ourselves and others a bit better.

The All the Bees album was created during a period of major personal challenges and the pandemic. How did these experiences shape the music and the creative process behind the album?

GITIKA: We both were dealing with a lot of grief during this period – music was one of the things that helped keep us going. We have a real understanding of each other. We are both capable of great vulnerability which I think comes through in the music. There was a lot of love and support in our relationship over the last three years which must have helped the trust in the music we were creating.

KIRSTY: We both had some major challenges during this time. For me, the music was created over a longer period of time than the time I usually spend on an album, and as a result, I’d say it’s more measured, more contemplative and more settled. I’d say it’s been filtered through a huge range of emotions from joy to grief and I’d say that the support network that the other ‘bees’ have offered has been a touchstone for me over the past few years.

Your harmonies and musical flow are often praised in your music. Can you share how you achieve such a perfect blend, especially considering you’ve only met in person three times?

GITIKA: As a choir leader and close harmony singer, I have spent my life learning to blend. We may have only met three times in real life, but we talked a lot and zoomed a lot, sent little parcels in the post and could probably turn our message feed into a short novel. We got to know each other very well. I think it is also quite rare for the person mixing and producing the tracks to also be a singer-songwriter/vocal arranger too, though it happens more. I think that may be of great benefit to the songs.

KIRSTY: The beauty of it for me has been in being able to work solo and collaboratively at the same time. (GITIKA – Yes, that is something I loved too) I work best on my own I think, but the creative process has sent things back and forth and it’s been interesting to have a sounding board held up from different approaches to the same song. I work on Logic Pro X and record at home – some of the songs were recorded in a more unconventional way, however – Storm Crow’s vocal was taken from a late-night mobile phone sketch I did and sent to Gitika. Incredibly she took it and ran with it and produced a beautiful vocal arrangement – I love how the song starts with a late night whisper and ends with a choir.

GITIKA: I might send Kirsty a ‘bare bones’ instrumental idea – perhaps a piano or guitar – and Kirsty would create a top-line, sometimes a harmony, and sometimes some flutes and send it back to me. There was always room for me to play. I would then take this idea and produce it into a piece in a Digital Audio Work Station. I might change the order, find a section I felt could turn into a chorus or refrain, I might add layered vocals and work on the instrumental area of the song so it supported the atmosphere created by the voices. A bit like musical collage. Some songs went through many changes before we got to a point where we were both happy.

What song holds a special place in your heart? What do you hope listeners takeaway from this project?

KIRSTY: I guess for me ‘Stone From the Ocean’ is a special one. I wrote it in Manchester, walking around town with a stone from Seatown beach in my pocket, turning it over and over in my hand as I grieved the loss of my father. It’s amazing how calming a ‘touchstone’ can be. Again, Gitika took my sketch and produced the feel of a folk hymn. I would hope that listeners will hear the vulnerability in the tracks and realize that everyone they meet is processing something. Perhaps it will make them kinder. In the end, I guess we produce music because we have to – but if music can heal in any way or offer shared experience then an artist has a responsibility to make music that carries good intentions out into the world.

GITIKA: Hard to pick one, but maybe May Tide for its lullaby feel with the imagery of the sea and the feeling of me being held in such safety in Kirsty’s voice with the rippling piano. I also love the end of King Crow which has thumping and stomping and lots of vocals behind Kirsty’s lead. I had an idea in my head, and it really ended up being just that when it was finished. I hope people will experience the depth and beauty of the songs, and of course, we make music because we have to and I love every song.

What advice do you have for aspiring artists looking to collaborate and create their own unique sound, especially in the challenging music industry?

KIRSTY: Do what you can but never feel pressured. The industry is rubbish. Don’t expect too much. Do it for yourself and because you love it. And if you’re making work with integrity and soul that’s the best you can do!

GITIKA: Collaboration can happen in so many ways and with such different people. I love to work with people who are of different generations and genres (If we still believe genre is a thing). It can happen on a zoom call, on the phone in the same room, on the other side of the world. I often ask a musician I meet and like to send me a loop or a little riff or an instrumental track, and I will write a top line over it. I get to work with someone, but also on my own. Working in the same room with someone can be magical but can also be very frustrating, but worth it. Being a woman, I have to add that you need to ignore people who tell you that you are too old to be in the business. (Don’t get me started) I said before that I spent so much time being the only woman in the music room, working with another woman has been such a joy, as well as a challenge – often because we have had to become really strong to deal with working in such a male-orientated world. But such rich rewards.

What’s next for All the Bees after the album release? Do you have any plans for live performances or future projects?

GITIKA: Everything is possible; you are going to have to watch this space.

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