practice

Making music to find things out with Richard (Sun Drawings)

In the spirit of recording the wholeness of the moment, along with chatty birds, windblown leaves, a fly, church bells, a cat visitor and a loud plane, Richard (Sun Drawings) and I (Ffion) sat in the shed with the doors open, to chat about his debut cassette, EP 01 and refreshing approach to music making. When I first heard the EP, released in June, I was moved and wanted to write about it but I didn’t have all the words yet and wanted to ask him things! The idea of an interview came into my mind. I’d never done one before and never thought that I actually would. Increasingly lately, instead of dismissing that kind of excited energy because it’s daunting, I’ve been curiously following it and going to astonishing places.  We did it! I think we were both surprised by the way the conversation flowed and the inspiration and insights it led us to. A healing experience for me. Happy to be able to share it with you now as the first episode of a podcast I’m calling “practice”. Speaking and listening practice, dharma practice, creative practice. Everything is practice – what a relief! Slowing down, returning, noticing and connecting.  We discuss: the conditions for making music, finding a voice through simplifying and enjoying the process, letting layers emerge and build spontaneously, interior and exterior landscapes, field recordings, percussion, poetry, the art of attention, embracing imperfections, wholeness, humanness, bringing out the character and aliveness of many different things, translating the music into a live setting, and rather than having pre-conceived ideas, using creativity as a way to find things out.  All music clips are from EP 01 by Sun Drawings which you can listen to or purchase on Bandcamp: https://sundrawings.bandcamp.com/album/ep-01 [https://sundrawings.bandcamp.com/album/ep-01]  Richard is playing a debut show in Marsden, in the north of England on Sunday 2nd Nov 2025, hosted by Red Deer Club: https://www.instagram.com/reddeerclub [https://www.instagram.com/reddeerclub/] / https://www.facebook.com/reddeerclub [https://www.facebook.com/reddeerclub] / https://www.reddeer.club/ [https://www.reddeer.club/]  Ffion on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ffion.atkinson [https://www.instagram.com/ffion.atkinson/]  Sun Drawings on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/__sun.drawings__ [https://www.instagram.com/__sun.drawings__/] TRANSCRIPT [https://practicepodcast.co.uk/Transcript%20-%20practice%20podcast%20episode%2001%20by%20Ffion%20Atkinson,%20Making%20music%20to%20find%20things%20out%20with%20Richard%20(Sun%20Drawings).pdf]