Mim Davies “Built On A Floodplain”
Photo credit: Hannah Smith
“I used to think songwriting involved pulling something out of the air and giving it a shape, like a strange weightless sculpture. I feel like I pulled these songs out of the water in the River Dyfi.” — Mim Davies
Mim Davies is a solo singer-songwriter from Brighton, UK. Rooted in the love for poetic lyricism and years of live performance experience, Davies’ songwriting is insightful with a natural feet-tapping groove. Her lyrical influences are drawn from artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, Elliot Smith, Laura Marling, and Bright Eyes.
Davies’ latest release Built on a Floodplain revolves around recovery from depression, eating disorders, fatphobia, and the negative impact of dieting on women. “These are things that impact me and people I care about greatly, but usually don’t feel authentically represented in pop culture,” Mim Davies shared with us, “The EP title is a reference to Machynlleth’s tendency to flood. It also alludes to the feeling of trying to create something solid on unstable ground.”
Built on a Floodplain opens with a dark rock folk tune “Big Boned” as a response to diet culture and fatphobia. Inspired by the body liberation movement, the track paints an immediate visual image of fear, pretense, despair, and mental struggle someone is going through under the situation. “Wednesday, bleeding into Thursday, trying to find the right time to go outside again. Monday, pushing into Sunday, time to go to work again pretend to be OK.”
Revolving around Davies’ powerful lyrical storytelling, instruments intuitively fall into place. Introspective guitar riffs, moody chords, and feet-tapping rhythm; the talky bass emerges from underwater at the right place while the string and vocal interplay intensify the emotional struggles.
“Shouting Through Walls” draws the listeners into a moment of vulnerability. Supported by soft, whispery vocals and an intimate, warm groove that allows a safe space for truth, the track plots the flow of different strands of the same depression. In the contrast of gradual built-up and minimalistic drum, the voice of Mim Davies is amplified.
“The year I started the EP, I had swam in the River Dyfi everyday during January, come rain or snow. I think that's why the river gets referenced a lot on the EP,” Davies shared some insight, “the four songs on this EP climbed out of the underwater, of warped memory, of absence, of hunger, of the buildings I've lived in.”
