In the mid-2000s I rediscovered my love of folk music, and became
intrigued by the Steeleye Span song Cold, Haily, Windy Night, a
track with a driving beat yet no drums. One night I had a dream of a
band playing that song in a ramshackle tavern at the end of a pier on a dark and stormy night. From outside, the only sign of life was the
warm, bustling atmosphere glowing through the window from
within. Inside, a statuesque singer took Maddy Prior’s part, and Carthy’s was sung by someone who looked like Superman 2-era Terence Stamp. Their rendition of Cold, Haily, Windy Night united the drinkers in a buoyant yet melancholy spirit.

I wanted to be in that band. I wanted to create that band. Like Steeleye Span, who took the electrified instruments that were around in the 1970s and used them to play traditional music, I wanted to use
21st century instrumentation to tell folk stories of the digital age.
I was interested in the works of sociologist Stanley Cohen at the time
which inspired me to name the band Folk Devil and the Moral Panics. He defined a folk devil as someone portrayed as an outsider or deviant, blamed for society's problems; the moral panic is the
sensationalised fear of the folk devil, stirred up by mass media and
moral entrepreneurs.

In our excitement, we printed T-shirts and composed Theme from Folk Devil and the Moral Panics, a four-part instrumental harmony, haunted, warped and distorted using modulation effects. Then I joined Scritti Politti, and while the next few years were spent rehearsing and touring, I didn’t think about
Folk Devil and the Moral Panics.

In 2011, after the release of the first Bearcraft album, Yestreen, I stumbled across Theme from Folk Devil and the Moral Panics, and remembering the dream, I realised that Bearcraft was a lot like that band I wanted to create all those years ago. I sent the theme to Joe Reeves (Shitdisco, Age of Consent), who produced those early Fabrefactions recordings, and he
worked in some warped, detuned synths, giving it an edgier and spookier feel. He sent me an mp3 of his progress, and I loved it.

On tour in Italy with Age of Consent, Joe and bandmate Darren Cullen were pulled over by armed police. After threatening them and searching the van, they let them go. Returning to the van, they found most of the equipment, including the laptop that contained the sessions for Folk Devil and the Moral Panics and Where the Sun Sets, had been stolen, which cost them thousands, threw their tour into turmoil, and lost Folk Devil and the Moral Panics for good.



Luckily we still had the mp3 Joe sent. The one I loved. So when mixing the album Fabrefactions with Ali Chant at Toybox studios, I gave him the mp3 and asked if he could recover the quality that's lost in mp3s. He worked his magic and the track was sent with the rest of the album to Anthony Chapman for mastering.

Now Folk Devil and the Moral Panics opens and closes the new Bearcraft album, Fabrefactions, a collection of overheard ghost stories and half-remembered urban myths.

Since it was first conceived, we’ve seen numerous folk devils and moral panics, and the continued othering of individuals and communities. While an idea can take years to to materialise or find its place in the world, humankind is consistent in its alienating patterns of behaviour. Thankfully, it’s also consistent in pushing back against these inequalities, in striving to bring people together for positive change.