THE EDGE OF SHAME - BOO HEWERDINE & KIM EDGAR

The Edge Of Shame is the third of twelve songwriting collaborations as part of the CONSEQUENCES project, which is focused on the personal, social or environmental consequences of human behaviour. The project, supported by Creative Scotland, will conclude with an online celebration in October 2022. You can support the project and attend the celebration by pre-ordering the album from https://www.kimedgar.com/shop You can find out more about how I discovered Boo Hewerdine’s highly crafted songs, and then the lovely man himself, here: https://www.kimedgar.com/news/collabo... It was such an honour to work with Boo on this song; what was most fascinating for me was the speed at which Boo’s ideas came…I confess, for myself, most of the finding of music, and indeed, words, is a slow process. I’m sure it’s something that will improve with more practice :) We discussed some general topics that interested us; Boo was interested in how the law affects the ways in which people are treated - so for example, we talked about the fact that it’s not so long ago that homosexual relationships were illegal in the UK, and how more recent legal changes have led the way, or been a part of the journey, in challenging and changing thinking. This topic tied in with my thoughts around shame, which I was keen to write about. I had seen something on television which profoundly moved me, and also made me think about how attitudes can change vastly over time: it was a short news article about women who had had their children taken away from them at birth because they were unmarried mothers. This was deemed shameful at the time, yet today in the UK, I think it’s fairly common for unmarried women or indeed any unmarried individual, or couple, to have children. It was heartbreaking to watch women in their 70s and 80s breaking down as they explained what happened to them, acknowledged their own sense of guilt that they hadn’t done something more at the time to prevent this from happening (though it’s very hard to see what they could have done), and their lived experience of loss of their children, every day since. Boo, by chance, had had a gig in a venue which was a former convent, and had been invited to visit an unused part of the venue, where unmarried mothers had been housed while pregnant - so his direct experience of the feelings he had in that space also fed into the ideas for this song…thanks to Mattie Foulds (production, drums, percussion & synths) for helping me bring the song to life. It doesn’t feel right to suggest that I hope you might enjoy this song - but thank you for listening. #boohewerdine #kimedgar #songwritingcollaboration #consequences #letconsciencedecide