Hailing from a remote tip of Wales, DIY artist Rona Mac has supported the likes of Willy Mason and Billie Marten, bringing her alt-folk-leaning sound to new audiences. With her debut album and a tour on the horizon, Rona explores love, loss and mental health. Self-produced, the artist has seen recognition from BBC Radio 1, 6, and Wales and has been funded by the PRS Foundation and Help Musicians.
Rona’s final release ahead of her album Honeymilk & Heavy Weather is the gorgeous acoustic number ‘Buttercup’. The balance between falling in love and experiencing the heavy weight of grief is a heart-wrenching pairing, but Rona delivers it with such poise and poignance.
The elegance of a folky acoustic guitar pitted against a raw and unfiltered vocal talent is always a recipe for beauty. Still, this latest track adds a sense of authenticity that you can’t fake. The slight climax at the two-minute mark is a great example of letting the emotions control your performance and feeling every note more deeply. The track ends gently, which adds to the warmth one final time.
Rona explains, “There’s some simple beauty in a buttercup. A fleeting, yellow joy reflected onto chins, old and young, as you conclude that yes, indeed, we do like butter. This song was written during a time when I was simultaneously reeling from grief and giddy from falling in love. In my experience, when people die life gets crisper, more tangible and valuable and fragile. I was holding a new love in my arms with the fresh re-acknowledgement that everything is temporary. Amongst the turmoil of emotion, it made simple things, like buttercups, all the more special. And I think buttercups have kind faces, don’t you?
The recording is a little rough because, well, it just is. I recorded it on a dictaphone and felt the emotion in that specific take, so I left it how it is. Simple. This song definitely leans into my folk singer-songwriter roots, and it will be a book-end to the album released on October 11th.”