Why modern musicians like PJ Harvey and Darren Hayman are doing in-depth research for their songs' subject matter

An increasing number of musicians are following in the folk tradition of researching and representing people from society's margins

In-depth research: PJ Harvey

When Darren Hayman set off to explore the UK's Thankful Villages – those that escaped loss during the First World War – he did not realise that another musician, PJ Harvey, had also embarked on a more wide-ranging journey to seek lyrical inspiration.

Both had decided they should gain first-hand experience of the places and people they wanted to write about. For the Mercury-Prize winner that meant fact-finding missions to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington DC, while the former frontman of indie darlings Hefner has begun travelling England and Wales, so far stopping off at points between Aisholt in Somerset and North Yorkshire's Scruton.

While Hayman's three-volume project Thankful Villages has been inspired partly by the centenary of the Great War, Harvey has moved on to more contemporary issues from the conflict that imbued her previous album, Let England Shake, with such poignancy. Either way, musicians taking time to research their subject matter must be a welcome development, especially if fewer writers end up pontificating about a topic they only superficially understand, whether The Human League on 'The Lebanon' (“where there used to be some shops/Is where the snipers sometimes hide”) or The Cranberries' vapid 'Bosnia'.

Harvey has said of research for her current album Hope Six Demolition Project, “Gathering information from secondary sources felt too far removed for what I was trying to write about. I wanted to smell the air, feel the soil and meet the people of the countries I was fascinated with.” Yet even the most thorough preparation does not leave songwriters invulnerable to criticism from the subjects they cover, as the Devonian musician found earlier this year when she unveiled taster track 'Community Of Hope'.

This number covers her first-hand account of exploring the Ward 7 district of the US capital with Washington Post journalist Paul Schwartzman to highlight the effects of the nation's rising inequality. Lines based on his comments of a “drug town” inhabited by “zombies” went down badly with local figures and activists, who complained the portrayal was one-sided. Among them was a former mayor and a member of the eponymous community group that works to improve lives in the neighbourhood, who wrote, “By calling out this picture of poverty in terms of streets and buildings and not the humans who live here, have you not reduced their dignity?”

It is an issue that Hayman keeps in mind as he tours the country writing and recording his forthcoming triptych, having spoken to many villagers to garner their stories and giving them “editorial control”. “I feel very sensitive to it; I worry intensely about how I'm portraying people,” he says. “I ask [interviewees] if they want anything changed. I'm very wary of the stereotype of the travelling voyeur, looking in and on people then moving on.” For that reason, the artist aims to return to the villages to perform for them, including Maplebeck, Nottinghamshire, which he visited last September.

This sensitivity to the feelings of his subjects partly comes from a grounding in folk music that has long been an influence on the Essex-born musician's output, even back to his Hefner days, though it is especially apparent as he has found inspiration in the history or social mores of his home county. Hayman's Essex trilogy of albums – Pram Town, Essex Arms and The Violence – has covered life in both new towns and the countryside, plus witch trials during the English Civil Wars. Drawing on folk's heritage certainly teaches a certain rigour in terms of using contemporary sources, as evinced in a different fashion by Sam Lee.

Contemporary aficionados of traditional music have been happy to mine resources such as the archives of popular culture repository Cecil Sharp House, home to the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Through meeting Scottish Traveller singer Stanley Robertson (who passed away in 2009), Lee took a different approach, immersing himself in the culture of Traveller and gypsy communities. For 'Jonny O' The Brine', from current album The Fade Of Time, Robertson took his apprentice to Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, where the poacher's tale apparently takes place. Songs such as this one exist in many forms – 'Jonny O' The Brine' is part of the 19th century collection The Child Ballads – yet through learning from figures such as Robertson, Lee has tapped into a living, breathing tradition.

As well as appearing on the Mercury shortlist in 2012 for his debut album Ground Of Its Own, Lee has founded The Nest Collective folk club that has gone on to curate festival stages. Part of its remit includes the Song Collectors Collective, a resource to support those that conserve oral culture and encourage a new generation of music researchers. Yet even without seeking to conserve hidden cultures, writers can follow folk's lead in carefully representing people from society's margins.

Darren Hayman's Thankful Villages – Vol I is out June 3 on Rivertones. He plays Maplebeck Village Hall the same day.