For those people that haven’t heard of you could you tell us a bit about yourself your story?
Hey new friends!
I mainly grew up in rural France and (shock) there wasn’t a lot going on. I don’t come from a musical family but always had this strong draw towards music.
When I was 18 I bought a guitar, turned down a place at French cooking school, got on a plane, and left for the UK. I never took the return flight back. Since then I’ve been gigging, songwriting, and producing for my own project and a few other peoples’ too.
I still love food. A lot. It’s a firm second to my love of music.
What are you looking forward to most now that restrictions have been lifted?
Hugging my friends, playing gigs, parties in fields, dancing with strangers, festivals, Sofar Sounds, people having less road rage (maybe).
Who inspired you to get on stage and perform?
The tiny town I lived in did absolutely not have a music scene. Randomly, three musicians who had been touring with Ed Sheeran came to town and played a handful of shows in the surrounding village pubs. I don’t quite remember what happened but there was a guitar and then a microphone was in my hand and some sort of slightly intoxicated rendition of Gnarls Barkley – Crazy later, I was like huh… maybe I can do something with this.
Are there any particular artists or albums that have inspired you?
There are a few albums that have been soundtracks to particular chapters of my life. SOAK – Before We Forget How To Dream reminds me of being a wide-eyed teen in the big ol’ city of London – it kept me calm on packed tubes and I love how creative and delicate it is.
London Grammar’s first album reminds me of an old housemate – she used to play it every, single, day. It’s so good, I could never be annoyed at her for having it on repeat.
Jessie Ware is a current favourite of mine and JP Cooper’s debut album has walked me home many an evening. There’s something so special about it… it’s a big goal of mine to collaborate with him. Loyle Carner, Lianne La Havas, Rex Orange County, Little Simz… the list goes on.
Do you have any songwriting rituals?
I’d love to say I have some sort of funky dance prepped for each session or something but it’s usually pretty calm! I have some ‘thinking putty’ I use to concentrate whilst ideas are buzzing around as I feel like my brain easily gets overwhelmed with a million things when I’m in a creative zone and it helps me tune in and pick a few out to work with. My cat usually follows me out to the studio too so cuddle breaks or staring at him like the emoji with hearts for eyes whilst he’s asleep is usually part of the process.
Could you tell us a bit about the writing/recording of the Syncr Music winning track “Happy Place”?
This song started in lockdown #1. I’d lost my job due to the pandemic and being stripped of freedom felt suffocating, especially with the outside world feeling unsafe/unknown. I think it’s in those periods of life that are most challenging that we dig into places of ourselves that we usually don’t have to. We do whatever we need to do at the time in order to survive. For me, that was self-care by the bucket load, group meditations over zoom, using social media sparingly, and lots and lots of music.
Most of the track was created in my bedroom – I layered up the drums, plonked some keys on there, layered up some other bits and bobs, and sat on my bed recording lots of vocals on there to sound like a big vocal hug.
I had a couple of friends jump on it too – I absolutely love collaborating. I think when you find people you creatively click with it’s the most incredible feeling. Mike Jordan (bass & guitar) and Rebecca Le Montais (co-producer) were the two who really cemented this track into what it is. We did everything over WhatsApp voice notes and zoom. Can you imagine this last year without technology? Very grateful.
What are some of your favourite venues to perform at?
There are a couple of really special ones for me. Moles in Bath was my first headline show with this project, I didn’t think anyone would come – they did. Camden Assembly was my first sold-out London headline show. I ended up self-managing the show and it was the most stressful but rewarding experience. I had lots of my friends come up and perform songs we’d been collaborating on with the band. Mr Wolfs in Bristol is FUN. If you ever visit here, go there.
Here at Artistic Echoes, we are always on the lookout for new artists do you have anyone to recommend?
Apollo Love, Le Montais, Hessian, Hyphen, Ben Brown, Kerensa, CATTY…
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
We’ve got shows in Bristol and London coming up and a cool project with an amazing international charity. I’ve just finished shooting a music video and I’m going to be sending the next single off for master as soon as I finish this sentence.
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