For those people that haven’t heard of you before could you tell us a bit about yourself, your story?
My story is a very short one. I never thought I could play or write music, and certainly not sing, until during lockdown I happened to read Viv Albertine’s brilliant autobiography, “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys”. I was so inspired by her story of how she first learned the guitar, despite not being naturally musical at all, and then later overcame her shame and shyness about singing. I thought maybe I could do the same thing.
So I bought a guitar, and it turned out I had a lot to say, so I started writing songs. I didn’t want to perform live, so I thought I’d better try and record them. Since I didn’t know anyone who did music I watched a lot of YouTube videos, and I ended up stood in an old pigsty in the garden of my house, trying to figure out how to sing, how to record it, how to produce stuff, how to release it… That was about a year ago. Since then I’ve released six singles, and I find it hilarious and delightful that people seem to want to listen to them and play them on the radio.
Who inspired you to get on stage and perform?
I don’t perform live, but the artists who’ve inspired me to want to write and record songs include Sleater-Kinney, Manic Street Preachers, Helen Love, The Regrettes, The Buzzcocks.
Are there any albums or artists that have stuck with you and inspired your sound?
Since I haven’t been doing music long enough to really know what I’m doing, most of my songs come about by me trying to copy someone else and getting it wrong in my own weird way. A Sad Kind of Freedom, for example, is a weird mixture of Dolly Parton and Echo and the Bunnymen. It made sense in my head but obviously, the finished song sounds nothing like either of them.
Do you have any songwriting rituals?
Nope. I’m not precious about songwriting at all. I have a lot of ideas and not a lot of time so I can’t afford to be. I’ve written songs on trains, in a tent with my son asleep next to me, walking down Oxford Street… I wrote nearly all of my first single, The Ballad of Kurt and Courtney, while I was out running one Sunday morning, and I didn’t have my phone or any writing implements with me so I had to run home really fast before I forgot it all.
Could you tell us a bit about the writing/recording of your Syncr Music Winning track “A Sad Kind of Freedom”?
I started writing that song while in a minibus on a running holiday, where we ran up Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowden within 24 hours. It was an amazing experience but also so, so odd because I spent most of the time feeling really badly travelsick and disconnected from my surroundings. I felt so guilty that I was in such beautiful places but I couldn’t connect to them at all. I was stuck inside my own head, ruminating on the same nonsense I could have been ruminating on at home. Wherever you go, you can’t escape yourself.
It was recorded, like all my songs, in the converted pigsty. It’s nicer than it sounds. No pigs.
Are there any plans currently for an EP or Album?
Maaaaybe next year. We’ll see how it goes. I’m not sure I have a long enough attention span.
What have been some of your favourite places to perform at?
My spare room, my living room and the pigsty.
Here at Artistic Echoes, we are always on the lookout for new artists do you have any to recommend?
Two artists I’ve stumbled across recently and really enjoyed are Wyse and Keeley.
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
I’ve got a new single, What The Heart Wants, coming out on 5 August. It’s a sad song about trying to avoid nostalgia and keep moving forward in life, even when you don’t really want to. I’m quite excited about it because it’s the first time I’ve made a completely serious music video. When I’m insecure or nervous I always default to cracking stupid jokes, so it’s been a bit of a leap of faith to try and take myself a bit more seriously. Now I have an urge to write something self-deprecating so I’d better stop there.
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