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It will take as long as it takes…

Last year I embarked on writing the new album; an exciting new adventure filled with lots of creativity. Or so I thought… Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE songwriting and creating new music. However, I couldn’t find my joy with it. Years of having to write to a deadline whilst under the pressure of teaching, running a business and holding a family together were beginning to catch up with me. Previously I had felt that the quality of the music I was producing wasn’t up to standard and that I hadn’t got sufficient time to think and prepare the material.

11666043_10153166177393863_2720499530418960870_nI was also becoming entangled in the machine… Constant promotion, constant reinvention, constant campaigns were getting in the way of writing and in 2013 when I went on maternity leave I made a vow that things would be different when I returned to work nine months later. I’m not decrying that these elements aren’t important, but they were beginning to supersede what I was meant to be doing. The pressure to continually produce something new was becoming immense, and in my mind this way of working doesn’t always mean quality. I’m not driven my money (if I was I wouldn’t be making music!), I’m driven by artistry and the desire to create, and represent life as I see it through music. With everything that was going on, I didn’t feel that I had done my best. Something had to give.

The journey of artistry and creativity over a lifetime is varied. Sometimes the path of creativity is exciting and sometimes it is downright boring, other times it is full of joy and then it can be excruciating. It’s messy, outrageous, quiet, dormant, unrelenting and possessive all in one go. It changes all the time, it’s never the same. For me, the only thing that stays constant is the goal to produce something of beauty that helps others.

The upshot of taking my time is that I am finally writing the songs I’ve always wanted to! I’ve got time to go deeper into the subjects that intrigue me and compose in the styles that aren’t necessarily commercial but suit the topics on my heart. I have a group of trusted colleagues that listen to my work during the writing process and give me feedback, so far their reaction has been great and they are loving the new direction that things are moving in, which means the world!

So please excuse me while I take my time, lie in a field, staring at the sky and be excessively artistic for the next few months. This will mean many trips to Starbucks while I ponder on the issues of the day and will lead to huge piles of manuscript paper being left all over my house (this really winds my family up!). I like doing my best; I want to do my best, so the new album is going to take as long as it takes… Hhhmmm that sounds like a good album title!

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Never, Never, Never Give Up…

Winston Churchill was right, never, never, never give up! The last few years have been a tough ride musically and I have wondered whether I should actually stay in music. I know that may come as a surprise to some of you as I’m not someone who publicly moans or talks about what’s going on behind the scenes. But finding work has been hard. It actually been difficult for about eight years since the recession started; my husband’s four redundancies in five years did not ease the problem either! I’ve put up with people telling me that my songs are irrelevant, that no-one wants to hear “a bird with a piano” and that singers like me are “two a-penny” and therefore I should work and perform for free. On top of that for every project that is successful, I have approximately four projects that fail. I don’t usually talk about that, but believe it or not everything works out with a fairytale ending. A lot of projects do just go “tits up” taking a large amount of money with them.

Fortunately I’ve had some solidarity from other music colleagues who have had exactly the same problem and we’ve kept each other going. At this point I would publicly like to thank a number of people who have listened to me whinge! Thanks to Nikki, Rachel, and Anya! LOVE YOU GUYS!

What people haven’t realised though is that I’m a feisty old bird and NOTHING keeps me down! If anything it only makes me more determined and drives me to keep going. The thought of leaving music behind killed me and especially as it I feel that it is something that God called me to; I left a very nice, secure career in HR fourteen years ago to do this full time. So I made a decision: the decision is that I’m never, never, never going to give up! As fans, your job is to hold me to that statement…

So what have I been doing over the last few months? I know many of you have been keen to hear news about new music… Well I can confirm that I have been writing a new album! It’s been lovely to have space to return to my first love: songwriting. The last EP (Sirens and Other Mysteries) was written in a bit of a rush, so I wanted to take my time with the next project and I’m currently still writing. It may take forever – Sorry!

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Earlier this week I headed down to Resound Media’s new studio in Gloucestershire to record a new single “Close That Door”that will be released later this year. Andy Baker is producing again and we had a great time working on the track. I can’t wait for you to hear it! I also got to a have cup of tea with the gorgeous Penny Lyon from Out of the Ashes afterwards – so that was a bonus!

So if you’re on the verge of giving up – DON’T! Keep going and don’t stop. It can only get better – right?!!! So to encourage you, here’s a photo of me recording me new single; it’s the stuff that dreams are made of…

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Youtube ArtGuess who’s collaborated with a Grammy Award winning songwriter? 

Well, it could be…ME!

Earlier in the year, I was on a high from the Union Chapel Chants for Socialists gig; I wondered how I would top that experience when it took place so earlier on in the year. However, in November last year I was invited to take part in a very special project…

On 9th April Grammy Award winning songwriter and composer, Laura Sullivan released her long awaited 900 Voices project. Laura asked singers from around the world to help her create a unique song called We Are Love and I was lucky enough to be one of the collaborators on this project! As this is such an unusual project, I couldn’t wait to get involved!

You can see me in the video at 4 minutes and 34 seconds.

There’s currently a campaign to get the video on the Ellen DeGeneres Show; if this happens, it will be amazing! Although the likelihood of getting 938 singers into a TV studio is quite small! You can learn more about the 900 Voices project here. So sit back, listen and enjoy 938 singers from around the world.

 

 

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Well this year st983844_922301214476654_5567301080221672945_narted off with a bang! My first gig of the year was with Darren Hayman singing the Chants for Socialists at Union Chapel in London. Despite the fact that it was FREEZING, the place was packed and Daylight Music reported their highest audience turn out ever!   The whole event was amazing and the feedback has been wonderful! Definitely one to tick off the bucket list.

As you can see from the photo below, I was the shortest singer by far (and I’m very proud of that) and I think wearing a bright electric blue jumper may have been a mistake… cue the Smurf! Feel free to ridicule me about this, to be fair, my family already has; it was my daughter who noticed my fashion faux pas. It gets worse though, there are lots and lots of press photos of this event, so I will be immortalised forever as the singing Smurf…

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The beginning of February saw us perform the Chants at the William Morris Society in Hammersmith. A much warmer gig this time and smaller too and actually in one of William Morris’ houses which was exciting. There was an intimate audience of about 40 people as opposed to 650 at Union Chapel. There was a Q and A session afterwards which contained some hilarious and some what mysterious questions about the project.

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We were described as Leonard Cohen and the 5 Linda Rondstadts which let’s face it, is much better than being described as a singing Smurf. This photo was taken during our rehearsal hence why we’re all stood in our coats with cups of tea, however I think a mug could become the new performance accessory depending on it’s contents!

I’ve been very excited about the vinyl version of the album (which I sang on); I’m mainly excited about the COLOUR! You can find the album on Darren’s website.

So if I started the year with a bang, how on earth am I going to top it? I’ve know idea, but watch this space… In the words of Saint Yazz “The Only Way Is Up”.

 

 

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If you were to ask me how my life has been over the last decade, I would describe it as turbulent. Not much has turned out as I expected it to, some of these events have been good but many have  also been painful and shocking. Back in 2012, I signed up to do another EP with Resound Media, I had lots of plans for the type of music that I wanted to produce; it was going to be another large scale pop album with lots of great catchy hooks. I set out to write some songs but every time I sat at the piano, nothing would appear. This is unlike me, there’s always a song or an idea on the horizon; I sing all the time to the extent that people usually tell me to shut up! It was becoming clear that this project was not going to be an easy write.

Between 2007 and 2013 my family went through a time of loss: my husband was made redundant four times in five years, I suffered from post natal depression after a traumatic birth experience, we had a miscarriage, the bank who provided our mortgage went bust and then ten of our friends and family died, most suddenly through illness, accident and one of them was murdered. It seemed to never end. Looking back it was no wonder that I couldn’t write – there was too much pressure let alone time to heal. And what was I going to write about?

For days on end I would sit at the piano staring at the keys but nothing would materialise. The producer Andy Baker asked me to send through my material, I panicked as I knew there was nothing to send. It became a joke in my house: “have you written anything today?”, “NOPE!”. I thought that my songwriting career was over. After several months, I went for walk and decided to tackle the problem head on: as I mulled over the situation, I realised that I had to let go of the ideas I had for the EP and go with what was on my heart and accept where my I was at. It was revolutionary… From that moment I was able to write about the experiences that I had been through and be honest about the unexpected path that my life had taken. A very different EP emerged, it was raw, honest and also acoustic.

So why Sirens and Other Mysteries?  I thought the last few years were a wilderness but looking back I realised that actually these experiences were designed to make me the person I’m supposed to be. The “Sirens” are things that lure us from our path and hold our attention for no good reason and the “Mysteries” are things that happen in life that seem to make no sense at the time but in reality God uses them to draw us closer to Him.

All I can say if you’re in the same situation of loss and change: hold on, things will eventually make sense…

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It’s been awhile since I updated you all on what’s been happening! I thought this Autumn was going to be quiet, however it would seem that quite a lot of plans are coming to fruition. Firstly I am very pleased to announce that I will be filming an interview for Headington Baptist Church in the next few weeks! The lovely Becki Bradshaw interviewed me for the church website on the topic of “ Why I am a musician”; it’s a great way for me to explain how I got to the place I’m in now with my music and work. It’s taken awhile for the team to get this project together as my story is quite detailed! I’m looking forward to sharing the article and video clips with you very soon.

There are a number of gigs coming up including OXJAM, Sunday Night Live and one of my favourite haunts, The Hall of Sound in Pangbourne. Next year’s dates are starting to fill up too, so if you want to book me, you need to get in quickly!

Some of you have been asking about new material…  Apparently I have been very quiet on the subject! Well I’m pleased to say that I am currently working on a new album! I’ve spent a lot of the summer months singing away at the piano and writing. The new material has a different feel to my previous projects and I will be continuing in the vein of “a girl with a piano”, so it will less studio based and more acoustic. I don’t have a release date yet, but all will be revealed in due course…

Which leads me on to the next big project… Rocket Fuel; this is a new way of getting involved with my music and supporting my work. I’m giving fans the opportunity to pledge towards to my work in return for exclusives on my music, concert tickets, merchandise and regular updates on all the news. A great way to have a personal investment in what I do. There’s an opportunity to help fund the new album and a more extensive tour too.

So the Autumn is busy indeed! I’m always keen to hear your thoughts, so feel to get involved and get in touch!