That was some time ago when I was in my teens, but I nev­er real­ly start­ed play­ing till a few years ago. I was for­tu­nate enough to meet a lot of good musi­cians who have helped me a lot, but I’ve got a long way to go. I found my voice when I was liv­ing in a base­ment in Mar­gate, I remem­ber being extreme­ly sad and feel­ing very lost and alone. Inward­ly I was seek­ing out this intan­gi­ble thing that I knew I had in me. One day I was play­ing a song on this beat­en up sec­ond-hand Tan­gle­wood Gui­tar I had just saved up for ages to buy – the song was Hal­lelu­jah by Leonard Cohen, and I remem­ber I kept mov­ing my capo fur­ther and fur­ther up the fret­board. Each time I found I could hit the high­er note and then one high­er and then high­er again. When I fin­ished the song I had this moment of real­i­sa­tion, that I had found my voice.

 

I’ve always known this was what I need­ed do, but about four years ago a very close friend of mine pulled me aside when we were out in a group. She told me I need­ed to do some­thing with my music and that it would be a big loss if my songs were nev­er heard. She is per­haps the least syco­phan­tic per­son I know and I was aware that she would only have said this if she tru­ly meant it. It was a real­ly beau­ti­ful moment where I realised both what a good friend she was and that I had no choice but to fol­low this path.

 

 

Loss is a big one, but not in an exclu­sive­ly neg­a­tive way. A song can be about los­ing some­thing and it can equal­ly be about los­ing the fear that was hold­ing you back from some­thing. I like to play with dark lyrics jux­ta­posed with sprite­ly, intri­cate melodies.

 

The album is fin­ished and ready to go out, I’m look­ing for­ward to shar­ing it very soon.

 

I’ve actu­al­ly writ­ten quite a lot in lock­down, one sto­ry song about a cou­ple bat­tling with loss and accep­tance dur­ing the cri­sis. I’m try­ing to shape the sec­ond album into some­thing even more exciting. 

 

Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan are right at the very top of my list; more recent­ly an incred­i­ble woman called Adri­enne Lenker has emerged. I was for­tu­nate enough to share a few words with her last sum­mer after watch­ing her band per­form at Green Man fes­ti­val. She fronts Big Thief and she is the clos­est thing to the true greats I have ever come across. 

 

I can’t wait to get back to play­ing. The whole point of mak­ing a record like this, for me, is spread­ing a mes­sage of kind­ness and peace, and that’s a lit­tle hard­er to do from your liv­ing room, though not impos­si­ble. I want to play as many open-air shows as I can, and maybe in so doing try to raise a lit­tle mon­ey for the peo­ple who have been worst affect­ed by the crisis.

 

Are there any peo­ple from your past who have been a guid­ing light?
I would love to men­tion my Eng­lish teacher, James Brier­ley. He was a huge influ­ence on me as a teenag­er – he made me a mix­tape when I was 15 with some of the best music I’ve ever heard on it. It is from there that my frame­work of influ­ences stems and I owe him a lot for that.