ManicWorld Magazine

-What first drew you to music, and how did you develop your unique sound?
Gosh, I’m not really sure. I remember music always being this important thing to me and my family growing up. My grandad was a guitarist in a band called ‘Daniel and the Lion’s Den’ over in Barbados and that rubbed off on my mum who’s a great singer, my older brother is a great musician etc etc. My parents definitely put me onto some great music, always playing CD’s, most notably Corinne Bailey Rae, Bob Marley, Sade and a lot of soul & northern soul for sure. My dad, very kindly, shared his record collection with me when I was a teenager and that’s how I found out about a lot of music; The Smiths were my favourite around that time.

In terms of developing a sound I think painting helped me a lot. I used to paint before I was making music and it helped me figure out how to make things, I guess, or how I wanted to make things. I fell in love with the process of making things rather than the outcomes themselves. I adore recording, the equipment, the process, the decisions you get to make. I think so much of the sound of this record comes from how it was made rather than what we actually made if that makes sense.

-What’s your go-to process when creating a new song or album?
It’ll often start with me having like a meet-cute with an instrument haha. For this record it was this stunning Martin OM-41 that was owned by my good friend Keith. I was working at Keith’s recording studio at the time and I would spend a lot of time after hours just playing it on the floor of the vocal booth or something. It felt like the songs just came out of that guitar and I was just playing what it wanted to play. The words would take me a couple months to find and then I’d bring the songs to my boys Dan Payne and Lee Dodson who helped me turn them into records.

-What’s the most surprising source of inspiration for your music?
Honestly nothing crazy springs to mind… I’ve just been writing about things that are happening to me. I really love it when people tell me they’ve fallen asleep to my music though   so maybe that. I feel very inspired to make records people can fall asleep to.

-How has your personal journey influenced your music and lyrical themes?
I definitely try to not write too sad, I love sad music but I’m not trying to make anything depressing. I think romanticisation can really help with depression, my personal mental health journey has left me just wanting to make stuff that leaves a rose-tinted filter on your life.

-What inspired the release of ‘Widow’s Wounds’ in October
This was very premeditated  . I’ve been getting over this bad habit of falling into an existential crisis on my birthday (which is in October) so I thought it would be nice to release it then so I’d feel a bit proud of how I’d spent my time that year ahah. I think it’s very Autumnal music, its quite dark and wet but in a cosy way. The music video, courtesy of my angels Kai and Jed, conveys this so beautifully; I couldn’t be more grateful.

-Can you tell us about the creative process and inspiration behind your EP ‘Puppy’?
I’d love to. I was so blessed Dan and Lee lent their talents to this music! Dan is the most incredible drummer and plays guitar in the band ‘CROOKS INC.’. Lee is the most talented bass player I’ve ever met, amongst other things ahha. We made the whole thing at Keith’s studio, Keith is the most generous guy and his studio was just iconic. A massive part of the inspiration for me was finding pieces of equipment I loved the sound of during the day, working on client sessions, and then recording with them once everyone had packed up. That Martin OM-41 was the first thing for sure, there were a stunning pair of BAE 1073’s that I loved to throw on everything, combining a close royer-R121 and U67 (about a meter away) on the guitar cab was a dream, a Marshall Super Lead (I preferred the reissue in this case) and the pièce de résistance a Coles 4038 on everything.