Sunday Rundown: Glitter, Confetti and ‘Body Of Mine’…

Such an unbelievably hectic this week, which wasn’t made easy by the fact I have been ill!  However, it’s been amazing to film the video for ‘Body Of Mine’, my collaboration with Sophie Smith!  This has been the first video that I have conceptualised and organised myself, and with the help of my amazing videographer Geena Sharma Singh, I have managed to make my vision a reality!

Monday:  I played tennis in the morning and then headed to college for my production class.  However, I was so tired and poorly that I only managed two out of six hours and had to go home to rest and work from my bed.

Tuesday:  I did a lot of admin work for the upcoming release during the day and in the evening we set up the studio for the video shoot!  So exciting to turn my basement into a set!  We spent a few hours sorting out the lighting and backdrops, before doing a few trial shots.

Wednesday:  Wednesday was the first of our shoot days so it involved a lot of trial and error and working out the kinks!  We shot the bulk of my shots, along with two other cast members and the first group shot!  Didn’t realise the mess we were going to make though!

 

Thursday:  Thursday was the second shoot day and in general ran a lot more smoothly than the first day, now we had a really clear idea of the shots we wanted to get.  This was lucky as we had four solo shots and two group shots to nail in one afternoon/evening as I played golf in the morning!  We made even more of a mess with the glitter and confetti, which made for great shots but terrible clean up!

As it was Thursday, I also put together my Thursday Twenty playlist on Spotify!

1. New by Daya – Obsessed with this!  The lyrics are so so relatable and her vocals are emotional and raw.  Just such a great break up track!
2. HUMBLE. (Skrillex Remix) by Kendrick Lamar
3. You Should Talk by FLETCHER – This is another great breakup song, with a real empowering vibe.  The lyrics are about how it takes two to mess up a relationship and that it’s never just one person’s fault, which is something
4. Sit Next to Me by Foster The People
5. You Make Me by Chelsea Cutter
6. Last Night by DAY_S
7. my boy by Billie Eilish
8. Famous by ROZES – Another favourite for this week!  Super catchy and it has great feel good vibes!
9. Split Stones by Maggie Rogers
10. OT by JOHN.k
11. Flags by Shoffy & Yuna – Great song about race and how everyone is equal regardless of where they come from and what flag they represent.  Such a lovely message that the world needs right now!
12. I Can Still See Your Face by San Holo
13. Already Gone by filous & Emily Warren
14. Waterfall by Petit Biscuit
15. Falls (feat. Sasha Sloan) by ODESZA
16. Shadow by SECONDS – I had the privilege of performing on the same line up as SECONDS recently and they are super talented and creative girls!  A band to watch out for definitely!
17. Dysfunctional (feat. SAKIMA) by SATICA
18. Faking It by Calvin Harris, Kehlani & Lil Yachty – Not usually a Calvin Harris fan at all, but this is a great track!  It’s less cheesy and dancey than a lot of his songs and is a perfect, chilled driving song!
19. Daddy Issues by Demi Lovato – Demi’s new songs have a different vibe to her previous material and I’m loving it!  This is a great song with an almost retro feel to the production.. it shows off her powerful voice really well!
20. Feels Great (feat. Fetty Wap & CVBZ) by Cheat Codes

Friday:  Finally a day off from shooting!  I played golf, spent almost an entire day making bone broth and watched all the video footage from the shoot to get an idea of how I wanted to edit all the shots.  I also registered one of my tracks with a sync agency and did a bit of composition.

Saturday:  Another glitter free day!  I played golf again, went out for tea and applied for playlist consideration.  In the evening I went to the Warehouse Project to watch Mura Masa and NAO perform.  I’ve been a huge fan of both for a couple of years now, so I was super excited!  I briefly saw Mura Masa at Parklife, so it was amazing to see a full set!

Sunday:  The final ‘Body Of Mine’ shoot day, and the most ambitious…. five solo shoots, one duo shoot and three group shoots!  So much glitter, so much confetti, so much dancing!  Great end to a three day shoot and my most elaborate video project yet!  I had a fabulous cast of women of all ages, shapes, sizes and races, who I am extremely grateful to and I am just so so excited to share the final project!  And potentially even more excited to stop finding glitter all over my house, my body and even in my food!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you are as excited for the Body Of Mine final cut as I am!

 

Sunday Rundown: Three week catch up! :)

 

I have been pretty terrible in recent weeks at keeping up with my Sunday Rundown blog posts, so this will be a three week catch up post, without the usual day by day format!  As so much time has gone by, I thought it best to just outline the most interesting things that have happened!

At the time of my last blog post, I had just boarded my cruise and I was on my way to the Caribbean!  I did make it there, to both Roatan in Honduras and Harvest Caye in Belize and they were both beautiful!

 

However, our cruise then got caught in the path of Hurricane Irma, so we had to head back to Miami two days early to get off the ship and go to Orlando.  It was such a shame as I was having an amazing time and had met some great people, but it was the safest option at the time!

 

After we got off the cruise, we went to the house in Orlando but didn’t feel safe staying there as we’d never experienced a storm like that before in the UK.  We checked into one of the Universal hotels and were basically trapped inside for two days on Sunday and Monday, but before the storm hit we went in the theme parks on the Saturday.  That was so fun as they were so empty that we literally walked straight onto every ride!  After the hurricane, we went back to the house and had one final day in the sun before we flew home!  I even made a little turtle friend!

 

When I got home it was my birthday!  I turned 24 and had all my friends come out to celebrate and it was a great night!  I also started college for music production, which should be a great thing moving forward as I will have more flexibility in creating new music!

 

The final thing I want to mention is my performance on Tuesday!  I was performing during the University of Salford’s Freshers’ Week at an event for the Eco Africa society.  It was a great night with tonnes of other talented artists who were also performing.  My friend, Geena, was there and she took some videos of my performance, including one of ‘Solo’.  Solo is my favourite track from my upcoming album, and although it won’t be out for months, I do gig the track a lot, so check out the video and come down to a gig if you like the vibe!

 

Thank you for reading and catching up on all I’ve been doing.  I promise I’ll be back to normal with the blog posts again next week, it’s just been a manic time!

 

 

Sunday Rundown: Relaxing in Scotland, Gigging in Liverpool and Getting Ready for my College Showcase

This week (29th May to 4th June) has been a very busy one, with a lot of the focus being on my final showcase performance at music college.  I’ve been doing a lot of last minute prep and rehearsals, along with performing at my first gig in Liverpool!

Monday: I was still in Scotland on Monday after the long Bank Holiday weekend.  Whilst I was there I did a lot of relaxing, chilling in the spa, hiking and drinking… however, not much music stuff!  I was planning on getting some writing done but I was very easily distracted by all the activities at Gleneagles, so I failed a bit on that front!

Tuesday: Most of the day was taken up with the drive back from Gleneagles!  Managed to get a massage in the morning before we left and then I napped all the way home as I was so exhausted!  I drank too much the night before, so I had a terrible sore throat, which worried me for the gig on Thursday!

Wednesday: Due to my sore throat, I decided not to attempt to record a new cover for my YouTube channel, but to upload a live cover of Billie Jean from a gig.  I absolutely adore this song and it’s so fun to do with a loop pedal!  The video was taken at Gullivers in Manchester when I was performing there with my guitarist a few weeks ago!

On Wednesday I also selected my setlist for my gig in Liverpool the next day!  I decided on ten tracks from my upcoming album, Chemistry, two of which are on my Experiments EP.

1. Lead Me Down
2. Chemistry
3. Poison
4. Tomorrow I’ll Still Love You
5. Another Goodbye
6. Other Girl
7. Shackles
8. Warning
9. You Want Me Most
10. Solo

Thursday: Thursday was definitely my busiest day of the week!  I packed my bags for staying overnight in Liverpool and updated my Thursday Twenty playlist in the morning, along with squeezing in a rehearsal with my band for my college showcase. This week’s playlist featured:

1. Edge Of Seventeen (with the Melbourne Symphony) by Stevie Nicks- Live 2006 by Stevie Nicks – I’m a huggeeee Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks fan, so I already loved this song, but I only discovered this live version this week.  I honestly think it’s even better than her original version!
2. Whippin (feat. Felix Snow) by Kiiara – I play Kiiara’s ‘low kii savage’ EP all the time and was wondering when she was going to release a follow up!  This track is great and full of sass, so I’m really excited for the next single!
3. Painting Greys by Emmit Fenn – I only heard Emmit Fenn for the first time this week and I’m literally in love!  I could have put all five of his singles on the playlist happily!
4. Wearing Nothing by Dagny – Stuck in my head all week!
5. Castle by Halsey – So glad that Halsey has released a new album!  This is a throwback, but don’t be surprised to see one of the new tracks on next week’s playlist!
6. I’m Stuck by Noah Cyrus
7. Better by Meghan Trainor – Meghan Trainor was the soundtrack to my America trip with my best friend last summer and we were both in love with this track!
8. Poison by Sally Caitlin
9. Begin (feat. Wales) by Shallou – So beautifully chilled!
10. Down in Flames by Ella Vos
11. For The Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti by Sufjan Stevens – One of my favourite songs of all time!  I actually have a tattoo of the chorus lyrics, “If there’s any other way, I’d do anything for you.” on my body!
12. Remember I Told You (feat. Anne Marie and Mike Posner) by Nick Jonas – Amazing features on this song; all the voices work so well together!
13. For You (Bearcubs Remix) by Gavin James
14. Lady by Lucy Neville – I wouldn’t be surprised to see some really big things from Lucy Neville in the future!
15. Best Friend by Must Be Nice
16. Wicked Games (Tom Misch Remix) by Parra for Cuva – Great ‘remix of a remix’!  This song is just fab in general though… I love playing it on the piano!
17. Body Say by Demi Lovato
18. Beggin For Thread by Banks – As I’ve mentioned before, I am the ultimate Banks fangirl… and this week I bought tickets for her upcoming tour!!! Yayyyy!
19. We’ll Be Fine (feat. Birdman) by Drake – I’ve got to be honest, I’m not a Drake fan at all now, but on the drive up to Scotland I rediscovered the Take Care album and it is an amazing selection of songs!
20. Last Cigarette by Kennedi

https://open.spotify.com/embed/user/11155725702/playlist/3fsHErchu1TvOs4URkHZWu

On Thursday I also had my gig in Liverpool at Hangar 34!  The venue was amazing and I had some friends come to support me, so that was really nice!  I managed to get some lovely pictures taken in my sparkly dress onstage, which was an added bonus!

Friday: I went back to Manchester in the morning to rehearse for my college showcase and get some feedback from my tutors about my setlist and performance.  I then did a bit of work on the track I’m producing (Alive), mainly just getting it ready for me to record vocals onto it and adding a couple of piano parts.  Another great thing about Friday was that I think I managed to find a new guitarist to play with, as the guitarist I currently have is getting a new job, meaning we couldn’t work together anymore!  Then I went back to Liverpool for a night out with my best friend, which was actually super fun!

Saturday:  Saturday was pretty much just one big hangover for me but I did manage to add about 1000 words on my college research project essay and potentially set up a collaboration for the near future… so that could be exciting!

Sunday: I’ve been playing in a golf competition today and as it was the first time I’ve played since November, I was terrible!  Luckily my outfit looked cute and carrying your bag around for almost 5 miles burns some calories… otherwise it would have been a waste of a morning!

Thank you for reading!  Next week I’ll be able to recap on how the college showcase went! 🙂

Falling Back Together Shots

Reload Sessions

In The Studio

Stuck In Limbo: The Remixes

Back in November 2015, I released my first single, Stuck In Limbo.

I was absolutely thrilled to start sharing my music with the world, but also a little nervous!  Luckily I got a really great response to the track, video and remixes.  The single included the Original Mix, House Mix, UKG Mix and Dub House mix, which provided a great variety to appeal to different tastes.

Whilst the House Mix was the lead mix, it was actually the UKG mix which was selected to be featured on Certified’s soundcloud account.  This was awesome for me as the account has over 80K followers and helped more people hear Stuck In Limbo! The UKG mix was played almost 3.5K times, with lots of loves and reposts.  It felt amazing for so many people to like the track!

The Falling Back Together (Deep House Vocal Mix) – released 8th April – will be featured on the EDM Network’s soundcloud page this time around.  I’m so excited for this as they have even more followers (156K) so my music will be shared with even more people!  Hopefully, I get the same sort of reaction as I did with Stuck In Limbo… or better!  Fingers crossed!

Listen to Stuck In Limbo (House Mix) and Stuck In Limbo (UKG) below!

Falling Back Together: UKG Mix

The UKG remix of Falling Back Together premiered on The Popshock, on 16th Feb 2016! 

The UKG mix is the first remix to premiere from the Falling Back Together single.  It’s really exciting to have so many great remixes of Falling Back Together as they all bring something different to the table!  I think the UKG mix is a great mix for the club with a heavy bassline and catchy hook, and that’s why it is actually the lead mix for the campaign.

Along with the Original and UKG Mixes, the single will also feature a House mix, a DUB mix and a Deep House Vocal Mix.  I can’t wait to share them all, but in the meantime, check out the UKG mix below!

New Single: Falling Back Together

At the moment I’m in the process of promoting my second single, Falling Back Together, which will be released on 8th April!  I wrote this song quite a few years ago and I have always loved playing it at the piano. ‘Falling Back Together’ is actually my favourite of all the songs I have ever written, so I’m super excited to be able to share it with people.

As I write all of my own songs, they always have a personal story behind them, and Falling Back Together is no exception.

The track is about a couple that keep trying to leave each other but are always drawn back together.  At the start of the song the girl is trying to leave the relationship behind, but she knows that no matter how far she runs, she will always find herself in the same place.  They have such an intense relationship, with a connection that they just cannot shake, so no matter how much they fight and drift apart, they know that they can’t escape each other in the end.  

I guess it’s a love song, but a bit of a reluctant one!

The single will consist of the Original Mix of the track, along with House, Deep House, UKG and DUB House mixes.  I think the mixes are really great as they add a different vibe to the song and make it more upbeat and dancey! Below is the soundcloud link to the Original Mix… I hope you enjoy it!!

My Upcoming Music Video (Part 2)

The plan for my music video has been changed a little bit since my last post!  Me and my producers spoke to the promo company that we are planning to use to promote the single, Stuck In Limbo, and they felt the video was too much like real life and a different approach may be better. As the track is a house mix, the plan is now to have a more upbeat and cheerful video focused on beautiful scenery with intimate and close up shots of me and a friend on a road trip. Certain elements of the previous storyboard remain in the new plan but with more of an emphasis on summer and fun shots.

The video will start off with me in a busy city and this scene will be shot with a time lapse effect, where it looks like the surroundings are moving at hyper-speed whilst I’m not moving.  This is meant to represent the ‘limbo’ theme of the song.  The rest of the video’s scenes are meant to represent a dream or memory state to a better time and take place on a road trip to the coast.  The location is Dungeness, Kent, where there are some cool old boats and other interesting features on the beach to shoot around, as well as the sea and sand itself.  The whole of the video apart from the short opening section in the city will focus on the scenery and natural beauty, as the aim is to keep the video upbeat and not too serious, like an escape from limbo to a better place and time.

I’m filming the video this weekend, Sunday 23rd August, in Milton Keynes and Dungeness, and despite being a little nervous I’m very excited to be doing my first music video!  I’m working with a great team of really creative and lovely people, so I have total faith that despite the changes to the storyboard, the video will turn out great!  I’m sure my next post will have some beautiful pictures from the shoot!