Sunday Rundown: BBC Introducing and London and Manchester Gigs!

Monday: On Monday I had production class at college and we were looking at recreating a house track!  Despite not being the sort of music I am planning to create, it was a great lesson as it put a lot of the things we had been learning in perspective.

Tuesday: I travelled down to Essex to go on Phoenix Radio and perform some live sessions!  This was a great experience and I really enjoyed myself!  It’s been a while since I have done a radio performance, so it was nice to get back on the horse!  I then travelled into London and stayed in a hotel ready for my gig the next day!

Wednesday: I had my gig at the Old Queen’s Head in Angel, Islington on Wednesday, so the day was taken up with rehearsals, soundcheck and then the gig itself!  I had a great time performing and the venue was lovely!  You can check out my full performance here:

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Thursday: I started the day in one of my favourite places in London… Borough Markets!  I’m such a foodie (code for greedy!) so it’s my heaven!  I bought so much stuff and had an amazing pulled lamb dish!  Such a great start to the day!  Then I headed back up to Manchester ready for my weekend gig!

My Thursday Twenty is a great one this week!

1. Body Of Mine by Sally Caitlin & Sophie Smith – Thought I would include my newest single!  This is a collaboration track with Sophie about not letting people define you by your appearance and about female empowerment in general!
2. I Feel It Coming by Jillian Jacqueline – Great arrangement of this track and her vocals are so smooth and lovely to listen to!
3. I Miss You (feat. Julia Michaels) by Clean Bandit – I’m not usually a Clean Bandit fan but this track is great!  Super catchy and with awesome production!
4. Over That by Emily Vaughn
5. Not A Love Song by bulow – I looovvveee this!  Super honest, super catchy and super fresh!
6. Pictures In My Head by MJ Cole – The chorus in this song is killer…. really great vibe and it cheers me up whenever I hear it!
7. Deeper by Riton, MNEK, House Gospel Choir – Riton played this when I saw him at Warehouse Project and it’s such a great dance song! MNEK slays on vocals as usual!
8. Daylight by Gorgon City
9. Cola by CamelPhat & Elderbrook
10. I Keep Calling (Boris Dlugosch & Cassara Remix) by Wankelmut
11. Hillside Boys by Kim Petras
12. Shivers by Rachel Platten – Pretty much the perfect pop song!  Really infectious and playful!
13. Wait by Maroon 5 – No band has changed their sound quite as much as Maroon 5… I was a huge fan of Songs About Jane and the earlier material and although this is completely different, I love this track!  Their new music is so modern and influenced by trap and a lot of other trending genres, which is pretty cool as it shows their evolution as a band!
14. Give In by Vera Blue
15. Anyway by Tyron Hapi & Mimoza
16. Strongest by Ina Wroldsen – Great message about being a single mother combined with a super strong melody and great vibes!  Awesome song!
17. Not a Toy by Fanny Anderson
18. Dirty Sexy Money by David Guetta, Afrojack, Charli XCX & French Montana
19. Tip Toe by Jason Derulo & French Montana – Jason is back again with his typical club banger type track, and as usual I love it!  I can always dance to a Derulo song!
20. Jungle by Pitbull, Stereotypes, E-40 & Abraham Mateo

Friday: I went into college to learn how to use one of the studios, which was great!  I then spent a couple of hours working on my new track, followed by a steak dinner!  Not a bad day!

Saturday: Rehearsals, soundcheck and then an amazing gig at the Eagle Inn in Manchester!  Absolutely loved performing and all the other acts were absolutely amazing too!  Such a high level of talent… makes me very very proud to be from Manchester!  Perfect last gig of the year…. check out the video below!

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My single with Sophie Smith, Body Of Mine, also got played on BBC East Midlands Introducing radio show!  The radio host said he thought the track was so powerful that he was going to forward it to Radio One… so I’m crossing my fingers on that one!

Sunday:  Recovery day after a night of celebration… including watching my friends conduct an impromptu karaoke session with my PA system!

Thank you so much for reading!

Body Of Mine

Body Of Mine is my ever first collaboration single and is a track I recorded with the lovely Sophie Smith!  As we are both solo female artists, I thought it would be fitting for our collab to be an empowering track about the obsession with the appearance of women as it is something that most girls can relate to!

When I was writing Body Of Mine, I really wanted to address the fact there is so much pressure on girls to look a certain way and often we let that define us.  Beauty is seen as such a valuable quality in this society, when really we should be focusing on more important things such as intelligence, kindness and our own self-confidence.  It’s a song celebrating women and all they achieve!

As the message of the track is something I think is incredibly important, I knew it needed a great video to really drive the lyrics home.  I wanted to shoot a video with lots of ladies of different ages, sizes and races and capture a really fun, carefree vibe!  I am very lucky to have an amazing videographer friend who was crazy enough to take on the huge task of shooting the video and editing it in two weeks with me!

13 cast members…. 4 hours of set up… 40 hours of shooting…. 50 hours of editing and many buckets of glitter later, the video to Body Of Mine was born!  Check it out below and also make sure you check out the incredible camera woman extraordinaire Geena Sharma-Singh and the amazing Sophie Smith too!  Make sure you like, share and comment on the video if you enjoy it!

 

Sunday Rundown: Editing, Composing and Partying!

This has been such an unbelievably tiring week!  I’ve had 20 hour edit days and have basically been functioning on zero sleep for 7 days…. However, so much has been achieved this week and I’m so so excited to share some of the developments very soon!  Sign up to my mailing list to get an exclusive preview of my next video!

Monday:  I set my goals for November, which always really helps me to focus on my career and visualise where I want to be.  I then had production class as I always do on Mondays, which was awesome as we were learning different sampling techniques.  I was also starting the plans for some upcoming videos, which is super exciting!

Tuesday: I played golf in the morning and caught up on some college work.  I also sent off some Spotify playlist submissions for my latest release, Take It All.  A lot of my day was spent tidying up the ‘studio’ from the Body of Mine shoot…. glitter for dayssss!

Wednesday:  After starting editing last week, Wednesday was day 2 of the Body of Mine edit, and it was a long one (finished at 3am)!  We made some good progress, getting the Intro, Verses and Pre-Choruses sorted.  I also had my Electronic Music Composition class in the evening, which was really fun as we were learning about drums and groove, which is probably the area I struggle with the most.

Thursday: Day 3 of the edit…. finished all but the choruses, which was a little frustrating as we were hoping to have finished completely!  In the evening I went to my golf presentation evening and won myself a cheeky trophy, which was a nice surprise!

Of course, I also sorted my Thursday Twenty for the week!

1. Burn Slow by Jaira Burns
2. Flare Guns  by Quinn XCII & Chelsea Cutler – LOVE this!  One of my favs this week… super catchy and it is definitely a topic everyone can identity with – the urge to call an ex at 2:00am is always strong!
3. Only With You by Cyn
4. Astronaut by Mansionair
5. I’ll Be There by King Henry
6. When I Was Young by MO – Great track!  I love MO as she’s always so left of centre and really unique.  This song has a really interesting structure and there are so many climaxes!
7. Ready Yet by Sasha Sloan
8. Losing Any Sleep by Elle Watson
9. Silence (Sluggo x Loote Remix) by Mike Posner & Labrinth – Another favourite!  Such a great track… the production is gorgeous and the two voices really work and bring something different to the verses.  I’m really feeling a lot of Mike Posner material these days!
10. I Feel U (feat. Rachel Salvit) 
11. cortado by anton.
12. Honest by Nataliya
13. Wolves by Selena Gomez & Marshmello – I just love Selena and I’m a big Marshmello fan too, so this was a great combo for me!  I really think the softness of Selena’s voice is very effective in this song, and the chorus is extremely catchy!
14. Better by BANKS – I genuinely think no one loves BANKS as much as me!  I went to see her last week and she was predictably amazing.  Better was one of my favourite tracks she did on the night as performance was just flooded with emotion.. it was pretty special to witness!
15. Lonely by NAV
16. California Heaven (Medasin Remix) by JAHKOY & Schoolboy Q
17. end by Jeremy Zucker
18. Buzzin by Alina Baraz
19. Badi Boum (feat. Tsunami) by Felix Snow
20. The Shine by ayokay & Chelsea Cutler

 

Friday:  I spent five hours composing in the MIDI lab at college and working on a new track!  I feel like I spend so much time promoting myself and contacting people for gigs, sending my music off places etc that I never get to actually make music anymore!  So it was just bliss to be back in that mindset and be creative!  After that it was back to editing the Body Of Mine video…. Day 3 and it didn’t end until 7am on Saturday!  Crazy stressful and we still didn’t finish!  We still had to colour grade and fix a couple of bits in the Middle 8.

Saturday:  Final edit day for Body of Mine!  Finally finished at 4:30pm after another four hours of editing and the release that came with the final export was just euphoric…. such a weight of my shoulder!  The video is now ready for the release next week 🙂 Can’t wait to share!

I also celebrated Bonfire Night with my brother and best friend and then heading into town for the Warehouse Project!  Me and Abi saw Gorgon City on their Kingdom Tour at the Albert Hall, along with Disciples, Riton and Danny Howard.  It was such a great night and just what I needed after a stressful week of editing!

Sunday:  Dinner with the family for my grandad’s birthday and a bit of much need chill time!  I need to actually sleep!

Thank you so much for reading as usual and remember to sign up to my mailing list!

 

 

 

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: Hoxton Square Gig, Astrid S and Music Video Prep!

This has been another absolutely amazing week, jam packed full of music!  The highlight was my gig in London, which was my favourite gig ever and hopefully is going to lead to bigger opportunities in the future!

Monday:  Monday started off terribly, as I was involved a in minor car accident on my way to tennis!  Definitely wasn’t the best beginning to the week, but despite being very stressful, no one was hurt thankfully!  I then had my production lessons at Manchester MIDI School, which was really fun!  The best part was the evening though as my best friend had bought us tickets to see Astrid S at Gorilla for my birthday!  The gig was absolutely amazing and I was pleasantly surprised to see the support was Taya, who I am also a fan of!  Perfect end to a day that started terribly!

Tuesday:  I was mainly rehearsing and packing for my trip to London, but I also was ordering supplies for the music video we’re shooting next week!  Without giving too much away, the video is for a collaboration I’ve done with Mansfield based artist, Sophie Smith.  Some of the supplies include balloons, confetti, glitter and T-shirts…. but I’m not saying anymore just yet!

Wednesday:  Best day of the week as it was my gig in London!  I was performing at Underbelly in Hoxton Square with my guitarist George.  It was an amazing crowd and I really enjoyed myself up onstage!  I enjoyed working with the promoter and am hoping to announce another London gig soon!  Check out some pictures below and the Facebook live video… high quality vids will be coming soon too!

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Thursday:  I spent the daytime in Camden Town, which is one of my favourite places in London and then I headed to Bath to visit my brother!

As always on a Thursday it was Thursday Twenty time on Spotify!

1. Beautiful Escape by Tom Misch & Zak Abel – Super chilled out, beautiful vocals and lush production!
2. Marilyn Monroe – Sevdaliza
3. Elixir by Millesim & Diana
4. Deja Vu (Kato Edit) by Million Dollar Weekends
5. When Your Heart is a Stranger (FAISAL Remix) by Friends In Paris
6. Mala Mujer (Remix) by C. Tangana, Farruko & French Montana – Love the original of this track anyway, sop it’s really fun to have a new version to listen to.  Some unbelievable beat with some new verses, including an English one.
7. Wishlist by Kiiara – Kiiara is a fav of mine and I’m excited she’s released something new!  Bit of a different, more chilled vibe but it’s great!  Love the strings in particular!
8. First Love by Lost Kings & Sabrina Carpenter
9. Praying (Tim Legend Remix) – Kesha
10. The Best You Had by Nina Nesbitt – I adore Nina Nesbitt’s voice and I think this song is awesome!  Love the lyrics!
11. Bad Habit by Kid Ink
12. We Could Go Back by Jonas Blue & Moelogo – Love the typical Jonas Blue feel-good vibe in this track… less cheesy than Mama, so more my scene!
13. Would You Ever (Conducta Remix) by Skrillex & Poo Bear
14. Hard To Be Myself by Fickle Friends
15. Body by Kamille – Awesome song about an important topic that I have also been inspired to write about.
16. Love N Hennessy by A.CHAL
17. Hold On by Mahalia & Buddy
18. Bloodstream by Astrid S  – Loved this one when I saw her live!  Probably my favourite from the gig!
19. Wildfire by SBTRKT
20. I Fall Apart by Post Malone – Not usually a Post Malone fan but I think this song is really cool and I can feel the emotion that went into writing it!

 

Friday: On Friday I was chilling in Bath for my brother’s birthday!  Had a bit of a day off from work and went out for a couple of meals and went on a night out in the evening!

Saturday:  I had the long journey back to Manchester and used that time to get some work done on the train!

Sunday: I’ve used today to prepare the studio space for next week and to sort out some final arrangements for the video shoots!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed all the pictures!

Sunday Rundown: BBC Introducing Amplify Conference, Spotify Playlists and Electronic Music Composition

This week has been another busy one, involving blog posts, Spotify playlists and me travelling down to London to attend BBC Introducing’s Amplify Conference.  As an independent musician any opportunities to learn from and potentially network with people in the industry are key, so I thought it was really important to attend as many sessions as possible!

Monday: On Monday I started off the day with tennis and then went into college for my ‘Introduction to Production’ class.  It was a really great session as we were focused on using Simpler in Ableton and designing sounds.  This is something I’m really interested in, so I enjoyed the lesson a lot.  I think it’s awesome that you can take any sampled sound and completely customise it by applying filters and changing the release time, attack etc.

Tuesday:  Tuesday was a day for plugging my new song ‘Take It All’ with blogs and Spotify playlists.  I spent most of the day researching and contacting curators and bloggers with my press release and bio.  It paid off as ‘Take It All’ has been placed on two awesome Spotify playlists and one blog so far!  Check them out:

Sally Caitlin

 

Wednesday:  I started the day with a bit of relaxation and pampering at Bali Health Lounge in Manchester, before going into college to work on some new music and work on my production skills on Ableton.  Then I started my new module: Electronic Music Composition.  The first session was going through the notes on the piano and the theory of scales, which was very simple for me having played piano for years.  However, I did learn a couple of interesting facts and I can tell the course is going to be really useful as we get into the more intense content.

 

Thursday:  I mostly practised with my loop pedal and caught up on admin (as well as Great British Bake Off).  As it was Thursday though, it was Thursday Twenty time!  This week’s playlist is awesome, with loads of really beautiful chilled songs and a couple of curveballs thrown in!

1. Falling Autumn by alanya – alanya was on my playlist last week too and I have just fallen in love with her voice.  It’s so beautiful and effortless!
2. Invite Me by Brent Faiyaz
3. E.T. by WENS – This is such a different version of the classic Katy Perry track that I didn’t recognise the song until I checked the name!  Very chilled, very calming and very cool!
4. Better by Sam Rui – This one is a bit sassy and is about that feeling when your ex gets a new girlfriend… very easy to relate to and loving the confidence in this track!
5. Don’t Love Me by Janine
6. Insecure by Brent Faiyaz – The second Brent Faiyaz song on this week… big fan of this!  Has a slight feel of The Weeknd in his early days.
7. Memories by Kevin Lake
8. I’m Gonna Be There by Lash – Love this!  Such a happy and catchy song with a real feel good vibe!
9. Bom Bidi Bom by Nick Jonas & Nicki Minaj – This is so infectious and stays in your head all day!  Love Nick Jonas’s voice so much too!
10. Find You by Nick Jonas
11. Girlfriend by NAO
12. Not Above Love by AlunaGeorge – I Love AlunaGeorge as they really do have their own unique sound, and this track is no exception!  You can instantly recognise it’s them and the hook gets stuck in my head all day!
13. How Long by Charlie Puth – I’m loving Charlie Puth’s more recent material… this has an effortless cool to it and the bassline is the key to the song again, like in Attention.
14. Used To by Sabrina Claudio
15. Can’t Lie by MiC LOWRY
16. Easy Love by Lauv
17. Onanon by Kelela
18. NUMB feat. GRAACE by Hayden James – Amazinggg vocals here and I love the instrumentation too.  The drop in the chorus is very restrained and it works so well with the relaxed, sexy vibe.
19. Mad Woman by Sevdaliza – I was drawn to this track as it had a real ‘Banks-esque’ feel to it and I’m completely obsessed with Banks.  I’m looking forward to listening to more from Sevdaliza and seeing if that ‘bad bitch’ vibe carries through all her material!
20. Rake It Up by Yo Gotti & Nicki Minaj – This is such a guilty pleasure and I hate myself for liking it a little bit!  However, as soon as I hear the beat I want to dance and it makes me want to go out and party… and that’s never a bad feeling!

 

 

Friday:  Friday was the first day of the Amplify Conference so I got the train down to London in the morning and got to the conference at about 1:00pm.  The sessions I attended were: Sentric Presents ‘How to Land a Sync Deal in 9 Steps’, Annie Mac’s Playlist and BPI Presents ‘Heads of Label’.  Sentric’s sync talk was something I particularly enjoyed as it was really comprehensive and informative.  I really felt like I learned things I could immediately put into place!  After the conference I then trekked over to Hammersmith to rehearse with George ready for my gig in Hoxton Square next week!  Very busy day!

 

Saturday: Another great day at the Amplify Conference!  I sessions on ‘How To Get A Gig’, ‘How To Be Good At Social Media’ and ‘Shifting The Gaze: Women in Music’.  I particularly enjoyed the women in music session as JONES, Rae Morris and Becca McIntyre from the Marmozets were the guests and all of them were very inspiring!  I’m a JONES fan in particular, so seeing her speak about how she’s curated her career was amazing!  In the evening I was feeling very motivated so I used that energy and channelled it into writing the press release for my next release and writing my Spotify Bio!

 

 

Sunday: My last day at Amplify was a great one as I managed to get to four sessions, plus I had the company of one of my friends, Martins.  The sessions I attended were ‘AWAL Presents: Demystifying Streaming Data’, ‘A Guide to Self-Releasing’, ‘The Music Manager Masterclass’ and ‘Keeping Control of Your Music’.  I was originally meant to be attended a session with JP Cooper, but due to illness, that talk was cancelled.. however the talk on retaining control featured Nina Nesbitt who is an artist I like a lot, so that was a good replacement!  After the conference came the long journey home, despite being back in London next Wednesday!

Thank you so much for reading!  Next week I’ll be talking about my gig in London and then my travels on to Bath!

Take It All

Take It All is the fourth track on my Experiments EP and actually my favourite of the five!  It’s a song that I actually wrote about six years ago and never actually did anything with until last year.  I just had a feeling that the song needed to be heard and I’m so glad I listened to my gut as I love the finished result!

The lyrics of Take It All are all about breaking free and no longer being tied to someone who is holding you back.  It’s a song about determination, inner strength and bravery, but also about letting go.  To link with all these themes, we thought an intimate and simple approach to the video would work well, so as not to distract too much from the lyrics.  The close cropped and slow motion shots in the verses give the video an air of vulnerability, which is then contrasted against the fast paced chorus and drops to show the different emotions felt by myself when I was writing Take It All.  We used the different coloured versions of me layered on top of each other to give the effect that many personalities were fighting to escape from one body.

I am so happy with how the video for this track has turned out as I feel that it really does the song justice!  Please do check it out and like, share and comment if you enjoy it!

 

Sunday Rundown: Take It All Video Release, Alive Shoot and Gigs!

This week has been a super busy one!  At the moment I have loads of different projects on the go, including the shoot for ‘Alive’, the promotion of the Experiments EP and a collaboration.  This past week has been all about cracking on with all of that, whilst fitting in gigs and rehearsals as usual!  It’s been a bit stressful but there hasn’t really been a dull moment!

Monday:  I started the day with a tennis lesson and then when straight to production class from there.  As I started two weeks late at Manchester MIDI school, I do still feel a little bit out of my depth, so I can see that a lot of extra practise will be in my future!  After college I picked up my friend for a movie night but we didn’t even watch a film… just chatted about life and got super distracted!  I also released the first teaser for the ‘Take It All’ video on Instagram!

Tuesday:  My friend and I headed out on a hike in the morning to get some fresh air and clear our minds!  After that I spent the afternoon rehearsing for a piano performance I had coming up later in the week and the evening was taken up with picking outfits for the ‘Alive’ video shoot.

Wednesday:  My videographer (and friend) Geena and I drove to East Yorkshire, collecting actor, Jack, on the way in order to shoot the music video for ‘Alive’.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t quite as nice as forecasted, however we still got some great footage!  I’m really looking forward to editing this video and I’m sure the extremely long and tiring day will be 100% worth it in the end!  I also premiered the second teaser video for ‘Take It All’ on Instagram, building up to the release on Saturday!

 

Thursday:  On Thursday, I was rehearsing for gigs again in the morning and then I went into Manchester to a great little café and bookshop called Chapter One.  Geena and I met there to discuss the editing of the ‘Alive’ video and to plan all the other videos and shoots we have coming up!  In anticipation of the release of my album, Chemistry, next year we had to set deadline dates for all the live acoustic sessions, official videos and lyric videos needed to promote all the tracks.  It’s going to be a very busy few months, but hopefully worth it in the end!

I also made my Thursday Rundown playlist, which features my absolute favourite artist, Banks, and a few international songs!

1. All Goes Wrong by Chase & Status & Tom Grennan
2. Drown The Lovers (feat. 6LACK) by R I T U A L
3. Bloodsport ’15 by Raleigh Ritchie
4. Monster 2.0 by Jacob Banks & Boogie – My cousin Maddie recommended this to me because she loved the beat… but I’m actually way more impressed with the vocals!  Such a powerful and unique voice that perfectly captures the emotion in the lyrics!
5. Underdog by Banks – I am a complete Banks superfan, so I was both excited and nervous when I saw she’d released a new song, as I didn’t want it to disappoint me!  It hasn’t done, thankfully!  Another great song from my ultimate idol and I can’t wait to see her later this month in Manchester!
6. Hello Hello by Fickle Friends – Fast becoming a firm favourite of mine, every song I hear from Fickle Friends is a winner in my book!
7. September by Gabrielle
8. Human Touch by Betty Who
9. Улети by T-Fest – One of the international songs on this week’s playlist!  T-Fest is a Ukranian rapper (I believe) and I heard this song on a YouTube video and thought it was great!  Улети translates as Fly Away apparently!
10. Loin (Pilule Violette) by Maître Gims, Dany Synthé, SoFLY & Nius – This is a great French track… I particularly love the beat in this one!
11. Takes My Body Higher (feat. Lincoln Jesser) by Shoffy
12. Ignite by RKCB
13. Super Far by LANY
14. Speak in Tongues by machineheart – A favourite of mine this week.  I love the use of drums and the bassline in this song.  It’s got a really cool edgy, vibe and is also super catchy!
15. Holding You by Great Good Fine
16. White Water by MY
17. High Off You by alayna –  This song is a very chilled and subdued by my standards, but I really think it has an understated beauty.  The vocals are effortless and gorgeous and they sit perfectly on top of the bassy but restrained production.
18. 1999 by Bloke & Bird
19. Northern Lights by Jaymes Young
20. Take It All by Sally Caitlin – I thought I’d include my track ‘Take It All’ this week as the video premiered this week on my YouTube channel!  This is my favourite track from the EP and the video is also my favourite, so give it a listen if you haven’t had chance yet!

 

 

Friday:  Rehearsals in the morning on piano, followed by a quick golf lesson and then more rehearsals with my guitarist George.  We then had a gig in the evening at Revolution in Macclesfield for their big reopening party!  I also shared the final teaser video for the ‘Take It All’ video on Instagram.

Saturday:  With one performance out of the way, I just had one more this week and that was for an old work friend’s wedding! I played piano and sang at the ceremony, which was very nerve-wracking but it was a lovely service and luckily I had been rehearsing like a crazy lady!

I finally shared the video to ‘Take It All’ on YouTube!  Check it out and remember to give it a like and comment if you enjoy it!

Sunday:  After such a busy week, Sunday has been about catching up on sleep, on sync applications and looking through the Alive video clips to find the best footage!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the behind the scenes images from this week’s shoot! 🙂

 

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: Shooting for Alive, Live Acoustic Sessions and Florida

Photo: Geena Sharma Singh Photography

This week has been half hard work and half holiday, but with many exciting developments!  Both at home and in America I had some amazing weather and took some beautiful photos, which I have included in the blog, along with details on what I’ve been up to!

Monday:  On Monday, me and my awesome videographer (and friend), Geena headed to Flamborough in the East Riding of Yorkshire for our first day of filming the video for my song ‘Alive’.  We got some beautiful shots of the amazing scenery around there and some performance shots.  We got lucky with the weather as it was 26 degrees Celsius and wall to wall sunshine!  So excited to finish filming and share this video!

 

Tuesday:  Tuesday was spent practising piano, packing and generally getting ready to go away!

Wednesday:  On Wednesday I flew to Florida for the start of my two week holiday in America and the Caribbean.  The best part of long haul travel for me is that I have so many uninterrupted hours at my disposal, which I can use to catch up on work!  I managed to respond to three sets of interview questions, write all my notes on the mixes for my upcoming album and read and write notes on my book on music marketing.  Very productive and relaxing times for me!

Thursday:  I had a lovely morning walk to start off the day and then I went to the mall.  I’m ashamed to say that a big shopping spree always makes me feel good, and this was definitely one of best shopping trips I’ve ever had!  So I left feeling very happy, especially after a great Chinese meal!

I also made my Thursday Twenty playlist and it’s even more varied than usual!

1. Boots by Kesha – Definitely my favourite track on Kesha’s new album.. really fun and catchy!
2. Painkiller by Liv Dawson – I really wanted to include this in the playlist last week but I didn’t have room.  It’s such an touching pop song with great sweeping production and really relatable lyrics.
3. Make It Up To You by Julia Michaels – I’m fast becoming a Julia Michaels fan as I think her brand of cool, edgy pop is the future of the genre.  I also really admire her roots as a songwriter.
4. Safe Place by Jazz Morley
5. Borrowed Time by Falcon Punch & Alexanderson
6. Give It Up (feat. Salt Ashes) by Cruels
7. Tennis Shoes by Lennon & Maisy – I always love the soundtrack to Nashville and this my favourite song from the current season!
8. Take Shelter by Years & Years
9. Dead End Love by XYLO
10. Alexis Texas by Cruel Youth
11. You’re Mine by Phantogram – Phantogram have only been on my radar for a few months due to hearing them on a TV show, but I really love their dark vibe and edgy production!
12. Think Before I Talk – Astrid S
13. Madness by Ruelle – I came across Ruelle as one of her songs was used as a reference file for a sync placement I applied for and I really like her music!  It has a slight vibe of Banks, which is something I always enjoy!
14. C O O L (Radio Edit) by Le Youth – The ultimate holiday party song; just so so catchy and happy!
15. What Lovers Do (feat. SZA) by Maroon 5
16. If I’m Lucky by Jason Derulo – Jason Derulo is one of my guilty pleasures and I’ve just bought tickets to see him perform in May so I’m super excited!  This new track is very different but I actually really like it!
17. Girls On Boys by Galantis & ROZES
18. Bad At Love by Halsey
19. Cross My Mind Pt. 2 (feat. Kiiara) by A R I Z O N A 
20. Know U Anymore (feat Sarah Hyland) by Bo Talks – Another that almost made it on last week… great track, super catchy and loving Sarah Hyland’s voice… I usually just know her as Haley from Modern Family.

 

Also, ‘Music, Musings and Such’ did an interview feature on me, which was awesome, so have a read if you are interested in my inspirations, my ambitions and my favourite musicians!

Friday:  On Friday I went for another amazing walk, this time along the boardwalks to the lake, which was so relaxing and pretty!  I took some gorgeous pictures 🙂 After that I spent the day by the pool reading and catching up on emails, as well as submitting songs for sync placement consideration.

Saturday:  After a four hour drive first thing, we made it to Miami around midday to board a cruise bound for the Caribbean!  I didn’t get much work done this day as I was too busy drinking cocktails and dancing at the sail away party!

I did upload a teaser video for the live acoustic session of ‘Lead Me Down’ to my YouTube channel though, which I’m really excited about!  Check it out below!

I was also featured on the ‘Readers Recommend’s ‘Sounds on Sunday’, playlist, which was lovely!

Sunday: The first day at sea on the cruise so I spent the day exploring the ship, drinking more cocktails and having a lovely massage!  Very relaxing times… managed to get some work done too which was nice!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and enjoyed seeing some holiday pictures!  I will no doubt have many more next week!