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: 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: 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: Video Locations, Rehearsals and Collaborations

Photo: Geena Sharma Singh Photography

This week has been a pretty fun one considering I still have a little bit of the holiday blues!  Being back in England hasn’t stopped me doing a bit of travelling and it’s been great to get back to work and get focused again!

Monday:  Pure admin!  After being away for a week, I had to catch up on loads of things and get back to work on submitting for playlist consideration, emailing my distributor about updating my Vevo channel and replying to some venues about potential bookings.

Tuesday:  On Tuesday, I travelled to East Yorkshire – Flamborough, Robin Hood’s Bay and Scarborough to be exact – to scout for potential locations for the music video to Alive.  I had the pleasure of the company of my friend (and videographer) Geena, making it a really great day!  We found some amazing places to potentially shoot and had great weather all day, which really helped us to imagine the shots we want to capture!  Check out some of the pictures from the day below!

Danes Dyke

Looking out over Thornwick Bay

Looking out over Thornwick Bay

Thornwick Bay

North Landing

Danes Dyke

Looking back on North Landing

Thornwick Bay – Taken by Geena Sharma Singh

Thornwick Bay – Taken by Geena Sharma Singh

North Landing

 

Wednesday: I was in a horrible mood on Wednesday for some reason, so I went to the driving range in the morning to get some aggression out, but that actually didn’t work!  Then I had rehearsals all afternoon with George ready for our gig next week.  We were learning a lot of new material, which was a little stressful but is quite exciting as I love changing things up!

Thursday: I spent the morning applying for sync placements, resulting in a very positive response from a publisher, which was encouraging!  Then I played golf (terribly) in the afternoon, but thankfully the sun was shining!  This week’s Thursday Twenty is slightly more chilled than the party playlists of the last couple of weeks, with more of a modern pop vibe!

1. Everybody Else by Emmit Fenn – I literally love every song that Emmit Fenn brings out and this is no exception; chilled, electronic perfection!
2. LMK by Kelela
3. Run For Your Life by Mako feat. Rat City & Natalola – Definitely one to get stuck in your head… very catchy and cheerful!
4. Warriors by Sander W, Sandero and Julie Elody
5. Champagne & Sunshine (Ellusive Remix) by PLVTINUM & Tarro – I love the slightly naughty vibe of this one… makes me want to be reckless.
6. I Need You by Obregon
7. Listening by Cages – One of my favourites this week… absolutely in love with the drop on this!
8. Scream by Amaal Nuux
9. Overnight by Karo
10. like that by Bea Miller – Another favourite, I love the attitude and strength in this.  Modern and fresh pop at its best!
11. Work The Middle – So catchy… a bit of a guilty pleasure as it makes me want to sing and dance along!
12. Ego (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) by Ella Eyre – I’m a big fan of Ella Eyre’s voice and I saw a video of her performing this live a few weeks ago and loved it… love it even more now it’s released!
13. Free by Axel Thesleff & Ronja – Another great track!  Such a mysterious and edgy feel to this one, almost alien like, but then when the beat kicks in it feels so perfect for summer partying.
14. Heartlines (MOUNT Remix) by Broods 
15. Bow Down by Louis Mattrs
16. Do About It by Lucas Nord – I love the combination of the male and female vocals and how the track builds after the breakdown.
17. Walls by Loving Arms & Blu Eyes
18. Motion by Sam Smyers & M. Maggie – Maybe my track of the week… so so catchy but really cool at the same time.  Love how it isn’t structured like a normal pop song and it’s very fluid throughout and the vocals are dreamy.
19. F**k with Me (Never Again) by Ramon Esteve & Finja Messer
20. I Like by Superfeel – Really chilled hip hop with an infectious hook and very summery vibes!

 

 

Friday: Hospital appointment in the morning to look into some of the problems I’ve had with my voice.  The diagnosis was that due to being unwell a number of times I’ve lost some of the core strength and muscle control I used to have, making it harder to sing at different parts of my range.  I’m going to be having some rehabilitation for my voice with some therapy, learning some new warm ups and getting a bit fitter to help with the muscle strength!

Saturday: Piano practice was a main focus due to a wedding I’m playing fast approaching, along with reading a book on music marketing and promotion and researching managers.

Sunday:  Studio dayyyyy!!! This time I was in the studio with the lovely Sophie Smith, recording our collaboration – a song I wrote called ‘Body Of Mine’.  Without giving too much away, it’s a song about not letting people label you and about being so much more than people see on the surface.  I’m really excited to have recorded my first collaboration and to be sharing this in the near future!

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

Deja Vu

The third track to be taken from my Experiments EP is Deja Vu!  Deja Vu is the most dancey and summery track on the EP, with a real tropical vibe!  One of the main aims when planning the concept for the video was to capture that summery influence in the visuals, whilst filming in a studio in February!  The way we achieved that was to take inspiration from the film Neon Demon and Demi Lovato’s ‘Cool For The Summer’ video in terms of lighting and makeup and then running with that to make it our own.  We used fluorescent tube lights to give that ‘clubby’ party effect and then in the drops amped that up further with EL (electro luminescent) wire.  I absolutely loved using the EL wire and tying it around my hands and clothes as I’m obsessed with neon things and it gave me the opportunity to switch on my light up trainers!

Deja Vu is a really upbeat and playful track in terms of production, but it was actually quite emotional for me to write.  The lyrics are about being let down by someone close to you and you realising that you have a pattern of trusting the wrong people.  It’s a song born out of frustration from being naïve and not noticing when you are being played for a fool.  It’s that feeling of being hurt but being mostly angry at yourself as you know you could have prevented it yourself by being a bit wiser! As the third song on the EP, Deja Vu is the ‘turning point’ in the narrative, when the character starts to fully realise how toxic the relationship is and let that anger and frustration show.

Check out the video on YouTube below, and head to iTunes or Spotify to give the Experiments EP a listen!

 

Poison

Poison is the second track on my Experiments EP, so it is the second video to be released!  Out of all the videos I filmed with Cosmic Joke Productions, this was probably the most fun to work on.  When planning the concept we wanted to incorporate the sparkle and colour of my branding into the visuals and the way we ended up doing this was with powder paint and glitter.  One of the most memorable parts of Poison is the drumbeat, so when they suggested I bang a drum I was so excited and thought it was perfect!

Poison is such a fun, catchy song that I thought it was really important to shoot a video that supported the track and was memorable and playful.  The song is about knowing you are crazy for being with someone who doesn’t treat you right and for loving them when they behave badly.  It follows on from the encounter in the first song on the EP ‘Lead Me Down’ as part of the running narrative on Experiments.

I absolutely love this track and the video, so check it out on YouTube below, and make sure you give the Experiments EP a listen; it is available to buy/stream now on iTunes, Spotify, and all other major digital retailers.