Hiya Pisgah, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What was life like for you before you got into music?
That’s an interesting question, because honestly I don’t remember a time before music was a part of my life. I started singing shortly after I learned to speak and grew up singing in a southern Baptist church where I grew up in North Carolina, like so many other musicians from the South. I took piano lessons as a pre-teen and then picked up the clarinet because I was desperate to join my middle school band.
By the time I made it to college I was singing in other people’s bands and felt this pull toward writing my own songs, but I felt intimidated by the prospect of it. I think because I was living between Carrboro and Durham, NC at the time, both of which are legendary indie music towns home to so many great venues and Merge Records (!!!), and all of my friends were musicians who had been writing their own songs for years already.
Finally something shifted for me around 2012, when I decided to buy myself an electric guitar. I started playing around with songwriting in 2014, but didn’t write my first ‘good’ songs until 2016 (one of which will actually be on my forthcoming album!). Between all of this I was just trying to figure out what my life would look like – I worked for a law firm and my family’s business after I graduated from college, applied to an art school in London a few years later, got accepted into the program and moved to the UK in 2014!
What’s the live music scene like in London right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
London is both an incredible and intimidating place to be a musician. It’s incredible because there are more venues than you can count, and once you start playing live it’s really not hard to find shows. But, because it’s a major world city, the ‘competition’ (which I put in air quotes because I don’t really believe in it, but the industry sure does) is steep. It’s no secret that music is an oversaturated industry, so it can feel hard to differentiate yourself from everyone else.
That said, this is the city that gave me the space and opportunity to finally start writing and performing my own music, so I love it for that! In terms of other London musicians that I’ve been loving that are worth checking out but aren’t super well now, I have to go with South London band Bleach Lab. ‘Old Ways’ was on repeat for me in 2023!
It seems like being a social media curator has become added to the many jobs of a musician, how do you feel about this?
I feel so conflicted about it. I’m a deeply introverted, sensitive person who feels really overwhelmed by the demand for constant presence and communication. I just don’t think we’re supposed to be so artificially connected all the time, and that’s reflected in declining rates of mental health since the rise of social media – particularly among younger generations. It also can become a major distraction from the actual thing, and I think a lot of people lose perspective on the line between making music versus making content about making music.
Despite that, I do recognise that social media has democratized the ability to make music and share it more easily, and it can still be used to build connections with other people who appreciate what you do. I’m trying to focus on the latter right now, to make it more sustainable for myself.
What’s your view on the music industry today?
Also conflicted! I’ll start with the positives this time. DAWs have really changed the game in terms of freeing artists to record and produce their own songs in their own homes when they feel moved to, and they’ve opened up so many possibilities for creative exploration! It’s cool that the DIY approach has become more normal because, as I said above, it democratizes who can release music. You don’t have to have a record deal or pay hundreds or thousands a day to go into a studio to make a record, and that’s great!
But of course the freedom comes with limitations, because there’s less money in music than ever unless you’re at the very top of the pile, and record labels only want to take artists on if they already have an established audience, versus taking them on and helping them grow their audience as they would’ve done before. It means that musicians are left to do every job – songwriter, manager, publicist, booking agent, etc and that is a recipe for burn out.
What’s the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
There are two things. The first: it’s amazing what a professional producer can do with a home recording! My insecurity that I needed to be able to pay for studio time in order to make record-worthy songs held me back for a long time. The second: the adage ‘put it out and they’ll come’ really is true. It doesn’t mean you’ll have millions of listeners overnight, but the people who appreciate what you do will find you.
Tell us something about you that you think people would be surprised about.
I have a master’s degree in Art History and at one point my dream was to be a museum curator! I still love visual art so much and it’s always an inspirational touchpoint for my songs, but not explicitly. I’d love to write a record of songs inspired by my favorite paintings/photographs, so one day!
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
I do! As of today (Friday the 17th of October) I’ve released 3 singles from my forthcoming album, and I’m really proud of them. I released the first two, ‘Cumulonimbus’ and ‘Favor’, last month and the third one, called ‘Bend to Break’, is out now, too!
They all deal with themes that are central to my songwriting – generational trauma, relational fractures, and the pain and perspective that distance brings. I won’t say too much more about them, because I don’t want to influence anyone else’s experience of them too heavily, so I’d just encourage people to check them out!
What was the recording process like?
I recorded all the songs in my home studio, which is an attic room that I access by a telescope ladder that I pull down. It’s the first dedicated music studio I’ve ever had and it feels really magical because it’s hidden away. There’s a window that looks out over the trees behind our house, so when I’m up there all I can see are trees and sky. I really enjoyed recording them myself because it gave me the flexibility to work on them when I felt like, and to take a break from them when I needed to.
The biggest limitation is that we live in a terraced house that’s connected to other houses so I have to be conscious of how loud I’m singing! When I really want to belt, I move my vocal recording equipment down to my husband’s painting studio at the bottom of our garden. I recorded a lot of the vocals for the songs on the records down there! Once I finished the recordings I sent them off to a producer based in Austin, TX named Dan Duszynski and he mixed and mastered them beautifully.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
For the first time ever, I wouldn’t! I’m thrilled with how the songs came out.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
My new record is called Faultlines and it will be released on Thursday, 4th December, so soon! Pre-save will be available on the 13th November, so if you follow me on Spotify and/or Bandcamp you’ll be notified when it’s out.
A massive thank you for these questions! It’s been so great to chat with you guys.
FOLLOW HER HERE
MORE RGM RECOMMENDATIONS HERE