Hiya (T.M/O), thanks for virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What was life like for you before you got into music?
So I still find it quite funny that I’m doing music now. I come from a poetry background, and have been obsessed with words for a very long time. Either for healing or deconstructing or just ripping into situations that screwed with me, my writing has very much been a necessary tool in my survival.
Life before this release – I’m a year out from the most intense medical crisis, and whilst recovery was so long and so isolating, as anyone who’s ever been through something super life altering will tell you, I learned so much. I learned that those who you witness are those who can afford to show up; physically, mentally, financially. I felt huge empathy for those who cannot.
I learned that the human condition will do anything it can to heal, to forget the worst parts, but they absolutely integral to the further understanding of anything. artists get to keep those wounds open without inflicting pain.
My story became unique but with feelings you’ve all felt before and with that I felt a duty to release my work greater than my fear of being perceived.
Survivor driven, in short, was how my life was pre this.
What’s the live music and spoken word scene like in LONDON right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
The live scene? So I wish I knew more! I don’t really go out unless it’s a birthday or a booking nowadays, but Spoken not Stirred with Sols is an absolute JAM!
People you need to keep eyes on, in no particular order, Sarah Callaghan, legendary vocalist and comedian, Jazzi Sirius who fuses politics and piano and the most beautiful vocals, she just played her first Glastonbury! Tj Tucker who let me open his last EP Calm and Casual with a little spoken word thing, and Ley Speaks who has a LONG AWAITED project out soon, featuring me a bit!
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 don’t think it plays to my strengths at all! I have a super busy mind and love to overshare. I think honestly, if you care and it’s in your core personality to commit to treating your socials as a business, you do that. Otherwise, dont get stressed by it, social media is absolutely the strangest thing humans ever invented. I love a solid business card or email.
How do you manage engagement on your socials?
I don’t. I’m always surprised at what hits and what doesn’t. I like people to have more questions after seeing my content than before. But I don’t have a big following so don’t listen to me if you want one.
What’s your view on the Music industry today?
It’s the same as every industry I can imagine, but I do think there is an extra layer of scandal. More so than in other fields, artists and writers are trusted that their voices are authentic and true. As with any other industry, it attracts the very antithesis of its nature in individuals that are exploitative, and that is to be mindful of.
Aside from this I do think we are entering a very exciting time for lyricism, and the spirit of outrage.
The political climate has everything to do with how artists are expressing themselves, whether it be through head on acknowledgement or the choice to speak peace and love above the madness.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
I don’t know where I sit. And I’ve never sat still. I see myself as pretty exothermic right now, and feel like I relate more to that man in the town centre that screams down a megaphone about short skirts than any artist either of us might know about.
If you pressed me on it. It’s like She Drew The Gun met Kate Nash, Hadouken!, Kae Tempest, and Mike Skinner. Only it’s nothing like any of them at all.
My upcoming project pummels through drum and bass , Spanish guitar, to opera, all with a solid spoken vocal. And it’s really clever.
What’s the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
Trust yourself. Trust your timing, trust your brain. Trust the people around you and trust your belly.
What was your best experience on stage?
Do you know what, my last gig was a phenomenal experience, a get together to celebrate Sarah Callaghan and her band the Free Thinkers. It was at Love Shack London they have this cute spot out the back with a wall that is just TVs and weird stuff to look at.
it was beautiful, it was funny, it was emotional. You should have just come.
What was your worst experience on stage?
It took me till 25 to realise if you can hear a bubble in your throat so can everyone else. Also, I used to get blackout for shows all the time, I don’t know who I thought I was. Even now though relatively sober, I rarely remember the ins and outs of each performance. I think it’s excitement. Also, I don’t want to know.
Tell us something about you that you think people would be surprised about.
In June 2024 I had 9 fibroids removed, I’ve remade them in scale in silicone as the props to a film, I once ate a whole rose from root to tip other than that I like to mist my plants and eat fibre.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
I have been sitting on a lot of eggs like a greedy hen.
The first release, Wilson , produced by Paleblu, is defiant, dirty, got loads of bloop bloops in it and is inspired by falling elevators and rock bottoms. As a female freelance self-taught artist (I know) sometimes the knock backs can seem relentless.
I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult to speak on concerns nowadays without becoming the main focus, and I want to highlight how ridiculous that is.
I feel like this was the minimum effort needed to transform what could have been a 2am Instagram live into something easy on the ears.
What was the video and recording process like?
It started in a flight simulator in Manchester. I’ve been working closely with Searle Visual for not just this video but 5 others, and a larger project to come.
I’m not a pilot.
My aim was to just crash this simulator over and over again. It bounces straight off the ground and was so much fun.
I have the giant trauma worm with me. And just like Tom Hanks, I land on my garden shed and start lip syncing a poem about it.
The whole process has been bizarre, and cathartic and hilarious.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
So half of the album was written and pretty much ready to go when I ended up with kidney failure and an absolute menace of an ordeal to follow. Nothing pained me more than looking out my window every fucking day for six months, finally having a message worth volume but without a body that could speak it or the certainty in my time left to share it.
People talk about writers block like it’s herpes. The brilliant thing is that all writing draws from lived experiences, if you’re a writer you’re always writing, if you’re an artist it’s not confined to when you hold a paintbrush. Go live your life, read something. if you can’t write maybe you haven’t got anything to speak on.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
I just don’t know how to answer that. No. Maybe. No. The whole thing is true to me and I’ve had a lot on. I would change any minute I spent self doubting and ‘trying to improve’ into time spent screaming into the wind.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
I think we would do well collectively to try to connect our empathy to our understanding of scale. I think so many issues boil down to the maintenance of ignorance and it’s shameful.
Also I recycle pistachio shells for art . Give me some.
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