The Basics of Moving Forwards

 Hi! I’m back. To kind of bridge nicely between what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks (working on my release) and this blog I thought it would be cool to explain a little bit of the process behind actually what went on in the run up to releasing the EP. The process was mostly under wraps because of course I wanted this one to be a bit of a surprise so this is your chance to find out more about what actually went down in the months leading up to release day! 

October 

I started writing for the EP in late September/early October of last year. It was a complete accident if I’m being honest, I didn’t really want to release anything new yet and I didn’t feel like I was in a place to take the songs I was writing anywhere, but that changed when I wrote ‘something’. I think it was either the second or third song that I penned which ended up on the EP, but I felt it so deeply on those first few playthroughs that it stayed with me a lot longer than most songs do. It was ‘something’ that first got me thinking about a new project. Fast forward to the middle of the night around 1am when I couldn’t sleep and the phrase ‘the basics of moving forwards’ came to me along with a concept for the cover art that is pretty similar to the one we ran with in the end. At this point, I knew that I was going to be releasing a project pretty soon, and I started to prepare myself for what was coming. I still only had three songs for the track list, which was the root of my next challenge. 

November  

I knew that I wanted a four song EP, I just think from what I’ve seen in the industry with The Japanese House and such that seems to be the sweet spot. So I needed to write another song. But it had been a few weeks since I’d had any ideas and I was getting stressed out, until I picked up a guitar at college and came up with a strumming pattern for ‘fire song’ which later evolved into a picking pattern. Sitting down in front of a Logic project, I started jotting lyrics in the Notes section and came up with all of ‘fire song’ there on the spot, inspired by Killing Eve which I had been watching as a comfort show for the last couple of months. At this point, I approached Chris to ask if he would help me to record the EP. This was a big ask as I knew it would be a huge job, but he said yes and so I started prepping demos ready to take into the studio. 

December 

Most of late November and December involved hours of painstaking work on the demos for the project which, although they won’t ever see the light of day, were really valuable as a blueprint. It was at this point that the sounds of each individual track first started to really develop separate from each other, and this is also the point where I decided on the track order (besides ‘fire song’ which I always knew would be a closer). Although the EP is technically a spring release, I think writing and demoing in the autumn and winter has really added to the mood of it, ‘fall (for once)’ for example is something I always imagined being listened to on a dark autumn night, possibly because that’s how it was written. Finishing the demos was a big step towards the release, and I was relieved to be done, especially as it meant that we could get recording in January. 

January 

Returning to college after Christmas, it was time to enter into the recording sessions. We started with the acoustic guitar, which was a brutal session for me despite doing my best to prepare. I would say that ‘fall (for once)’ was the most difficult to record and probably took up around an hour of the session non-stop, it’s definitely worth it though. About a week later, it was time for my vocal sessions and I conveniently caught a cold, meaning I was drinking exclusively honey and lemon for a while to get my voice to a point where I would be able to sing my best. Luckily, I managed to heal pretty quickly and get the sessions recorded on time. Imogen joined us in the studio for a session of backing vocals and Krista and Max recorded theirs remotely. Ash’s string session and my electric guitar session took place on the 25th, and by the end of January, the songs were fully recorded after a huge amount of work from all involved. My album cover shoot with Kat took place on the 29th January, and I think this is the point where I really saw everything come together and realised that we were doing this thing! 

February

In February we got to the point where it was time for mixing and mastering. At this point, I took a back seat which was my first real break from the process while Chris got to work on the rough mixes. The main priority was ‘fall (for once)’ as we were in a serious time crunch to make sure it would be ready on time to upload to the distributor. I hadn’t even considered putting out a lead single when I was in the planning stage and this was actually an idea that Chris suggested in the studio so we weren’t completely prepared. Amazingly, Chris managed to get it mixed and mastered on time, and I uploaded ‘fall (for once)’ to the distributor ready to go with one of my favourite photos from the shoot as the album cover. I think I like it so much because Flora, the little frog that I keep in my car, has a starring role. Throughout February, Chris and I kept reconvening and chatting, changing small elements of the mixes until finally the rest of the EP was ready to be uploaded. I had been teasing an upcoming project for a while on my socials, but this is where the social media calendar really kicked in. I announced the EP on the 23rd of February, which was probably one of the best days in the process because it finally felt as though I could relax for a little while. I had my release gig, the release itself and most of my social media for the next few weeks prepared and I could focus on other things. 

March 

The chill at the end of February did not last long. ‘fall (for once)’ dropped on the 8th March and I was blown away by the response to it. I knew it was a good song but I honestly had not been expecting the engagement it brought within those first couple of days. Every kind message and comment made me smile, and I was truly very happy and hyped for the whole release. This was made even better when the track was played on BBC Introducing, which is something that’s been on my goal list since my first EP was released. The actual release week of ‘the basics of moving forwards’ was a very busy one. It started with the music video shoot for ‘fall (for once)’, which was a very fun but very long day of moving around playing the song and getting various narrative shots in different locations. I took a night off from work to go and see Marika Hackman with Ash on Tuesday, which was a brilliant show. Then finally, on Friday, it was time for the release. Again, I was overwhelmed by the response, people shared it to their stories and I received so many positive messages about it. Opening my phone to see my own songs on streaming platforms gives me a