it's all happening / recent news (Patreon)

secret demo club, my angels. how the hell are you all? it's been a minute - please let me know how you're feeling in a comment below :)

the weather here in London is growing cooler by the day and things are very much still go-go-go in my camp (though thankfully there a few more breather moments here & there compared to the album lead up!). right after the release I played 2 weeks of acoustic shows and met a lot of you SDC-ers along the way - so thank you if you came along! (extra shouts to those of u who came to multiple shows - I so respect the hustle).

it was so joyful playing some of the new album II tracks in their simplest form, no bells or whistles :) man, simply nothing beats real people in a room, singing together & sharing a moment like that. getting to scribble on everyones' records & say hi to everyone at the end of each show made the whole release feel very tangible too, a marked difference from releasing album 1 in the dregs of lockdown. so it's been a full-on few weeks my end but I'm soaking it all up. my body is tired but my SOUL IS FULL.

this week the band & I are rehearsing for my North American tour. I fly over in just 2 weeks - can you believe it?

I was a full on promo queen in the lead up to the release - so if you're not yet sick of OG content, here are a few things you may have missed:

• insanely I was featured in the NY times, interviews by one of the greatest music journos we have, Jon Parales

• here's an interview with WNXP Nashville (I recorded a live session when I was there too - coming soon)

• a written interview with 'The Irish Examiner' where I discuss how broken the major label system feels to me (and here is your almost-daily reminder that getting to exist outside of that system is a privilege that YOU of the secret demo club give to me. thank you!)

• an episode of 'the eras podcast' I was on with the lovely Abbie McCarthy

• another written interview with Billboard, from when I got to visit NYC in September

• I was on the Spark podcast - refreshingly not talking about me but instead all about one of my fave albums, Ellipse by Imogen Heap!

as many of you know, one of my missions here on the SDC is to peel back the curtain and give you an insight beyond the internet highlight-reel of this mad job. with that spirit in mind I want to share a confession: I have been struggling with some aspects of being on this promo train. I've been uploading music to the internet in some shape or form for roughly 14 years now (!); up until the last year or so I was largely in control of my own output and in turn of how people might perceive me. every song, every photo & post caption was curated by me and uploaded on my own channels and I guess having a handle on it all was comforting to me.

I really wanted to level up with this record, to build my audience and the small but very mighty team around me fully rose to that challenge (seriously - the marketing campaign we have pulled off & continue to work on is genuinely incredible, especially for an independent artist working with humble budgets!). a huge part of levelling up involves placing yourself in new spaces; newspapers, podcasts, magazines, the radio, online spaces that aren't your own. I've come to understand that entering these spaces involves a letting go of sorts; an understanding as 'the artist' that you likely won't have control over the final edit, the final interview or the photos they feature. fair enough; it's their house and you are the guest!

to be clear, the vast majority of promo experiences I've had around this album have been positive - lovely, attentive folk asking interesting questions about the songs, record & my journey so far. but a few promo experiences have made me feel pretty objectified; some journos have asked probing questions about my personal life (and in some cases included information I mentioned in our post-interview chat & requested be left out). I've been misunderstood & paraphrased, I've been clickbaited (having a long chat about my record only for the main focus of a piece to be something else mentioned for a brief moment in the midst of the main chat - classic). I've even had a voice memo from one written interview shared & randomly appear in an entirely different podcast without my permission or consent.

it's been difficult to decode how much of this is just 'showbiz baby'. it's given me a lot of compassion for bigger artists who deal with this kind of thing constantly.. and begs the question for me; should being ambitious & wanting to have your music heard mean in turn giving up all boundaries & ownership over your face/words/voice? should an artist surrender control & accept that all this simply comes with the territory or do we have a duty to ourselves (and the future artists to come down the line) to put our foot down & highlight how it really feels? I'm stumped. thoughts welcome!

anyway - we move, we learn. we live laugh & love! I have really loved rehearsals this week and so excite to get over for these US & Canadian headliners. it feels like a really important moment in my career, a long time coming and so I'm determined to soak it all up :)

thanks for everything lads - you are literally my record label and you've all done a bloody good job so far!

love love! OG x