Hi Jane! It's great to speak with you, can you give us a little background information on how you got started in the music industry?
Hi there, and thanks for having me! Well, I’d always sung and danced at dance school growing up. I bought a guitar when I was 16 and taught myself to play and I knew I wanted to be a songwriter. I didn’t really know how to get into the ‘industry’ so I just wrote and played gigs and eventually met a producer who wanted to work on songs together.
We became the first incarnation of Kids At Midnight, we released an EP on Alan Braxe’s ‘Vulture’ label in about 2012. Not long after that my mate didn’t really want to take the project further (we’re still great mates!) so I thought, ‘I’d better learn to produce!’
So I got Ableton and fudged around with demos for a few years until they started to sound like real songs… and now we’re here! I write, record, produce and release myself on my own label ‘Square Pleasure’.
Following on from this, give us the story behind your new album? We’ve been listening to it a-lot in the office recently!
Oh that’s so cool thank you! The album is called ‘All I Ever Wanted Was Your Love’ as that’s like, a life theme of mine. It is weaved through all the songs. It fits very specially in this nostalgic world.
The album is a lot about unrequited love and dreaming of those perfect romantic moments you hope to one day experience. I’m a big daydreamer so a lot of the songs have a twinkly day dreaming quality. I hope it sounds like the soundtrack to an 80s teen rom com you haven’t seen yet! Haha
Has it been difficult to get to the point where you are at now? What are the main challenges you have faced over the years?
The main challenge has been producing myself I think? Obviously when an artist has producers, a label, management, their work load is spread over 4, 5… a team of people. When you do everything yourself it just takes longer, and can take quite an emotional toll.
The role of the singer/songwriter is to be as raw and real and emotional vocally and lyrically as they can, to truly tell the story. The role of the producer is to capture that and cut any of the bad bits that don’t do it justice, and be quite ruthless! So, it can be hard to be the vulnerable singer, then take that hat off, put the producer hat on and start really hacking away at non-perfect vocal takes… while you’re still going through the break-up you’re singing about, that sort of thing haha.
Also, I guess not being under the umbrella of a major label has made it a little trickier to cut through? But, I truly think you need all types of artists. I just go about my business, make my little 80s synth pop music and put it out, it means I have a smaller listenership but that it’s a truly honest connection- and that’s really special!
We've been listening to your music for many years here at J O U K. What are some of the tracks you have been most proud to work on/be involved with?
I’m really proud of ‘Boys Like You’. Production wise I’m proud of how it sounds, lyric and theme wise I’m proud of how nerdy and honest it is. It contains actual embarrassing moments from high school and when I released it it basically got missed.
But, then the producers of the US Netflix series ‘Never Have I Ever’ used it in the big final romantic scene of the show and it found the audience it was meant to! It is such a sweet moment and I’m so proud to have ‘Boys Like You’ playing behind it.
So, what does your current studio set up look like? Do you have any favourite pieces of gear or plugins you are loving at the moment?
My set up is pretty simple. I run Ableton on my Mac. I record my vocals on a Shure SM7b I’ve had for about 8 years! I use my beat up Squire Strat for any electric guitar bits or my Taylor acoustic for any organic warmth, but mostly I use Ableton present instruments, the Sylenth plug in for retro lush keyboards, Vocal Synth for some fun effects and a variation of Neve plug ins through my UAD Apollo Twin Duo interface :)
Finally, with everything that has been going on this year- What has driven you to continue to make new music?
I think this year more so than normal I’ve felt really happy with the deadlines that singles and albums put in your life. I think in a time of uncertainty, keeping solid with your art is really grounding. Saying you’ve got a deadline to finish a song by really focuses your mind and heart, brings it down from a shaky, uncertain time to zero back in on what your reason for making music is, or what you want your legacy to be. Music can be an escape from what’s going on or it can be a time capsule recording of it :) Both are really important right now.