Let me get straight to the point because we all know I’m going to end up talking about something on tv anyway. Severance. If you’re not watching, you’re missing out. If I could describe February it would be the nagging feeling in the back of your unconscious mind that you should be finishing the things you start, much like Mark and Cold Harbour - or maybe not because it may destroy your whole world. Anyway, my point is that having another me that could make decisions when my real self has hit a block (or has just had enough) would have been very useful last month. Having said that we did manage to release Lu’s debut album What You Do Alone on our very own label and that in itself feels like the culmination of a lifetime's creative work. Is it enough?1
I have to admit that despite that nagging feeling in the back of my mind, the procrastination that was had was bliss. Including and not excluding long sunny walks with Lola, an unexpected express trip to London full of gigs, welcoming a 1971 Wurlitzer to the family and meeting my new best friend. This last one is really something because making new friends in your late twenties is not always that easy, specially if you’re shy or you spend most of your time in a dark room full of musical equipment. But a major plus side of getting older is that your friends start making you carbon copy friends and they have to love you back.
I’ve always been surrounded by kids, I am godmother and/or aunt to just under a dozen kids, the age gap between me and my eldest niece is only eight years and I even sat in on my second niece’s birth age ten - so I know a thing or two about having tiny friends. But this is my best friend, the girl who sat in front of me on the first day of secondary school and invited herself to my house for the weekend, the girl who’s mum showered me down after my first time getting drunk on vodka, who told me to run when she spotted the police about to come for us after some girl started a fight at the bar, who walks around my house like it’s hers and who gets mistaken for my sister every time we are out in public. She had a baby. And it blew my mind.
Around about mid month I had to interrupt my fascination with the miracle of life because our good friend and great artist Harvey asked us to fly to London for some gigs, and what better excuse to avoid work than working on something else. I love going back to London, playing shows, English breakfasts, rain and seeing my friends and even though it is always a bit sad having to leave the fact that it sometimes takes me longer to cross the city than to fly home is a comforting one. When someone asks what superpower I would choose I’m always stuck between flying and teleporting - two sides of the same coin? Anyway, London. Ours has been a love hate relationship but I think we’ve finally struck a balance and I found my new favourite venue to play. Watching Harvey and his band present his new album at the ICA was really inspiring and I came home after four days feeling like I’d spent a lifetime away (in a good way).
I recently read Alexander Leon’s substack On Glowing In The Dark, a beautiful piece of writing in which he states: “I haven't been busy, but I have been preoccupied. I have woken up every day with a head full of unanswered questions and have been trying to coax them out, to see what they reveal to me, if they're up for being answered.·” and I guess in a way that’s what February was about for me too and maybe that’s why it took me so long to write this newsletter. Sometimes being busy doesn’t make you feel like you are doing that much and I suppose the opposite is also true.
We flew back from London with my 91 year old granny and her best friend. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting ready for tour and doing some very exciting and fun bits of writing. I listen to my news podcast daily but try and keep a level head. I’ve been cooking and cuddling my loved ones. I hope you too have been able to take a minute, empty or filled to the brim, for yourself. Here are some things I’ve done/listened/watched/read etc:
SALPA’s underwater film.
My 91 year old granny Sue’s first short story.
I’m going on tour with my friends (ie opening for Rosie Lowe!) soon across the UK and Europe - find dates here.
This song by Harvey Causon.
Wonderful ❤️🦋