Every year I write a retrospective, reflecting on the achievements and lessons of the previous year (you can read my old ones on my blog here). 2022 was one of the biggest and most expansive years of my life, where I finally achieved a lifelong dream of releasing an album, along with other huge achievements such as: releasing my first music videos, getting back into performing live, performing with a backing track for the first time, and collaborating with some of my favourite musicians. I feel very lucky, and proud.
There’s a lot to reflect on, but before we start, I have a big announcement to share! So, settle down with a cuppa, and let’s get into it.
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I’m delighted to share that I’ll be going on a tour of the UK in spring 2023, with dates in Cardiff, Bristol, London, Guernsey, Swansea, and Newport! Further details on the Bristol and Guernsey dates to follow soon.
This is only my second ever tour, and I’m very excited to be performing in some amazing venues across the UK. I’ll be performing songs from the album, and my album merch will be on sale. Ticket info can be found here – if you live in any of these cities, I’d love to see you there.
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2022 IN REVIEW
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2022 has been an expansive and formative year, where I worked harder than I ever have in my life to achieve my goal of releasing my debut album. I feel like I’ve really levelled up as a musician in the last 12 months; I’m very proud of all I’ve achieved, and very grateful for the support of my friends, fans, and collaborators!
I’m still figuring out exactly what kind of musician I want to be, and trying to find a good balance between the stuff that energises me and the stuff that drains me, but the important thing is that I finally feel like I’m on the right path. With every passing year, I grow more into myself. There is no prime of life – it just keeps getting better.
This year was also emotionally challenging – growth is uncomfortable, learning as an adult is frustrating, turning down party invitations to spend your evenings doing admin is tough, and entering a callous, broken music industry for the first time is painful. I learned a lot about my needs, my boundaries, and my insecurities that I thought I’d recovered from (turns out there’s a lot of healing left to do). Behind every big achievement, there was a lot of fear and exhaustion. Although that has obviously been very painful, it’s also given me a map of where the sore points lie, so I can heal more fully, and go into album 2 better equipped with the tools to take care of myself as part of the process. Recovery and resilience is going to be a big focus in 2023, and I hope that songwriting will be a central part of that.
I try not to focus on the negatives too much though; I try to focus on the amazing things that happened – and there’s so much to celebrate!
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JANUARY
I filmed the music video for my first single ‘Frustrations’ with my videographer Scott Chalmers – my first time making a music video! It felt pretty scary and vulnerable at first, but I had an amazing time once I relaxed into it. In January I also did a co-write with my friend Rachel Walker Mason, and started scouting for woodland locations for the ‘Fire Song’ video shoot.
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FEBRUARY
In Feb I co-wrote a song about misogyny in the music industry called ‘Where it Hurts’ with Mishkin Fitzgerald, Hana Piranha, and Georgia Train (3 amazing women whose music I absolutely love). Listen to the song here.
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MARCH
I filmed the music videos for ‘Fire Song’ and ‘Monday Eyes’ – ‘Fire Song’ was a physically challenging shoot, in the woods in 5 degree weather, but so worth it for the amazing video that Scott produced.
On International Women’s Day we released ‘Where It Hurts’, and raised over £350 for the charity Refugee Women.
I also went on holiday with a group of friends to Disneyland Paris, and it was genuinely one of the best holidays of my life – a week of nonsense and fun with some of my favourite humans.
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APRIL
I released my first single ‘Frustrations’, and released the music video 2 weeks later! This was a huge milestone for me – my first professionally recorded single, and my first time doing PR, press and radio plugging, with help from Mondaay Media and Super Scurry.
At the end of April I went on a spontaneous mini-break to Copenhagen to get some downtime. Copenhagen is a beautiful city, and among other things allowed me to continue indulging my love of theme parks by spending a full day in Tivoli, the world’s 3rd oldest theme park.
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MAY
I released my second single ‘Fire Song’ at the end of May – this was my favourite single of the three, and I was exceptionally proud of how the song evolved from the demo version.
I performed with Birdeatsbaby for the first time in Hangar 18 in Swansea – this was actually my first time seeing the full band perform live, and they completely blew the roof off. Such a brilliant night. This month I also went to my first stadium gig, where I saw My Chemical Romance live in Milton Keynes.
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JUNE
I released the ‘Fire Song’ music video in June. I was a little disappointed that this single and music video didn’t perform better, and I had a bad experience with a new PR company who charged me a fortune for a poor service.
I went to three amazing gigs this month: first was Mitski in the Cardiff Great Hall (my favourite gig of the year, and my 3rd favourite gig I’ve ever been to!), then Alanis Morissette in the O2, then Rammstein in the Cardiff stadium (my first time seeing them, and they were absolutely wild, I loved every minute).
In June I also started a new day job in a brand new industry. It’s been a lot to get my head around, but I’m getting there.
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JULY
In July I started working with my mentor Georgia Train, who is an incredibly talented singer-songwriter and vocal coach. Together we’ve been working on my album release, and doing some vocal coaching. This was my first time doing professional vocal coaching, and although we only managed to squeeze a few sessions in, I’ve already learned so much and can feel my singing voice strengthening every week.
My mental health crashed badly this month (triggered by the stress of releasing my 2nd single, alongside other things), so I tried to leave a longer gap between releasing ‘Fire Song’ and ‘Monday Eyes’ to give myself some breathing space. One of the things I was most proud of this month was climbing Pen Y Fan for the first time, and watching the sun set from the summit.
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AUGUST
I released my third single ‘Monday Eyes’ and released the music video 2 weeks later. This was my favourite music video of the three, it turned out even better than I could have imagined.
I performed a few gigs in Swansea and Cardiff this month, including at the Swansea air show, and at the Cardiff Big Queer Picnic, which is a lovely community LGBT event that I’m happy to support every year.
In August I also ran my first Tough Mudder, and was particularly proud to complete the Funky Monkey obstacle (check it out here)!
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SEPTEMBER
For my birthday I had a week roadtripping across the UK. Highlights included: visiting Yorkminster, climbing Snowdon for the first time, caving inside old slate mines in Snowdonia, and dressing up as a space pirate for Secret Cinema’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ immersive event.
The best part was seeing Georgia Train’s album launch show in Brighton, supported by HVIRESS (Mishkin and Hana’s witch-hop band). It was an amazing night of music, and so lovely to catch up with my Brighton music pals.
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OCTOBER
I had a great time performing at The Nest Studios’ official opening party in Brighton, alongside Mishkin, Hana and Georgia, where we also got to perform our co-written song together.
There was a lot of preparation for the show and album release behind the scenes, including creating merch (my first time having merch!), contacting press outlets (I did my own PR this time, fuck paying over a grand for a PR campaign), rehearsing, and organising the show, including designing some cocktails themed around my songs with Scott from Elysium Bar (pictured)!
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NOVEMBER
A huge month! I finally released the album, and threw a big album launch party in Elysium, with my amazing support acts Ophelia Lark and Foxxglove. We had merch, custom cocktails, a guest photobooth, and a little after-party once the live music was over. It was an amazing night, and I was chuffed with the huge turnout.
This month I also played 3 great shows that were among my faves of the year: an in-store performance and album signing at Swansea Bay Records, the Swansea Fringe festival, and Acapela Studios in Cardiff supporting Sea Fever.
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DECEMBER
In the aftermath of the release I did a few interviews to talk about the album, including Welsh Connections and GTFM Radio. I also went on a beautiful holiday to Vienna where I visited the Christmas markets, the classical music museums, and saw a live performance of Mozart’s Requiem in St Stephen’s Cathedral. It was magical (and very very cold).
The rest of the month has been focused on rest, relaxation, and reconnecting with loved ones. It’s been a busy year, and I’ve enjoyed stepping back and focusing on self-care for a while.
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In 2023, what I really want is to…
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Choose, accept, and trust myself and my vision. Stop seeking acceptance or approval from others, especially from gatekeepers in my industry whose tastes don’t even align with my own. Continue regardless, and tell my own story for those who want to hear it (even if that’s only a small handful of people).
Release the hyper-critical voice in my head that judges myself more harshly than any critic ever could.
Befriend my difficult, painful emotions: disappointment, overwhelm, tiredness, jealousy, self-doubt, fear, anxiety. Embrace the painful stuff as the consequence of an open and passionate heart.
Open my heart, my mind, my voice. Be driven by my love of love, and love for myself, however tentative. As Jeanette Winterson put it, have “a salmon-like determination to swim upstream, however choppy upstream is, because this is your stream…”
Learn to love the process, with no expectation of being rewarded in any way. Building a music career is a Sisyphean task – you can work impossibly hard and still not get what you want, but you dust yourself off and try again. Some things are futile, but they’re still worth doing. I want to find the joy in pushing the boulder back up the mountain every day. (my song Monday Eyes is all about trying to come to terms with that. I’m still learning from my own songs, even after they’ve been written)
2022 was a year of achievement, and while in 2023 I will keep making and releasing music, I am making a commitment to slowing down, and doing important inner work. It’s about healing in so many ways.
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PLAYLIST: FAVOURITE SONGS OF 2022
I made a playlist of 40 of my favourite tunes of 2022 (& a few of my own in there too) – featuring some of the amazing artists that I worked with on the album, & loads more. Shout out to all the artists who’ve released fantastic music this year!
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A song for the new year…
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Every New Year’s, I listen to the song ‘New Year’ by Regina Spektor – it’s a beautiful song about quietly celebrating the old year, and hoping looking forward to what the new year will bring. There’s always something to celebrate about each passing year, even if it’s just that we survived it.
“She’s just glad she gets to be around to see another spring come to this town”
What was there to celebrate in your 2022, and what are you looking forward to in 2023?
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