Where the streets don't have an end...

I don’t know where you begin trying to describe London. Every time I visit this crazy city, I feel like I’m somewhere new, starting to get to know it all over again. Each new suburb I see is like opening another door and letting more light in. Each new part I explore is like a new pair of eyes opening another window into the soul of this city. With friends and family in Ealing, Chiswick, Clapham, Brixton and many other parts, I visit frequently and so I’m getting more and more familiar with the place, getting my bearings a bit better each time. But no matter whereabouts I am – maybe even a place I’ve been to a hundred times before – I’m still always amazed by the things I notice that I never noticed before. The new things I discover each time, even when I’m sure I’ve finally grasped it. How does this place ever feel like home to people? Because you never really know it! It’s always exciting, it’s always new, you could never get bored! You could get to the point of feeling comfortable, but you would never feel like you’d run out of opportunities or that you’d seen and done all you possibly could.

There are people everywhere! So many lives! So many crazy lives, each with their own tale! The tubes, the buses, the cars, the trains, the black cabs, the winding roads, the long straight high streets, the bridges, the little greens dotted around here and there to add a dash of colour, the corner pubs, the coffee shops, the high-rise offices, the off-the-beaten-track studios, the grand theatres and restaurants, the tall white and grey houses all packed in together, the little flats above the take-outs and laundrettes... Every walk of life, every type of place, every kind of person, every story that could ever be told. They say New York is the city that never sleeps, but does London either?! These busy lives are on fire and nothing stops, nothing’s ending!

It didn’t take me long to write ‘Alive’. It started out in the spare bedroom at my aunt and uncle’s house, and finished in a coffee shop as I watched the London world whirl by. I think when you’re starting out on any career or journey, and life is before you looking dazzling and exciting, the idea of somewhere with endless opportunities and paths is irresistible. I can see why people are drawn like magnets to this city. Ironically I don’t actually live in London, but maybe that helps keep the magic alive…

It’s a big decision to work out what songs to put on your first ever EP, and especially to decide which to use as your main release. But I had a gut feeling about the song ‘Alive’ just as I did about London when I wrote it. Though that being said, I don’t specifically reference London in the song in the hope that anyone listening can apply it to whichever city gives them that butterfly and tingly fingers feeling!

So please take a listen, picture your exciting place, and I hope you all enjoy ‘Alive’!

 Jess xxx

Life is far too short to just be dreaming...

For me, ‘The Other Side’ is one of the tracks that gives ‘Alive EP’ a lift! When we were recording it in the studio, my aim was that the lyrics and the fun arrangement from the band would create a kind of feel-good, summertime vibe. The song is about a recent road trip with my family travelling up the West Coast through the state of California. But while we had the most incredible time on our trip, the song itself was not written at a great time in my life… 

No one likes a dead-end job. We’ve all been there. At the time, I was working a job that made me come home every day feeling drained, frustrated and demoralised. A few months into this job, my family was also hit with some devastating news. I think the sad reality is that every family in the country at some point ends up experiencing the dreaded C-word, and mine is no different.

I won’t share details, but it did really put things into perspective for me. It suddenly made me realise that time really is precious, and that you simply can’t afford to waste any of it being unhappy. It made me realise that there is no point in having dreams and ambitions if you never make any serious attempt to make them happen. And more than anything, it made me so grateful for my family and I realised that they mean more to me than anything else in the world ever could. 

My mum’s number-one dream for as long as she’s been my mum has been to do the Napa Valley Wine Train. So when my family’s world was shattered about two years ago, I could not get the idea of California out of my head. To me, after what had happened and the things it had made me realise, there was no way that we could sit back and continue plodding along. And it didn’t take my mum, her partner, and my sister much convincing either…   

And so seven months later, we did indeed “get up and run to the place with golden sun on the other side”, and so came about the song that I now have the pleasure of releasing as part of the ‘Alive EP’. 

I hope that despite this story behind the song, you still listen to ‘The Other Side’ and feel positive, as I definitely imagine it as a summer song. Rather than being a reminder of how easy it can be to slide into an unhappy routine and let the time slip by, it’s a reminder of the opportunities out there for us all! So please give it a listen, enjoy Kyle Watson’s slick guitar and AJ Nash’s smooth horn arrangement, and I hope it inspires you to go do something wonderful!  

Jess x