00:12I first started playing the violin when I was six and my parents had a huge record collection and
00:18it was like full of, there was a lot of Italian opera and Miracalas and then the Stones and the
00:25Beatles. So I really started listening to lots of varied music when I was even a kid and then I
00:31started playing the guitar when I was eight and I just sort of taught myself and tried to play along
00:36to Jimi Hendrix records. Listening to singers that you love really gives you, you know, it's all there, all the
00:43technique, all the, just the feeling that you want to put in the music, you can learn so much and
00:49I love singers like Edith Piaf and Nina Simone because they give so much of themselves and they're so emotional
00:55and they're
00:55singing and that's quite rare to find these days. I think, I mean, for me, the only artist that really,
01:00really does it in that way is Antonina Johnson's. It's just a kind of surrendering yourself to your music. It's
01:08kind of, it seems like it's almost gone out of fashion, but I personally really love it.
01:17I came to singing quite late. It was about five years ago. I just kind of made a decision. I
01:22was going to get over my fear of singing because I was always thinking it must be so amazing to
01:27express yourself with your voice, but I'm quite a quiet person. I didn't think I could do it.
01:33But I just sort of locked myself away and just listened to Maria Callas and Nina Simone and just really
01:38tried to figure out what it was about the way that they sang that I loved so much and over
01:44time I kind of found my voice.
01:46Well, I had always had a very strong sense as a guitarist for the kind of music I wanted to
01:52make and as a songwriter and as a singer I just had to find the best place for my voice
01:58and I'd say I'm probably actually a soprano.
02:01I sing, I have quite a high range but I sing very low because I really like the richness that
02:09that gives to my voice.
02:10I mean I really love to sort of tell stories through music. I love the music to tell the story
02:14as much as the lyrics do and I kind of like to create whole atmospheres that the songs can inhabit
02:19almost like they're kind of, each song is like a film in itself.
02:24What you don't say is, and what you don't play is just as important. It's like negative space is just
02:30as important as, you know, what's actually there and it tells you so much and I think it's nice to
02:36leave some things unsaid and I mean for me as a guitar player it's like every single note has to
02:42be really important and that means leaving space between notes.
02:46Because it creates tension and mystery and I love all that stuff. I love doing it.
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