The soulful songwriter recognised for her “art of weaving narratively compelling lyrics into a melodically cathartic soundscape” trained as a classical vocalist before honing her skills in jazz at Trinity Laban, the top-class, Greenwich-based conservatoire home to  leading jazz and jazz fusion talent including bands Ezra Collective and Kokoroko, musician and saxophonist, Nubya Garcia and vocalist, Cherise.

Camille spoke with Mxdwn about the inspiration for the song stating “This tune focuses on the transition from lovers to friends.… but with the addition of all the emotional baggage and painfully precious memories”. The track’s introspective lyrics are beautifully told with Rose’s clean and melancholy vocals, encapsulating happy memories of a lost relationship. This is further enhanced by the grooving rhythm section, deeply felt horn lines and lush, layered backing vocals.

Regarding how the song came about, Rose mentions that “the track was spontaneously recorded during a 7-piece band session and reworked in production, resulting in that warm, generous, more-ish sound.” This easy-going writing style seems to be a pattern for the South London songbird whose previous work has been described as a “mellifluously rich soundscape that flows with such ease and finesse”.

Hear the latest single on Spotify:

The artist explores nuances in jazz, soul, R&B, funk and blues and takes influence from huge musical icons such as Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone and Stevie Wonders. Once listening to the new single, it is clear to see the impression these classic vocalists have had on the up-and-coming singer.

After the release of her debut mini-EP “Raining in July” two years ago, the emerging singer has been featured on BBC Sounds, played at Priory Live Festival and performed as both band-leader and frontwoman at dynamic new community-based jazz venues such as MAP Studio Cafe and Avalon Cafe as well as within jazz ensembles and small bands as an improviser.

Watch Camille’s live session of “Raining in July” here:

Camille now performs regularly all over London hosting a weekly jazz residency on Saturday nights with guitarist Ed Coma at Cable Cafe, Oval. Other notable venues include Pasta Nostra, Old Street and BeBeMe, Mayfair. She speaks to Mxdwn about her experience with performing live: “I feel lucky that I can make people happy with my voice – get them to stop in the street, enter a bar or cafe, get them to smile, get them to kiss their partner or dance with their friends- and that’s such a blessing and validation for me and my work”. 

Lots more is on the way for this jazz songbird. You can buy Camille’s music on Bandcamp here.

The 29 year old Pennsylvania native has been rampantly releasing music since the winter of 2010. Back then he was making early demos and EP’s on the Bandcamp software that his parents new Apple computer afforded him whilst studying for his final years at Haverford High School. Now he’s a major cult figure in the US Indie scene, revered by fellow musicians and critics alike for his melodious and original compositions that vary in complexity throughout his discography. From simple 2 chord ballads, to all out key-changing tone modulating mysteries, the songwriter has built a career on a lack of predictability and deft touch for melody reminiscent of 90’s indie icon Eliot Smith. He is a huge shot in the arm for a scene often scrambling for fresh ideas and currency in the wake of an internet culture that values Tik Tok fast food over anything with a modicum of depth or intricacy. He is a rare exception to the rule in that he can live and thrive amongst such a culture without needing to abide by its rules. He doesn’t have a Tik Tok account and yet remains a relevant and a popular tastemaker amongst the internet kids that add his music to their videos daily.

Speaking recently about “Blessing” with Apple Music and Genius Lyrics he said: “I wrote this song early one morning when I couldn’t sleep. A few months later, I brought it up to my band and we recorded most of it live in upstate New York.” A somewhat un-expected origin story then, the song is a hardly a lullaby, but then perhaps it is in his world? All we know, is it’s best to expect the unexpected when it comes to Alex G.

There are currently no UK tour dates booked for Alex G, but you can find them here first when they are announced.

Bricusse’s passing was confirmed yesterday by actress and close friend Joan Collins, who shared a heartfelt tribute via Instagram, stating; “One of the giant songwriters of our time, writer of #candyman #goldfinger amongst so many other hits, and my great friend Leslie Bricusse has sadly died today.” Other celebrities and musicians have also paid homage to Bricusse, such as Nancy Sinatra and David Walliams.

My heart is aching today because one of the loves of my life is gone. Leslie Bricusse was my friend for more than fifty years – years filled with warm embraces, a strong shoulder & a guiding hand.
Sending love to Evie, Adam & all of their friends tonight. May God treat him well.

— Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) October 19, 2021

‘A fond farewell to the my friend the legendary songwriter Leslie Bricusse. He wrote some of the most famous songs of the 20th Century – Goldfinger, Feeling Good, You Only Live Twice, Pure Imagination, The Candy Man, Talk to the Animals, My Kind of Girl, What Kind of Fool Am I?’ pic.twitter.com/JqDSjK5M45

— David Walliams HQ (@davidwalliams) October 19, 2021

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Bricusse worked with actor and songwriter Anthony Newley, which led to a series of successful collaborative efforts, including a myriad of West End shows and some films; most famously the 1971 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score. Bricusse would go on to collaborate with giants of the composing world such as John Williams, with the first film they worked on together being “A Guide for the Married Man” (1967). Later on, he would he contribute songs to the soundtracks for Home Alone (1990), Hook (1991), and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001).

Bricusse’s best-known works are the songs he composed for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964) and You Only Live Twice (1967). Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory famously features the songs “The Candy Man” and “Pure Imagination”, the former of these attaining a gold certification. The iconic theme to You Only Live Twice has been covered over and over since its release in 1967, by the likes of artists such as Björk, Coldplay, Shirley Bassey and Robbie Williams.

Bricusse has attained a slew of academy awards since the beginning of his career, the first being Best Original Song for his work on 1968’s Doctor Dolittle. In 1982, he would secure another win for Best Adaptation and Original Song Score for Victor/Victoria. Bricusse’s services to the film and theatre industry also led to him to receive an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II, on the 29^th October 2001.

In 2013, a show honouring the work of Bricusse and Newley entitled Pure Imagination: The World of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse was opened at the Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, California, and would later go overseas to the St. James Theatre in London.

He then explained that performances from the band will not be conventional and instead, he’ll rent a place which he’ll use to display his artwork which he created over lockdown and at night, he plans to host and DJ old school raves. He said during the live feed, “I’m gonna do this thing with my friends. Form a band and what I’m gonna do is rent a space, put my art in there. During the day it’ll be a gallery. Then at night I shall be DJing and it will be a musical venue, something the old folks will call a rave.”

He continued by saying, “I’ll be on the espressos. Oh yes I will. Quadruple espresso. Doing it old school. I’m very, very excited about this. I want to do it in Berlin. I also want to do it in Tokyo. I wanna do it in several places. Be fun won’t it? It’s one of them things, it’s a passion project. If some thing hap-pens then great, if not, I’ve just had fun.”

As well as keeping busy with his artwork over lockdown,  Robbie has been songwriting and has created more than 50 songs during the period. The Sun newspaper reported that back in June, “he confirmed he had been writing music with his former bandmate Gary via Zoom.” During lockdown back in May, Robbie re-joined his former Take That bandmates, for a one off virtual charity gig.

He revealed his latest news just weeks after his surprise release of his latest Christmas song, “Can’t Stop Christmas,” which is a light hearted, cheeky song which has references to the measures we’ve all faced over the past 12 months due to the pandemic. Robbie mimics zoom, facetime, hand sanitizer and the two metre social distancing rule in his latest track with a line which is written in The Daily Mail, “‘Santa’s on his sleigh, but now he’s two metres away.”

The song begins, “Oh what a miserable year, but what a time to be alive. Sadly some friends disappeared , It’s never been like this before, It feels like we’re at war. So I wonder who’s gonna decide, if we can do the Auld Lang Syne. I wish that I could do what I like, with this family of mine We’re going out of our minds.” Although the unprecedented 2020 in nearly at an end, it seems that Robbie has used his time over lockdown wisely with new creations and exciting plans for future projects for 2021.

Speculation swarmed that William Bowery was a pseudonym because on Swift’s Instagram he was the only name left untagged, Swift is also known for using fake names for song-writing credits. Fans suspected it might be another musician such as Harry Styles, however, today it was revealed on the Disney + Documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions that William Bowery is actually actor and Swift’s long time boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.

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A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

The announcement did not come as a shock to die-hard fans considering there were hints that it could be Alwyn. William is the name of his grandfather who was a successful composer and Bowery Hotel was the place the couple first met, i.e. William Bowery. However, Alwyn’s musicianship was widely unknown.

Alwyn is a pianist and has been credited as writing the piano piece for the track Exile. The song is a duet that features Bon Iver, however it was revealed in the documentary that Alwyn was the original singer.

Alwyn is credited as co-writer on two Folklore tracks, Exile and Betty. Exile has been nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2021 Grammy Awards. Folklore has been nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album as well. Exile will be Alwyn’s first co-written song to earn him a Grammy nomination.

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A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

On the topic of Alwyn’s musicianship, Swift noted in the documentary that ‘Joe plays piano beautifully and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things.’ Swift said she had the idea to collaborate with her boyfriend when she heard him singing her song Betty, saying that if it weren’t for quarantine she would never have had the idea.

Swift’s Alwyn reveal and new documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Sessions is available today on Disney + for streaming. Swift’s album Folklore is available on all streaming platforms today.

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A post shared by Joe Alwyn (@joe.alwyn)

MNEK told the PA News Agency about working with Little Mix, “In this instance the girls have really been in the driver’s seat and so everything on this album as far as – there is an A&R at RCA – but it’s now going through them. Because by album six they want to have a stronger say at how these songs end up. It’s been very that, it’s been them steering the wheel this time.” – Yahoo News

The Grammy nominated South Londoner who has also recently released the dance track, ‘More Than Words,’ with Sleepwalkr talked about the affect lockdown has had on the album saying,

“Literally the day I was supposed to go into the studio with the girls to do the last bits of recording I had to cancel a session because of lockdown things. But otherwise, doing the finishing touches of the album has been cool and has been great. I love working with the girls and I am all for them being the best that they can be and applying themselves whenever they come to the studio.” -Evening Express

Not only has MNEK worked on the recent chart topping dance hit with Joel Corry, ‘Head in my Heart,’ but also the successful track, ‘More Than Words,’ with Sleepwalkr’s which gained more than 500,000 Spotify streams in the first week. The music video shot by Michael Baldwin, features a deaf dance troupe’s expressive routine.

When asked about the video he said that he, “I really hope that people watch the video and know what we were trying to do with it. Hopefully it elevates the song to where it needs to be. It was actually really interesting to see dancing from that perspective and to see how they would take in information on how to improve their performances. The director would say something and then it would be translated to sign language so they could know it. That was an interesting process to watch.”- Evening Express

He praises the girl band’s recent tv talent show to Yahoo News saying, “I am glad that this show is happening. I like that the public get to see what we, as collaborators of theirs, get to see their personalities and just their bluntness, their humour, their goofiness. All of their best qualities as people are being shown on this show.” 

Their is no doubt that ‘Little Mix’s’ next album will be a huge hit following their recent successful single releases as, ‘Holiday,’ ‘Break Up Song’ and their current release, ‘Not a Pop Song.’ There is no doubt their new album is set to be another chart topping hit.

With lyrics as thoughtful as “Gotta have the time of our lives/All the fucking time, yeah/Don’t we?”, the pair have created an incredibly relatable song which describes the way people on social media are shown to be living a seemingly perfectly life, while that is usually not the case. ‘Empty Love’ is clearly resonating amongst fans as it has gained 300,000 streams on Spotify, along with 100,000 views on the music video.

GRACEY’s homemade music video is out on YouTube now, and was created in three days by the artist along with her collaborator, Ruel, with help from Facebook and Instagram. In the video, the pair are in their bedrooms alone, posing for their cameras and wasting time online.

Written by GRACEY and songwriter-producer Sam De Jong, ‘Empty Love’ is a synth-based pop track with layered vocals and simple yet effective production. The collaboration was teased on Instagram and Twitter with short snippets of lyrics such as “Do you ever get tired of pretending to be yourself?” which gained thousands of likes from followers.

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Do you ever get tired of pretending to be yourself? #EmptyLoveOUTFRIDAY

A post shared by GRACEY (@gracey) on May 20, 2020 at 2:25pm PDT

This comes as the third single from GRACEY in 2020, after ‘Alone In My Room (Gone)’ and ‘Don’t Need Love‘ with 220 KID. The latter has reached 12 million streams since its release in February and recently made it to number 20 in the Official UK Charts. For Ruel, this is the second release of the year, following the collaborative ‘Down For You’ with Cosmo’s Midnight. Both singers joined on Instagram Live to announce the release last week on 20th May, exclaiming “I’m so excited, honestly, this is so mad”. The pair discussed how ‘Empty Love’ came to be, their experience working together, and more. GRACEY opened up to her followers, saying “I wrote it after having my voice operated on and I was silent for three months which you can’t really imagine – that sucked. But, I felt like during that time I was on my phone, like, non-stop being a big mess and I was just relying on everyone else’s opinions.”

 

 

 

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  SO EXCITED FOR FRIDAY (let’s all ignore my awful Technology skills trying to work insta live) @oneruel   A post shared by GRACEY (@gracey) on May 19, 2020 at 4:13am PDT

At age 21, GRACEY has already been working in the music industry for 5 years. When she was 16, she was brought into songwriting and production team Xenomania and spent a few years writing for other artists. Now, GRACEY feels that her emotional and personal songs should be performed herself, not given away. Her first single, ‘Different Things’ was put out in March 2019, and her phenomenal songwriting has captivated fans.

Ruel was discovered by Grammy Award-winning producer M-Phazes in 2015, and released his debut single ‘Golden Years’ in 2017. He has since supported Khalid and Shawn Mendes on tour and put out numerous singles and EPs, which have gained millions of streams.