2024 and what I did with it – The Piano Player of Budapest, The Royal Albert Hall and Jools Holland

I’m feeling very sentimental. I mean, more than usual. This might be partly due to the fact that I, like most of us, am currently getting over the flu and it’s easy to be a little sensitive when physically run down. But it’s also because I’m scrolling through the archives on my website and realising that I have been writing and sharing end-of-year recaps for fifteen years now. This means I’ve documented my life in music almost in its entirety and, much like height markings on a wall, these blog posts prove that I have in fact come a hell of a long way. 

Fifteen years ago I had just started – I had moved to a new country on my own. I had no support, no contacts, no roadmap…just a stupid amount of conviction. Luckily, that supply has not run dry and I am still here, looking back on what has been a pretty mind-blowing year. You know, that first blog post had some pretty good moments in it too! It was the year I shared my very first single (well, it wasn’t a real single release, because I didn’t know how that worked), but I did film my first music video (for free, with a talented film student in Berlin) and that song got me my very first national radio play (thank you Tom Robinson!). But now, let’s keep up the tradition and dive into 2024 and what I did with it.

Perhaps a tiny qualifier before we jump in: It is really hard being an independent artist. Throughout the past year, there was plenty of shade to offset the bright moments highlighted in this post. So if you’re an artist (or anyone really) reading this thinking “Well isn’t she just a ray of sunshine!”, just know that this is of course not the full story – it never is online, is it? However, I do think it’s all the more important to celebrate your successes and I am incredibly proud of everything I’ve achieved this past year, despite ongoing long covid struggles on top of the general independent artist travails. So here we go:

WINTER – A Full Circle Moment & Recording My EP

This past year was all about my book, The Piano Player of Budapest. Getting a book deal was such a wild and wonderful plot twist and, as the year began, I was so excited to see how it would all unfold.

Early January isn’t usually the time of year I’d recommend people visit Berlin. It’s cold. Like, Siberian winds over flatlands kind of cold. However, producer Simon Tong, pianist Xenia Pestova Bennett and I had a pretty great reason to go: we were awarded Arts Council Funding to record an album bringing my grandfather’s music back to life to accompany my book and in Berlin we could re-record some of his pieces on his original piano. It felt surreal marrying up my past and present life by turning my childhood home into a recording studio, but it came with real perks such as having my mum cook us all a family dinner (she made us an Hungarian dish called Paprikas Krumpli to honour the occasion!) and wintery walks in the woods.  

Hearing Xenia perform my grandfather’s compositions for the first time was such a profound moment. I don’t think I will ever forget how I felt when she first sat down and started to play An Old Mill Is Dreaming on the piano it had been composed on. It was such a full circle moment and I was overjoyed to have piano and song reunited after all these years. I really can’t thank everyone involved (Simon, Xenia, Ed Harcourt, Sally Herbert, Meg Ella, Basia Bartz, Kris Harris) enough for making this album with me and for making it as special as it is. I know Stephen would be ecstatic to have his beautiful music out in the world again.

And at the end of the first month on 2024, my book was listed in BBC Culture’s Most Anticipated Books of the Year list, along side Salman Rushdie and Kathleen Hannah…and that feels just as surreal now as it did then.

• 

• 

In February, I recorded my EP with Ed Harcourt in his Wolf Cabin studios! Let me tell you, there’s nothing like budget restraints to make you work efficiently and we certainly got a lot of work done in the tiny time window we had. I really love how unabashedly creative Ed is and love that we got to collaborate so much this year. I think my favourite part of the recording project was playing his beautiful 100 year old Steinway piano (clearly aging instruments was a bit of a theme this year!) and singing together with Ed on ‘Relentless’.

In March I took my new song showcase on the road with a trilogy of intimate shows in Manchester, Brighton and London. Time has such bizarre elasticity – I had to double check that those shows actually took place last year, because contrary to recording my EP or travelling to Berlin, these shows somehow feel like they happened years ago. I know I’m not supposed to pick favourites, but I think Manchester took the crown with the audience bringing a real Saturday night energy to a small, seated venue on a Sunday. My highlights were performing together with my special guests: in Manchester, I performed Hearts Like Mine with Thom Morecroft, a beautiful song he wrote together with my dad; and in Brighton I performed a song I wrote together with the brilliant Chris Thorpe-Tracey (you know, the artist formerly known as Chris T-T).

SPRING – Recording my Audiobook and BBC Radio 3

In April I got to record my audiobook and I genuinely feel I’ve been training for it my whole life! When I was very little my dad would read to me (mostly books he loved when he was a child, so Just William, Famous Five and other classics from a bygone era) and when I was a little older, I’d read books to him. And so, I felt like getting to record an actual audiobook (never mind one that I wrote about my family) felt both surreal and like something that was always meant to happen. It wasn’t easy reading the whole thing out loud (emotionally and practically), but I absolutely loved every second of it, even the hard ones. Thank you to the wonderful producer for making it a great experience. I’ll have to write another book just so I get to do that bit again…

All the while, the anticipation was increasing with the book and album release coming up. Perhaps the best moment was receiving the first radio play for the Stephen de Bastion album. The opening track, In a Small Cocktail Bar, was played by Hannah Peel on her BBC Radio 3 show Night Tracks. I cannot tell you how surreal and magical it felt to hear my grandfather’s playing and his voice emanating from the radio. To make it even more special, Night Tracks is my aunt Julie’s all time favourite radio show (yes she is that cool) and she was listening with me in real time. 

• 

SUMMER – The Royal Albert Hall and all the sparkle (ITV News, The Guardian, BBC News and more) 

Well. What can I say. 2024 will first and foremost forever be the year I got to hold my book and album launch at the Royal Albert Hall. This was and is a total dream come true and I don’t know how I can put into words what a special moment this was! With family and friends travelling to be there, it kind of felt like I was getting married (I mean, I was wearing a sparkling ivory dress). The Elgar room was full and looked so grand. It was so special and I’m glad I was able to enjoy it and soak it all up while it was happening. It was incredible to have the brilliant Fiona Sturges interview me for the first part of the event, I simply could not have asked for a better interviewer. And then, taking to the stage and performing my grandfather’s music together with Simon Tong, Xenia Pestova, Ed Harcourt and a string section was just the biggest joy. It was the first time his music was performed in public for over 70 years and the significance of this was palpable to everyone in the room.

• 

What followed was a flurry of amazing press coverage and opportunities – It was a real honour to be asked to write a piece for The Observer (which now lives on the Guardian website) all about the book and accompanying album. I’m super grateful for all the press the book and album received (Mail on Sunday, BBC News, Record Collector, Jewish Chronicle and The Times Literary Supplement to name a few!) and getting more radio play for Stephen felt very special (Sleep Sleep Little Boy was played on BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified and Remember Me was played on Germany’s Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Ireland’s RTE Radio 1).

Perhaps the most bizarre moment was when ITV News called to ask if they could film a segment in my flat about my grandfather’s story and his music (turns out there’s nothing like a national news crew coming over to motivate a deep clean!). I was (and am) just so touched that Stephen’s story garnered so much interest and here’s a big thank you to Sam Holder for taking on the story. Performing a song on ITV’s Ten O’ Clock News was certainly not something I had on my bingo card. 

Speaking and performing at Literary Festivals this year was another definite highlight. It’s been fascinating diving into that world and I hope there’ll be more of that to come in the future. I loved spending time with family over in Cork after performing at West Cork Literary Festival (shout out to the freshest oysters I’ve ever tasted!) and bringing Stephen’s story back to his elected home for Stratford Literature Festival was another meaningful full-circle moment.

Throughout the summer (and still!) it was just so exciting to walk into bookshops, particularly Waterstones, and see my book in the ‘New & Notable’ section. Here’s a very big thank you to Waterstones for getting behind the book and for being so supportive. In July, The Piano Player of Budapest was published in the US thanks to Pegasus Books – hopefully I’ll be able to see it in a Barnes & Noble in person one day soon! And speaking of exciting, I really couldn’t believe it when, to top it all off, The Piano Player of Budapest was Audiobook of the week in the Guardian (thank you!).

By far the most touching though was receiving messages from you and from perfect strangers about how the book was affected them – it was amazing to hear from so many people with a similar family backgrounds and pretty incredible to get such heartfelt feedback from people in America, Hungary, South Africa, Australia… I’m so glad that Stephen’s story continues to resonate and I am extremely proud that I managed to write it up in a way that has moved people.

• 

• 

AUTUMN – JOOLS HOLLAND, and EP launch and a tour

In the autumn I finally got to release my Ultraviolet EP and go on tour in support of it. Out of my headline shows, my sold out show in Liverpool was my absolutely highlight (not even sorry to pick a fav this time…Liverpool, you were boss!) I really couldn’t believe that there were people in the audience singing every word of the brand new songs – that felt very special. I know we are still a small gang, but you are DEDICATED and I absolutely love it. Here’s a special thank you to those of you who travelled a lot to come to multiple shows of mine this year, I really appreciate it.

Here’s also a thank you to Line of Best Fit, John Kennedy and Chris Hawkins for supporting the EP, it was pretty exciting to have new music (outside of the Stephen project) out and back on the airwaves.

Speaking of airwaves, I should also mention that I was invited to be a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Antisocial back in October as well to represent artists and give an honest POV of how hard a job it can be. While this is probably Radio 4’s most click bait-y show, it was a real thrill to get to do it. Firstly, I’d happily fight Chappell Roan’s corner any day, but also, BBC Radio 4 was just another one of those milestones for me. My dad was always listening to either BBC Radio 4 or BBC World Service, so it was really nice thing for me to get to do.

Another live highlight for me was getting to open for Ed Harcourt in Hamburg and Birmingham. I loved sharing the stage (singing a duet with him in his set was so fun) and absolutely loved watching Ed’s show (if you’ve not seen him live, you definitely should).

• 

• 

• 

• 

Ok, so honestly writing up this year’s highlights is beginning to feel like an embarrassment of riches: I don’t think anyone has replied to an email quicker in the history of emails as I did when I received notification that there had been a cancellation and would I be interested and available to come onto Jools Holland’s BBC Radio 3 show as a guest. I don’t tend to talk about my ambitions and goals out loud, but I think you will probably have guessed that meeting Jools Holland was always right up there. It was all the more special that I got to talk to him about my grandfather’s music. Jools was so welcoming and so interested in my grandfather’s story – we quickly bonded over pianos, their stoicism and magic they can hold. Meeting him and just being in that studio that so many of my heroes have been in was so special and I’m so grateful I got to have that experience.

And I can’t really think of a better way to end the year and this post, so I’ll wrap up this mammoth end of year review now (even though it didn’t end there – I also got to do our annual Beatles charity gig and this year we raised £500 for refugee charity Choose Love and play some more shows in Germany and the UK). If you’ve made it through the whole thing, thank you for reading and thank you for being a part of it all. Here’s to the next one, I’m excited for it! Although 2025 hasn’t exactly started with a bang…I’m recovering from the flu that absolutely everybody seems to have at the moment, hence posting this a bit late on January 13th! So here’s wishing you a Happy New Year, here’s hoping we all stay fit, healthy and happy – and hopefully there’ll be a few more sparkly moments and opportunities for fancy frocks in 2025.