2011 and what I did with it

Oh my me! It’s 2012 and I’m still exhausted from what has been a fantastic, creative, eventful and year. The few days of rest in my hometown Berlin have flown by and here I am, back in London looking forward to sharing the highlights of 2011 with you:

Video killed the radio star!

I had the pleasure of shooting two music videos this year, one in Berlin and one in London. The first was to my song “Indie Electro Pop”. It was directed by a former school friend of mine, Nevin Wolf and starred my imaginary band, the cool cats. With fake moustaches, cartoon characters and air-synth-stylings, the video was a lot of fun to shoot (and hopefully to watch). The song is available as a free download here. The second music video involved a spy-cam, mobile phones, escape routes and the BBC… It was time to shoot a music video to my first single release “Buckle Up” and with a little help from the lovely Button Up production team we created a one-woman-flash-mob music video! You can read all about it here and watch it on Youtube.

Festivals – Finally!

Being part of a Festival line-up is fantastic – you get to play in front of a large crowd of people determined to have a good time, you get to see lots of other great live music and you get to use the backstage toilets! This year I had the pleasure of playing at Beach Break Live, Lounge on the Farm, Pure Festival as well as other smaller Festivals around the UK. Highlights included chatting to Mike Skinner and driving around in a golf cart at Lounge on the Farm, lots of free Whiskey and a great crowd at Pure Festival and the lovely reception I received at Welfest (looking forward to Welfest 2012 too!).

Set the Record

I had the chance to spend some time in an East London studio. We recorded a full band EP with five tracks on it, one of which was remixed and released as my first official single (Buckle Up), which you can buy now from Itunes and Amazon. You can buy the limited edition EP at my live shows or through the Zube Records website.

New York!

11 gigs in 10 days – I love being in New York and hope to spend more time there in the near future. What started out as small gut feeling (I suddenly started missing New York and thought I needed to go back) transpired to be one of the best decisions I’ve made all year. The show at the Living room was one of my favourite gigs of 2011, mainly because I was quite touched by how many of my new friends and acquaintances came along to support me. I hope to see you all again soon.

On the road

I went on my first proper tour last year – two in fact! I currently book and manage the tours myself. As it’s just me, I travel around the UK via bus and train rather than a van and have spent many hours zigzagging through the country (lots of blurry sheep!). The shows that stand out in memory are Mello Mello in Liverpool (lovely venue, really friendly people), The Kasbah in Coventry (which definitely feels like a home away from home by now!), Y Pentan in Mold (yes, Mold – much nicer than it sounds though) and The Odder Bar in Manchester (which seems like a great city I would very much like to visit again with a little more time!).

Radio and TV

In my recent music video, you see me getting kicked out of many a radio reception… Fortunately, I was asked to come and be interviewed by some of them as well, which made a nice change! Amongst them were interviews and sessions on BBC Merseyside (Billy Butler show), BBC Three Counties and Big City Radio Birmingham (who made “Buckle Up” their song of the week). You can also read some of my recent interviews with Artrocker, Readers Edition (German) and Altsounds online.

What’s next?

The year ended with a bang – I have silly-good news for you, which I can’t wait to share, but will have to for just another couple of weeks… What I can tell you is that the New Year is already proving to be a busy one: last week I played a live session on BBC Three Counties and had my first show in North-East London. I’m planning my next tour, which will include dates around the UK as well as mainland Europe. I would like to thank you for your continual interest, support and kindness.  We all work so hard and have so little time to reflect. As a collective resolution, I urge everybody to follow gut feelings and spend more time pursuing what you really want makes you happy. You are the designers of your life and can paint it with any colour you choose (in a Bob Ross kind of way, with a few strokes here and a little bush over there!). Endless possibilities may seem daunting, but if you know what you want, every choice you make will be the right one. Happy 2012 everybody!