How did you get involved in music at all, and then start to pursue it outside of your studies?

Music was always this double thing. To get in somewhere like Cambridge, you always have to be doing extra stuff at school, and when you get here you’re expected to do choirs and orchestras and everything else outside of your degree. I was about 11 or 12 when I started writing songs, and from then on it wasn’t really anything I thought about: it was just something I did. I started playing the violin when I was five, and from then until about 10 or 11 it was all classical, and then I discovered pop music. I found Pink Floyd: that was my way in, listening to ‘The Wall’ on repeat! It’s not the most traditional way of getting into music here. I don’t think of it as a career path so much as just something I do in my free time. 

Does studying music help your songwriting?

To a certain extent I would be writing songs no matter what I was studying, but there are aspects of it where I think ‘ah, this would feed in nicely.’ So, there was a part of the course which talked about the Romantic fragment, where with a song cycle in classical music you can have certain songs that fit into a larger arc and work really well as a larger whole, but are also approachable as a single unit. So for me, and because I love Pink Floyd, an album should really aim for that. 

Do you think the listener can hear that, or is it more indirect?

I don’t think they have to, but if someone were to go and look for it they should be able to find it. I don’t think music needs to be all that complex, but I like to think that it can be if you want it to be. 

Could you describe your music?

I don’t really know how! I would say it’s alternative for lack of a better descriptive word. It’s kind of folk-infused, electronic singer-songwriter-ish!

Who else would you cite as influences?

Joni Mitchell and James Blake. With Joni Mitchell, it’s her emotion, and they way she conveys it through her lyrics. As for James Blake it’s certainly his musical approach, his recording techniques, the way he uses glitchy effects. There’s so much to learn from so many different people – I love Bon Iver, and I used to be really influenced by people like Tom Odell and Gabrielle Aplin. There are also so many classical composers who feed in: when I was applying to university it was Max Richter, but at the moment I’m more into Takemitsu. You can draw influences from so many places – I’m currently writing a song based on a poem that’s based on a painting I once saw in a library – the poem hasn’t been released, but I’m in contact with the poet, Alison Hayek, which is very exciting.

What do you make of the shift away from purchasing music to streaming?

As a consumer of music, I love it. As an artist I hate it! I love that fact that Taylor Swift said listening to music for free is not a right. I’ve only put one album up on Spotify, which I’ve since taken down, but the amount of money you get per play is horrific; it’s not a way to sustain a life. Something I’ve been wondering about when I release my album is whether to put it on Spotify, because of course more people will listen to it, but I need to break even!

Have you got an upcoming plans?

I’m planning to release my debut album at the beginning of next year; I don’t yet have a release date but my single ‘Real Fear’, which is on my SoundCloud, is going to be featured and I’m planning to release another single, called ‘Half/Answers’ in the next few weeks.