Chasing...

So yesterday evening (Saturday 16th March 2013) at approximately 8.14pm BBC Radio Manchester's Introducing show played a song called Out of my Dreams by new duo Chasing Ourselves...

Chasing Ourselves is my collaboration with instrumentalist/singer/songwriter Ian Gordon.

There's never been a more surreal moment, listening to myself on the radio. 

I've always been into music and have sung for as long as I can remember. My dad and grandfather were musicians and I've taken a great deal of influence from them.
Music was my favourite subject at School and I continued to study it through College and University, earning myself a music degree, but hadn't done anything with it since then (I left Uni in 2007).

Then in September 2012 I met the other member of the duo, Ian, and the collaboration progressed very quickly.

We have very different music backgrounds (mine is more classical, contemporary and pop whereas Ian is a self taught progressive rock lover) and though our tastes in music differ we both say we'll listen to anything once and both like a wide variety of genres.

It's this eclectic taste that's created such a unique sound.

My background as a performer and songwriter is limited, I was never very good at writing songs or lyrics and the only performances I'd ever done were School, College and University examinations (so you can imagine the audience I had was made up mainly of teachers, a handful of fellow students and my mum). And because of this the beginning of the collaboration was difficult for me.

The first time I recorded vocals I was a nervous wreck, couldn't get through a line without cracking, then struggled having to listen to myself while the track was edited (like many other people I absolutely hated the sound of my own voice). But I managed to overcome that with support from Ian who's a pro and been writing/performing since the age of about 12.
Now it's the best feeling - laying down the vocals and then editing and mixing them into a brand new track, excited for what the final edit will sound like.

We're completely independently produced and have worked on a mini album of 7 songs, in a mixture of styles, all having a Synthpop element.

In February we began uploading our tracks to BBC Introducing and were a first play for BBC Radio Manchester yesterday.

I'm now full of excitement as to where we could go in this roller coaster of an industry.

I'd love it if you'd check out our songs on YouTube or you can listen to the full album on BandCamp

Here's 'Fly' for you...

As always I'd love to hear your thoughts so please leave me a comment!