Music for Mindfulness: Alice Phoebe Lou

 by Daisy Sissons

Welcome to the twenty seventh podcast of music for mindfulness. In this series, we will be trying to choose music to help soothe the soul and stimulate the mind in these times of trouble. All tracks and albums featured will be added to the PGS Music for Mindfulness playlists on Spotify and Apple Music: please click on the accompanying links for further information. The following is a transcript of Daisy’s podcast (which can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/mr-g-hemmings/pgs-music-for-mindfulness-episode-27 )

Alice Phoebe Lou at Rudolstadt-Festival 2019

Hi guys, it's Daisy here from Year 12 and I thought I would just talk to you a little bit about a song that makes me feel mindful. So the song that I've chosen to talk about is 'Witches'  by Alice Phoebe Lou. 'Witches' is a single that was released in 2020 and in this song Alice uses synths to create an ethereal and cosmic feeling. 'Witches' is about taking ownership of yourself and being at one with nature, which I think is really important right now. It was originally recorded on a one-inch tape machine and it was her first DIY project recording using analogue technology, which I think is amazing. The music video also is using old style technology. I say old style and I instantly feel very young because what I mean is an 8 millimetre camcorder. She filmed while she was on tour so it's a collection of clips from her touring. 

I just can't stop listening to Alice's music right now, but I thought I'd give you a bit of background about why she's so important to me. She was born in a town called Kamachi in South Africa, and a lot of my family live quite near there, so I've been to Kamachi a few times and I think this just makes it so much more personal to me; she spent most of her childhood there. But during her European gap year, she began busking in Berlin. In 2014, she released her first EP, which is called Momentum.  She self-released this because she wasn't attached to a record label.  Subsequently she started playing at venues and was consequently offered many record labels but she chose to stay independent because this aligns more with her beliefs and her lifestyle. Since then, she's been increasingly successful.  She wrote a song called She, which is one of my favourite songs, for the film Bombshell,  the Hedy Lamarr story.

Finally, I wanted to talk about why this song is so special to me. It was originally recommended to me by my sister, and so it really reminds me of last summer when I spent quite a lot of time sitting with my sister in our garden; we would be reading our books and this song would be playing in the background and I think it just reminds me of the summer days and sun and happiness. Since I started to research Alice and write about her, she announced that her new album, which is called Glow, will be released on the 19th of March, which I'm really excited about. Thank you so much for listening.  Video links are on YouTube on the Music Department webpage and the tracks have been added to the Spotify and iTunes playlists.  Stay safe!

Witches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuklRMZj7CA 

She: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPH9j0qVM3A