q&a – that lemon life

The ultimate update

Hola everyone.

I know, I know. Where the hell have I been? To be honest, I can’t even really defend myself here. The only thing I can say is that I’ve been so incredibly busy the past two weeks that running from uni to work and then back again has been basically the only thing I’ve been doing (besides sleep, which is the most important part, let’s be real). And I’m not complaining, but it has definitely led to me having nearly no time at all to concentrate on this blog, which is a shame. Buuuuut I’m finally back again and as it’s been quite some time – actually, just a bit over a week, but it feels like ages – I thought a little update post would be nice. Also, so much has happened, I just have to share it with you. Please enjoy.

Okay, let’s start with the most recent and also most exciting thing – basically the best thing that has happened to me this week. This month. Eternity. Whatever. Guess who today, literally just a few hours ago, bought tickets to see her favourite boys in Dublin next year? MEEEEEEEE. It’s me (duh). I can’t freaking believe it. I’m really going to see Ty and Josh again, at their (maybe) only solo show of the whole year. How is this real life? For those of you who are a bit confused right now, I’m obviously talking about Twenty One Pilots. Only my favourite band, in like, ever. And now, after the incredible year that was 2019, I’m also going to see them next year. This is just too crazy. Even more so considering that Jenna is pregnant and Josh and Debby are planning on getting married and the whole fandom thought they’d go on another hiatus after their shows finished this year. But no. There is this one solo show (besides a few festival appearances) in Dublin, with Nothing But Thieves (!!! my other boys) and Blackbear as supports. And I’m going. Holy freaking moly. At this point, I really have to thank my friend Lauren, who luckily was awake and could buy the tickets for us, as Ticketmaster decided to be a dick and not let me verify any of the credit cards I used (thanks guys). She was my savior. And I’m just so happy right now, oh wow. The 25th of June 2020 can’t come quickly enough – just to add, I’m going with my mum (because she’s the coolest, obviously) and the gig is literally on her birthday. Do you see now how crazy this all is? I’m literally the luckiest girl on earth.

So far, so exciting. Now let’s roll on to something I haven’t really talked about since I moved to London – my job. Or let’s call it the story of how literally the soberest person on earth ended up being a bartender. I know, what a weird concept. But it works, trust me. Because even as stressful and exhausting the job might be, I absolutely love it. I’m not going to explicitly name the venue I’m working at (you know, for safety reasons and all that), but it’s definitely the best place I could’ve found. The team is absolutely fantastic and feels like a little family, the customers are always incredibly nice and I basically get paid to attend concerts. In short, it’s literally the best job ever. And although I might not be able to tell the customers which gin or which rum tastes the nicest, I feel like I’m doing my job pretty well and I really do look forward to every single shift. I can only repeat myself – what a lucky girl I am.

And last but not least – Christmas is coming closer and closer and I can’t even begin to wrap my head around it. It’s literally lurking around the corner. Can you see it? Because I can and I’m immensely shocked how fast time has flown by. It feels like I only moved here a few weeks ago. And now I’ll be home again for the Christmas break in less than two weeks. How crazy is that? And although I’m unbelievably in love with London, I really can’t wait to finally be home. It will be nearly three months since having seen my parents, and, in all honesty, that’s simply way too long. I miss waking up with Peaches in my bed and cuddling with her late at night. I miss going for daily walks with my mum and Molly. I miss playing cards with my parents. I even miss having to wake them up every few minutes when they fall asleep on the couch while we’re watching a movie. I just miss being home.

Also, I don’t know about you, but I seriously can’t wait for Christmas. But not the presents or anything like that, I’m way over that age now (yep, I’m getting old). I mean the get-togethers with the family, the waking up to a snow-covered garden, the setting up the Christmas tree. And the fairy lights. I’m definitely ready for the fairy lights. Give me all the fairy lights. Might have to add now that London does an incredible job of basically covering the whole city in cute lights. I really appreciate it. So, yeah, Christmas can come. The chocolate-filled calendar is already propped up on my table.

And with that, we’ve already come to the end of this post… Oh, no, I forgot one thing. My interview with the one and only band half•alive has finally been published and I’m so so so happy to share with all of you (click here). I’m insanely proud of it and I really hope you enjoy it. Please don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts and comments – this also includes the ones for this post right here. And yeah, to come to a close: in a nutshell, I am currently doing incredibly well and I hope you are too. Also, I wish you all an amazing weekend and, as always, thanks so much for reading. x

‘I passed my goal a long time ago’

Hola everyone.

And welcome back to my blog and a new week. I hope you’ve all had an amazing weekend and that you’re doing well.

Today, I’ve got to share something very very special with you, guys. Something I haven’t really discussed with you in the past. I’m of course talking about the interview I did with the one and only Lewis Capaldi. And yes, I really mean THE Lewis Capaldi. The Scottish dude who’s currently at number 1 with his debut album and who recently sold out his tour in the UK within a few minutes. That guy, yes.

Some of you might remember that I briefly mentioned going to his concerts in Brighton and London and meeting him in the past (here’s the link if you want to check that one out), but I’ve never really talked about the interview itself. Which, in all honesty, I don’t even want to do, because it doesn’t feel right in any way. The opposite of professional, actually. But now that some time has passed, I thought it would be nice to finally share the finished piece I wrote about the interview with you.

But before you jump right into it, I want to add one thing: The interview I did with Lewis was my very first big one with a musician and even though it’s been about 8 months since I met him, I still can’t wrap my head around it. It still feels like a dream. Because, I mean, it’s Lewis freaking Capaldi. The guy I’m confidently calling the next Ed Sheeran. And I literally sat in a room with him, chatting for about 45 minutes, cracking jokes, the whole deal. Absolutely unbelievable. I’ll never ever forget how nicely he and his whole team treated me. It was my first step into an industry I’m hoping to become a full member of in the future and they all treated me like I had been part of the team for years. I can’t put my feeling of gratitude into words. I’ll never ever forget that interview. Never.

So, and now that you know that, I’m proud to finally share my Q&A with Lewis with you. It was definitely one of the funniest, nicest and most interesting interviews I’ve ever done and if you haven’t become a fan of this guy until now, you really need to ceck out his new album ‘Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent‘ and become one immediately. He really deserves all the attention he’s been receiving and so much more. He’s really a one-of-a-kind artist, especially once you get to see his Instagram and Twitter pages and experience his humour. And just so you’ve got an idea of what I mean – on his Wikipedia page it says that he plays ‘sunglasses’ for an instrument. Lewis, we all know you wrote that, just admit it. And, on another note, his twitter name is Lewis Crapaldi, because some hater called him that and he loved it so much, so he quickly turned it into his own joke. Yep, that’s Lewis. You just gotta love him.

And now, without further ado, please enjoy the article down below. And, as always, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and comments down below. I’d love to know what you think. Until then I wish you all a fantastic week and, of course, thanks for reading. x

‘I passed my goal a long time ago’

At the young age of twenty-two, Lewis Capaldi’s career couldn’t be more fairy-tale-like. Within less than two years the Scottish singer-songwriter went from singing in karaoke bars and self-releasing his heart-wrenching debut track ‘Bruises’ to supporting the likes of Sam Smith and Rag’n’Bone Man and selling out one tour after another.

I caught up with Lewis before his sold-out show at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire to talk about his most recent experiences with success, staying true to himself in the age of social media and handling all the attention he’s been receiving.

A few years ago, did you think you would end up where you are now?

No. I mean, I was kind of always doing this, but I didn’t think I would be doing it to this level. I did think I would be playing music, but my goal was to play 350 capacity rooms around the UK and, if I was lucky, 100 capacity rooms in Europe. And not even to necessarily play my own songs. I just wanted to play music and be able to make money off it. And so far it’s been very nice, but to be playing shows this size is a very weird thing. To have someone come to my room to ask me questions and write down what I’m saying so people can read it is a very weird thing. And having people outside in the queue know who I am is very weird. And it can all go away very fast. I’m not saying I would be okay with it, but if it did go away, I would still be playing music. I passed my goal a long time ago.

That must feel pretty amazing, right?

I’m pleased with it. But I’m sure we’ve all done amazing things, but have been too close to them to realize how amazing they are. That’s when you need to take a step back and go ‘oh, that is kind of amazing’. Sometimes I’m really bugged down about things going wrong. I think, as people, we are kind of drawn to focus on the things that go wrong rather than the things that go right.

Why did you start your career by releasing your music yourself?

Nobody wanted to sign me. *laughs* I’m joking. I just think the first thing you release should come from you. If you want your first piece to be exactly how you want it to be and how you see it, you should release it yourself.

Sounds like music means a lot to you…

I approach it as I approach everything else – I don’t take it too seriously. If I’m having a shit time and I write a song about it, I’m able to work through it, but it’s not like therapy. I don’t agree with people who say it is. But being able to look at things from that angle and seeing they aren’t necessarily as bad as they seem is good. Sometimes a good song comes from a bad thing. But I don’t want to put too much weight on things, even with music. It feels more like an old, familiar friend.

Which part of being a musician do you enjoy the most and is there something you hate?

I love playing live, that’s the main thing. That’s where I came from, that’s why I’ve done most of it. I’ve played live more than anything else. But I fucking hate being in the studio. It’s the most boring fucking thing ever. And I don’t know if that comes across in my music, but it’s just so tedious. Not so much being there with a producer and coming up with ideas, that’s fun. But the actual recording of the vocal is the fucking most boring fucking thing you’ll ever do in your life. For me, I record music so I can go and play it live.

And what about interacting with your fans?

Again, this is a very weird job. So having lots of human interaction online and during the shows is very important to me. And I mean, how often are you sat in your room, just randomly scrolling through Facebook and Twitter, bored out of your fucking mind? And I can just go and talk to people. It makes me feel more normal about everything. Suddenly it isn’t just a big, faceless crowd. And also, it can probably make someone’s day, so if I can make someone feel good, that’s just fucking sick.

Speaking of the internet – how do you stay true to yourself in the age of social media?

So many singers nowadays are very careful about what they do online. And I think, if you’re not a horrible person, you don’t really have to be careful. I was like this at the beginning, but I don’t want to not be myself because of that. I think it’s a hard thing to do for a lot of singers. But, again, this is a very weird job. The fact that so many people follow me on Instagram is a fucking weird thing. But you know what, it’s not that weird if you just ignore the fact that it’s weird. When I was growing up, I would have liked people to just be themselves as much as they can. That’s why, in the past, I always used to say: ‘if you don’t like a chubby guy singing sad songs you’ve come to the wrong fucking place’.

Also published in: The Sun & Brighton Life Magazine

Interview with Saint Raymond

Hola everyone.

And welcome back to my blog. I’m sorry for being gone for so long, but I hope you’ve all had a great time and that you’re doing well. I know at the end of my last post I said that I’d be coming back with a huge post about Avengers: Endgame, but, honestly, it’s been over a week since I saw it and I still haven’t been able to fully process it. My plan now is to watch Infinity War and then see Endgame again straight the day after, so I can really say which one I prefer. And then I want to put all my thoughts, emotions and opinions into one long, deserving post for you all to read. Unfortunately, that means it will be packed with spoilers, so I’ll just say it now – if you haven’t seen the movie, don’t read anything about it, don’t ruin it for yourself and just watch it. Also, props to you if you’ve made it this far without coming across spoilers. Well done.

So, now that we’ve talked about that, let’s get to the real deal, which is something I’ve been burning to tell you ever since it happened. Some of you might remember the concert review I did of the Saint Raymond show I went to in March (here’s the link if you want to check it out). I absolutely loved the show, but I didn’t tell you everything that happened on that day. So, here comes the crazy part: I didn’t just go to the concert, I actually met up with Callum (Saint Raymond) before his show in Brighton to do a little interview with him. I know, I know. Holy moly. I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around it either. And oh wow, it was such a lovely interview. I felt so welcome and it was just so chill and nice. And Callum was absolutely fantastic as well. Definitely one of those hours of my life that I’ll never ever forget. And I’m so happy that I finally get to share the piece I wrote about it for my university magazine with you. I really hope you enjoy it. Also, please don’t forget to show Callum some love (here’s the link to his Spotify and his website), he really deserves it. And, as always, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts down below and thanks for reading. x

‘It’s a show-off world’

Nottingham born and bred Callum Burrows, aka singer-songwriter Saint Raymond, exploded on to the music scene in 2013 with his EP release ‘Escapade’. Following that the young artist not only went on to open for some of the biggest names in music, but also toured festivals including Glastonbury, right before releasing his No. 1 debut album. After a short hiatus, the singer is now ready to go bigger than ever. I met up with Callum at Patterns in Brighton before his show to chat about standing your ground in the music industry, crime-podcasts and supporting music-star Ed Sheeran.

Did you ever expect to end up where you are now?

No, not at all. Obviously I hoped I would, but I never thought I’d be doing music as a career. I never expected it to get to a point where I get to do it for a living. Which is still weird for me to say, because I think I sometimes take it for granted. Like with anything, you have your highs and lows and I often forget that music is my job. Which is pretty cool. Ten years on, still get to play shows. It’s crazy.

What is the one memory you will never forget?

There was this special moment when I played a hometown show in Nottingham, at Rock City. I actually played it three times, but that first gig was an unreal experience, because I had grown up going to gigs there. And suddenly people were queuing to see me and I just thought ‘what the hell is going on?’. So, that will always live long in my memory. And besides that, the tour with Ed was super crazy as well.

Speaking of that – how did you get to support him?

I met him through a mutual friend and then ended up going to his birthday party, where we had a chat. And then, about a month later, he just texted me out of the blue saying ‘hey man, do you want to go on tour?’. I couldn’t believe it. I actually kept it a secret from my band until the official announcement. I just told them that we would be going on tour in October. That really was an amazing experience, which I’ll be forever grateful for.

Looking back on all your songs – what’s your favourite one?

That would probably be ‘As We Are Now’, because it meant so much to me at the time. I wrote it when I was kind of hoping to do music for a career, but I wasn’t sure that I was going to. All of my friends had gone to university, so they knew what they were going to do for their jobs after. But I was just in this period where I wasn’t a kid anymore and had to take some responsibility. So that one will always be a special one.

Is that why you released two versions of it?

Yes, that was a mad decision, to make the fast version. I don’t want to bitch too much, but I prefer the slow one. You know, there are a lot of things that happen with music, especially when you’ve got a big team around you, where decisions just get made that aren’t always the right ones. Or not solely what you want. But it’s hard when a lot of people are throwing in their opinions, because, at first, you know what you want, but then you get a bit lost in it. So that’s what I’ve learned over the last few years, to stand my ground a bit more and go for what I believe in. I was very young when I made that first record, it was a big learning curve.

What’s another part that you had to get used to?

Definitely social media. I think Twitter is such an important tool as an artist, but I struggle to use it to its full capacity. It’s easier now when I’m on tour because I can talk about that, but it’s really hard to interact when you’re not doing those things. At least for me. I know some other people who are amazing at it, like Lewis Capaldi. He’s got it nailed down. But then again, right now, there are a lot of people in the industry trying to copy that. And that’s when you look like an idiot. Because you’re trying to be someone you’re not. Which is mad. Especially now with the whole Instagram world, I think it’s so important to be who you are on social media. It drives me crazy how people are living a life that isn’t real. It’s a show-off world.

How about using Twitter and Co. to connect with your fans?

Oh yeah, I think it’s so important to interact with them. Before social media, bands were untouchable. You couldn’t access them unless you went to a show or met them somewhere, whereas now you can genuinely have a chat with anyone. You can literally send a message to the president of America, not that you would want to. But that’s how the internet works now. And I think sometimes people forget that if it wasn’t for the fans, they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing. Because who would buy the tickets, the t-shirts, the albums? They start to think they are on a platform above them. Which isn’t true. That’s why, after every show and not just on social media, I’ll always try to come out and talk to people. I mean, them coming to the show means that I get to do in in the first place, so why shouldn’t I?

And would you call yourself a fan of someone as well?

Of course. Loads of people. But my biggest inspiration right now has to be Ariana Grande. I once saw her perform live at this charity event in Central Park in New York. She came on stage with Coldplay and, until today, it’s the best live vocal I’ve ever heard. The whole day overall was just absolutely crazy. I stepped on Jay-Z’s foot by accident and then met Leonardo DiCaprio. Weirdest day of my life. And besides that, I’m a huge fan of murder podcasts. They’re my jam.