Satisfy Your Soul
Cam propped his foot on one of the amplifiers in the rehearsal room. In sweatpants, sneakers, and a big comfy jumper, he could have passed for one of the students, but he was our lecturer...
Hello friends old and new!
I was on holiday last week but I’m BACK and BETTER THAN EVER with a fun newsletter about happiness and creativity, but also I gotta share this first…
IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN FOR MY ALBUM KICKSTARTER! 💃🌋 ✨
That’s right folks… we got a week to go. A WEEK. Now is the time to start pushing again and see if we can reach £5000. Massive thanks to pals
and for sharing the Kickstarter on your newsletters last week!As I write this we are almost at £4000… but a girl can dream, right?
If we reach £5000, I can:
manufacture 200 CDs and get them into stores
fund a launch show in London
play that launch show with a full band!
relax!!!! a little bit!!!!
If you wanna help me get there, pledge now.
This week is your last chance!
Now, on to the newsletter…
One Lesson I Learned from Songwriting School
Cam propped his foot on one of the amplifiers in the rehearsal room. In sweatpants, sneakers, and a big comfy jumper, he could have passed for one of the maturer students, but he was our lecturer, and one of those people who looked about twenty years younger than he actually was. He played for Paul Weller’s Style Council back in the day.
“You’ve gotta satisfy your soul,” he declared, impassioned. This was our first class with him, on songwriting.
Cam was the kind of teacher who led with that sort of philosophy — it was less about the ins-and-outs of music theory, and more about the magical balance which we all try to navigate as artists. You would find him floating on the breeze of whatever melody you’d play to him, often he’d latch on and offer a new riff: “dah dah dah daaaaah!” catching your eyes with a spark. Cam was chaotic, laid back, world-wise with just a touch of that certain brand of disorganisation you only get with creative people.
Collaborating with other people on my songwriting course, I wrote country songs, I wrote reggae songs, I wrote Motown songs, I wrote folk songs. I wrote a lot that year, always searching for a sound that felt like my own. Cam guided me through it, encouraging me to try everything.
“Satisfy your soul” became a phrase us students often tossed at each other jokingly as we moved through the year-long course. “You gotta satisfy your soul!” we’d say, putting on an exaggerated version of Cam’s enthusiastic voice. But there was truth to it.
Sometimes, there’s no better way of putting it: there’s just a soul-level knowledge you have to follow, when all else fails.
Whether you were writing something new, contributing to a song, or even just moving through the world and deciding what route to take as an artist or musician: you had to ask yourself, is my soul satisfied?
In the last couple weeks I’ve felt like my soul has been a bit overwhelmed! The Kickstarter launch was a huge success, I played a great gig in Glasgow despite wrestling a cough in the seven days leading up to it, I had a lot of emails to send, favours to call in, and real life stuff to also get done (hello, laundry, is that you???).
Sometimes when it comes to satisfying your soul, you’ve got to go beyond the music.
Last week I got on a train to France with my partner and we spent three days in Lille. I often forget that being able to go on holiday and taking a break is a crucial part of being productive. No, scratch that, being alive.
Now that I’m back from France — a brief, but beer and croissant-filled affair — I can already feel everything mounting on my plate again. I have to schedule more emails. I have to push push PUSH the final days for my Kickstarter. I have to book gigs.
I have to do my laundry.
I have to do my laundry!
Will someone, please think of the laundry!?
But before I move back into the cycle of doing-doing-doing things, here are some nice things that have happened in April which did, indeed, satisfy my soul.
✨ What’s Satisfied My Soul Recently
At a pub in France I won a game of chess against Angus, which felt like an achievement because I can’t remember the last time I won a game of chess. When I was in school I went to Chess Club during lunchtime at school, and in sixth form I ran the chess club for the primary threes: kids who are about seven years old. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to teach chess to twenty seven-year olds on a library floor, it usually doesn’t involve a lot of chess and involves a lot of correcting the word ‘prawn’, but it was always fun.
Taylor Swift’s album sparked me to write a new song and further dive into the concepts I want to explore for my second album. More about this soon!
I started watching The Bear (I know, late to the game) and it made me miss the chaos of working in hospitality. Even with all the stress, the extra hours, the criminally minimal wages, there was something fun and thrilling about it. Especially the family you create when you have a great team around you.
My friends and I play a game where we send a picture which features four objects and we have to decide which object is each of us. Normally it’s something like four mugs on a coffee table, and generally we all agree on who is the beige mug, who is the black mug, who is the pink mug and who is the milk jug. Does anyone else do this? Please let me know.
Before the Kickstarter launched I had a pipe dream that I would be able to write a poem every day in April for National Poetry Month. HA! I did manage to write a small handful of them, which is indeed a soul-satisfying activity. Here’s one of my favourites:
This made me cackle although when I sent it to my family it took everyone two entire days to understand what it meant.
In France we didn’t realise that Labor Day fell on the main day we’d scheduled for sightseeing. What initially was meant to be a day of museums and galleries ended up becoming a very long walk in the park and an evening of beers at this tiny local joint, where we befriended some neighbours. It was one of those evenings at the end of that first sunny day of the year, where everyone was out, music was playing and there was this wonderful feeling of connection between people.
Now that I’m back I have got lots to do! It’s going to take me a few days to get back into the swing of things, but I always have to remind myself… keep that soul satisfied, you know?
Join Me In The Comments… ✍️
What’s been satisfying your soul recently?
Did you ever have a teacher who had a memorable catchphrase?
Is your laundry situation under control???
🎙 Upcoming Gigs
London! Mark your calendars:
London, 23rd May: Bright Nights @ The Foundry Space, Walthamstow | FREE ENTRY
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listening to my music on Spotify (or not, if you’ve read my last newsletter)
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Til next time! Be good,
Olivia 🌈✨🏔🎶
I had an anthropology professor who would start every class with “It’s a wonderful day for anthropology!” I still say it every now and then too 😁
I recently went on a three-day solo backpacking trip. Just what the doctor ordered. I was too in my head. Needed to get out of the studio and be with the trees. It was glorious.