Hello 2017, let's be nice to each other.

HELLO!! 

This is a great time of the year to reflect.  I often get bogged down with the PURE MILLIONS of stuff I have still to get done that it can sometimes be hard to really appreciate what great work I have already achieved.  So, I wanted to do a wee 2016 ’round up’. 

My 2016 Recap

Last year started with a bang.  The release of my third E.P. “Process” on the 1st of Jan.  It was a long time coming for that CD as I had taken a bit of a dip in 2014/15 and sort of lost my love for music a bit.  SO I wanted to start the year as I would like to go on, and I fucking well did. 

Process gained some wonderful reviews in Louder Than War, Small Music Reviews and Gig Slutz.  As well as some of it’s tracks being feature on a bunch of internet radio stations.  It was the first time I really felt a positivity about releasing music and I made a vow to continue doing so! 

I moved home to Scotland properly in January of 2016.  It was really a stop gap, somewhere to rest before heading to Berlin in the summer.  I love Glasgow, it’s the place where I feel truly at home. 

In February I took a trip to Prague.  What a city!  It was gorgeous.  I drank absinth for the first and definitely last time.  That shit is rank as fuck.  But the holiday was amazing,just what I needed after moving home from five years of London stress on my back.

April saw the last artPACKT tour.  As usual, we traveled all around the UK and Europe, it was great fun, tiring and always worth while but the whole time I had this niggle that I just wanted to get out there on my own, make my own decisions, be on my own time and the most important part, (and the part I love the most) organise myself! 

In June I traveled to Berlin to look for a flat.  The decision was made and I was moving on the 15th of July!  Fuuuuck!  It was exciting and scary.  I had been planning this move for 18 months.  Saving and researching, trying, and failing, to learn enough German.  

July quickly came by and that was me, I was in Berlin, a resident.  Seriously, wtf.

I released my fourth E.P. Opia on the 1st of August with the help of my fans (they bought the SHIT out of pre releases!) and I headed off on my FIRST solo tour!  I headlined all the dates and had a band with me in the form of Mike Nisbet.  It was so fun and utterly challenging and that was exactly what I needed. 

Once I returned from tour I started my 30 day video challenge on YouTube, you can go have a watch here.  Man, that was hard but it was my first real dive into the world of video and YouTube and I have been totally hooked ever since!  Keep you eyes peeled for someone videos coming your way in the coming weeks.  And subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay connected! 

October came around SO FAST!  The summer slipped by in a haze of E.P. releases, tours, video making, new friends, new languages and lots of beer. 

I was loving Berlin, really I was, but I wasn’t loving it enough.  My guts were trying to tell me something and I finally listened and decided to leave Berlin. 

I wrote a blog about it here.

November 1st I headed off on my “Born in Winter Tour” around the UK.  Two weeks of motorways and service stations.  I was a vegetarian by this point but this tour REALLY challenged me.  I felt like I needed ‘one last hit’ ALL the time.  I hadn’t fully internalised my reasons for vegetarianism and I am afraid until you internalise things you will never fully feel them. 

Then VegFest Scotland happened.  It was December, we had moved back to Scotland from Berlin, I was on a HUUUGE comedown all month from the crazy uprooted year I had just had. For some light relief I wrote, recorded and released my third (and most FUN!) CD of the year A Very Ginger Christmas, all within 2 weeks.  My wonderful father created the artwork for me. 

A change happened to me in December.  Since that day at VegFest I haven’t consumed any animal product (to my knowledge) and I am continuing to streamline my life to stay in line with my values. 

I decided I did not need half of the stuff around me.  I brutally threw out (charity shopped) every item of clothing I didn’t like, wear, need, love, feel anything for.  That’s left me with 25 pieces in my wardrobe, including shoes, and I am so much happier with less clutter.  I aim to get all my non musical belongings (gear takes up SPACE) down to one box.  That means digitising lots of papers, throwing away the crap, buy only when needed and giving away when finished with… Let’s see!  It’s a challenge but I think we all consume far too much. 
 

So, looking ahead at 2017.  My ‘resolutions’, goals, wants and dreams are 

  • Help more.  I want to volunteer this year and help out. 
  • Practise minimalism.  You can be minimalist in SO many aspects of your life.  I have stopped using 90% of the products I used to use and I feel SOOOO much better for it!  We don’t need all this SHIT we have in our lives! 
  • Release my debut album.   Oh, that’s happening folks, watch this space. 
  • Live in the moment.  Stay in one place.  I know, sounds weird, and I mean physically and sort of spiritually as well.  I have been all over the place for the past 2 and a half years.  Moving house and just up and down like a fucking yoyo.  I realise that is just a part of who I am, a full on emosh fest, and that’s okay.  But I want roots.  I want to feel grounded and I want to do that here and now. 

I hope your 2017 is full of positive life changing experiences that help you grow and become a better version of the already amazing you that you are! 

And whilst you are looking ahead, making those plans and setting those goals just don’t forget how you got here. 

Hello 2017.  Let's be nice to each other. 

Much love, 

Rosie x

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