UK-based singer, songwriter, guitar player, and producer who has started a new artist project, under which he is now releasing music under the stage name Heckyl. The debut single under this new persona was released in late March and the next song comes out two days after this episode is released. In his previous solo work, he had put out a song whose video already has close to twelve thousand views on YouTube in just three months. And he co-wrote a song that another artist released last year, with presently more than 400 thousand streams on Spotify. He was previously a guest on this show more than five years ago, way back on Episode 98.
"I find when you're in those moments of anxiousness... I find that the hardest time to write about it."
"I just wanted to start a project in which I could touch base on those more personal things. So Heckyl for me, the artist name, is basically songs that I've co-written with that monster that lives under the bed."
"Sometimes you need those bad times to talk about the good ones. Sometimes it's the times that we look back on that really hurts, or something, that... put everything into perspective and the positivity comes out of that negativity."
"It was definitely nerve-wracking sitting down with myself and actually saying this is what I wanted to do because I have been so fortunate with the prior releases under my name, it's something that I wrestled with in my head, like, 'Can I do this?' It did mean starting again."
"I've been very fortunate enough to grow some really close, close fans -- that have turned into friends almost -- that have literally just followed it to the end of the earth."
"For me, I've always just wanted to write music where people can listen to it and just take something that might help them."
"Behind the scenes... I've been writing... for the last year-and-a-half during when the pandemic really sort of started (in the UK)... I've got another probably six, seven songs coming out this year, but I've got about, ya' know, 14, 15 songs that are ready to go."
"You have to really give each track its time to breathe. Which one's connecting the most? So, once I think I've put out some more tunes, I'm going to look at the one that I feel like has been a great impact and then put out a video because I feel like it gives me another opportunity to push that as a separate thing. So it's almost like I get to release it twice."
"I got to learn how to produce and write with some of the coolest people in the music industry, actually."
"I've had a cut over in Japan with a band called Purple Rain, so that was amazing."
"I'm just sort of trying to write as much music and collab with as many different people as possible... I feel like it's just changing the way I write in general. All the time it's just changing how you see things and how you attack a song."
"I feel like a lot of the music industry is, keeping those connections with people. I've made some incredible friends out of the music. The music is wonderful, but the friendships that I've made throughout it has been, I think, one of the, if not the most important thing that I've gotten from it."
"My first song that I put out... under a label... ended up getting, like, 18 million streams. And I would never have imagined in my life that that would have ever been a thing, so I feel pretty lucky."
"I think the music industry has changed so much now that you tend to listen to more songs than you do artists."
"I just want to keep writing songs... I still feel like the best part of me is yet to come. And... I could never not do music at this point."
"Stranger"
"Preacher"