Last heard during the first flush of spring with the smoky, Devil’s Gonna Get You, launching her into a long summer of landmark live appearances including Manchester’s Neighbourhood Festival, her second appearance at TRNSMT, a headline debut at The Isle Of Wight Festival and support slots with Paolo Nutini and The Snuts, further advances in Downey’s elevated view overlooking her own, and others’ existences, observed with a keen sense of empathy, runs through every note and line of her new music. Forging a steady path in the world around her and taking every day as it comes, projecting words of reassurance and encouragement to others, assures her graceful, outwardly effortless rise to bigger stages.
Leaving Scotland behind to move to Liverpool, a step closer to the life she’d dreamed for herself in times of doubt, Home sings the bitter taste of departure made sweet by arrival and the thrill of new beginnings.
She says of the song: ““I wrote ‘Home’ when I was still wondering whether I was going to stay or go. I always wanted to look to and travel over the horizon. Although I love Scotland, being from a small place can make people afraid to venture into the big wide world. That’s great for anyone that can settle, but it was never for me.”
Recorded with producer, Rich Turvey (Blossoms, Courteeners, Spector) at the mixing desk, Downey has gathered three of Liverpool’s most gifted musicians, Nathaniel Laurence (guitars), Phil Murphy (drums) and Sam Topping (bass) to make bold the sounds that match the weight of her own words and ambition. Realising how much has been at stake, Downey, producer and band returned to the studio after initial sessions to lay down new music, knowing that there was more to give. Having returned to her dancefloor indie roots, whilst listening as much and as intently to Flyte as vintage, pop-era Taylor Swift, her new songs found their final, intricately-crafted shape.
The results of those painstaking sessions are to be heard across a series of planned releases running into the depths of next year, beginning with Downey’s second EP release – the next to follow the incredible, sell-out vinyl success of 2021’s Fuel To The Flame EP – in January 2023.
