Long Read // Blair Davie opens up on new single, announces EP and international shows
I first got acquainted with Blair Davie through their single ‘Lovely’ which is a world away from their new single ‘When You Fall In Love’, which comes ahead of a series of exciting announcements regarding Davie’s whereabouts in the coming few months.
It felt like the perfect time to talk about the past, the present, and the future, with an artist that has inspired me many times through their music and now through opening themselves up to me and talking honestly about the artist behind the heartfelt sounds. “‘Lovely’ was the start of me doing a lot of work figuring out who I am as a person. I’d come out as non-binary through that song, I’d never talked about it before, and I felt like it allowed me to wear skirts and put on make-up and thrust this queerness into the world, and be proud of it.” The realisation that being queer does not need to be expressed through skirts and nail polish came not long after, “I realised I can just be that, and allow people to discover what it means to them for themselves”.
Through single ‘Prague’, Blair achieved what every singer, songwriter and performer aims to achieve; they connected with people of all walks of life, including the queer community, as well as straight white men, and all those in-between. It opened their eyes to the power of bringing people together, rather than creating music for a particular community, it’s bringing everybody into a shared space of love. “I realised how powerful that was, and how good it made me feel. I think that our own journeys of who we are can also be personal things that we don’t need to explore in the public eye. My job is to share who I am and see what happens when I share my songs. It was nice to take a step back and simply put “I love you” into the world.”
This new body of work follows previously released EPs that talk about love in a slightly lighter-hearted way, while the EP we’ll be able to find ‘When You Fall In Love’ on, uncovers a more traumatic past. “Finding love kind of healed me, and helped me to love myself again. I learned how to accept myself and the kind of darkness I have in me. I get a lot of healing from writing songs as well, and a huge part of it also comes from sharing it with people. I’m looking forward to some of the conversations with fans after the shows, because the conversations used to be a lot deeper when I was writing more personal music, there was a lot of healing on both sides.” It’s scary yet rewarding baring your soul within music and on stage, in front of real people, how would anyone deal with the stories that get shared in return? “I’m good at being a sounding board for people when they want to share things. I also know what it’s like to be a fan, because I obsessed over artists like Dodie, Orla Gartland, and Dermot Kennedy and people that were really honest in their writing when I was younger.”
Inspired by the honesty of the above mentioned performers, Blair stopped pretending to be anyone but themselves. Many of the songs on the EP had been written and finalised before, but there was one final puzzle piece missing, “two weeks to go before recording the EP and I knew that there was one song missing, and that ended up being ‘Miracle’, which is a thank you, thank you for not slamming the door in my face, thank you for sticking with me when I don’t think I would have stuck with myself…” The whole EP was recorded at Middlefarm, which is where Blair and the band stayed and built their community of musicians contributing to these songs, the comfort that is felt while they were recording is heard on the recordings.
“It was so clear that this was my place to make music, I needed a safe space to record because the music was so raw”, and in doing so, Blair Davie created a safe space for their listeners to process their feelings, and come to terms with themselves. “The umbrella theme of what I hope that people get from the EP is that they’re not the only one going through whatever it is they’re going through, it’s hope.” Blair will be bringing the EP out on the road with shows in Glasgow and London having already sold out, as well as shows across Europe and at Amsterdam’s stunning Bitterzoet. “I’ll be bringing the band show on the road, I’m intrigued to see how people will respond to that, but I think it’s going to be fun!”
Words by Laura Rosierse
