Category: Artist Interviews

Interviews with artists that have been featured on the Kirklees Most Wanted Playlist

Eve Jone

ByLuke BottomleyCategoriesInArtist InterviewsPosted onOn

What has 2025 looked like for you?
This year has been a year full of change. For me, finishing at CAPA college just before summer and then beginning to visualise where I stand outside of the education system in the next academic year before looking at the future and university or drama school in 2026, has been exciting and overwhelming all at once. I’ve performed at my first ever festivals, the main stage in Todmorden, two slots at Holmfirth and at the Garforth Summer Jam, it’s really felt like my music has taken off. My writing has developed enormously and I really look forward to showing what has become of me and my music in each and every performance I do.

How did you first get into music?
I first got into music through my parents both being exceptionally musical. I grew up with them playing together, my mum on the whistle and my dad playing guitar. Both sing as well, and with that influence on top of their love of folk music, I don’t think there could’ve been a world where I wasn’t as invested in music as I am. I started off playing the piano and did a couple of grades before getting ill with CFS/ME when I was 11. Gradually I began to feel well enough to play again and started playing what I wanted to instead of just what I was supposed to because of the exam. My dad taught me to play four chords on the guitar and I practically never put it down afterwards. It wasn’t long before I started to write about my thoughts, feelings and experiences.

What was the process for creating your sound?
I think for a lot of people at first it’s really easy to pick somebody else’s sound that you admire and want to sound exactly like them. I know at the start I’d listen to a lot of music by American artists and so would pronounce certain lyrics using that accent. I made the conscious decision that actually that wasn’t me or what I wanted my music to sound like, as I was so passionate about it being a true and genuine expression of who I am. I’ve definitely learned a lot about sounding unique, and I find I always sound the most like me when singing music I’ve written myself.

Who was your biggest inspiration?
I’ve had many varying people that have inspired me. My top artist is Noah Kahan, with his deeply personal lyrics and folk influence I’ve always seen a bit of what I strive for in him and his music. On a more personal note I think the people in my life that have supported me and believed in me inspire me to write and perform, even if I’m doubting myself.

Which song best represents you musically to date?
This one’s a tricky one! Because the song that I want to say is an unreleased song I wrote named Burnt Bridges and Made Amends. I wrote it after a friend I trusted hurt me deeply, I’ve always thought it captured a very raw very painful part of me that I think can only happen by accident. On “The Water and The Trees” it may be cliché but the title track really caught the way I felt about how short life is and the importance of not dismissing that the things you say you want to do might not always happen and so make the most of it. As well as the song being purely my voice and guitar, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Which song has been the easiest / hardest to write?
There have been a few life events that have happened that have just spilled out songs with ease because of the intensity of which I have experienced the emotion of them. I sometimes write songs within 10 minutes and sometimes it can take months to finish. Sometimes I go into a bit of a haze, like with Words Wrapped up in Lies, I don’t even remember the process of writing the song it just sort of happened and I was left with it afterwards. I remember playing it to some friends at the time fully formed as it was on the album the same day I finished it. I would say that the hardest song was Bliss Of Being Alone. I had about 8 different versions of choruses and prechoruses and verses and don’t even get me started on the time and effort it took to make the decisions as to which lyrics and version of the song I liked best. I’m definitely happy with what I ended up with there though.

Which song is “the one” that turns listeners into fans?
I think when I play my music live, especially now, over a year after my album released. The way I perform certain unreleased songs gets people invested. I think the excitement I have about them bleeds through to the songs and the performance. I can’t wait until I can record and show the world some of these newer songs. I do find that once people have heard The Water and The Trees, they tend to take me a bit more seriously than before though!

Do you have any favourite quotes/sayings?
I wouldn’t say there’s anything that massively springs to mind. Although in one of my songs, Indentations (unreleased) I have a lyric that says “I said if you value it truly you shouldn’t need it to always go your way”. And although it may be a very hypocritical statement, I do think it’s really beautiful the idea that you don’t need to control everything for it to be valued and appreciated.

What does the future of “Eve Joné” look like?
I honestly think I’m in a bit of a state of limbo in terms of my future. There’s no doubt I’m going to keep making music and performing whenever anyone will have me, but I’m looking at higher education and moving out, as well as thinking about what the future of releasing music will look like for me. No decisions are 100% made but I’m happy knowing that my music isn’t going anywhere and I will make sure to keep playing, performing, writing and hopefully releasing my music for anyone that wants to hear.

What are your next steps to get there?
My next steps definitely involve looking at the music I’ve written since my album came out and preparing the songs and myself to have a think about recording and which songs make the cut! It’s also important to me to get out there as much as I can and perform, as that’s what it’s all about really.

Find out more about Eve Joné here; https://www.instagram.com/eve_j_performance/

Kit Le Bihan

ByLuke BottomleyCategoriesInArtist InterviewsPosted onOn

What has 2025 looked like for you?

Chaos! I released my second album, “He Called Hex”, at the start of the year, and that whole thing feels like an entire lifetime ago. Since then I’ve pretty much been juggling working on this new album on and off with many, many, Uni deadlines, as I’m just now going into my final year as a music student. I’ve also taken on some of my first soundtracking jobs, been playing in our band Nuclear Fishing, produced some songs for other artists and, in my few minutes of non-musical spare time, have recently been getting into watching anime for the first time. So musically speaking it’s been a lot, and that’s not even counting keeping my own personal life in order! But I’m at a point now where I’m absolutely on fire with making and promoting my music and am just so excited to put all this stuff I’ve been working on out into the world.

How did you first get into music?

I had piano lessons from a pretty young age, which gave me the majority of my background in theory – however, I never really had too much knowledge or interest in producing my own music as a whole until the 2020 pandemic hit, and I was trapped inside with nothing better to do. A friend and I wanted to make some crappy Soundcloud rap as a joke, so I downloaded initially Audacity and later FL Studio to help facilitate this, essentially teaching myself how to make trap through YouTube tutorials. As time went on and I got more to grips with the ins and outs of actually producing music I started to realise I could try and develop a sound of my own, and eventually picked up the guitar and started writing more demos. Probably my first fully realised song using my voice didn’t come until “Weightless” (featured on my first album) in 2023, at which point I knew it was something I wanted to embrace.

What was the process for creating your sound?

So building on that a lot of my early works spawn from a weird cross section of influences – my piano writing, which leaned more classical and soundtrack-music inspired, my production skills which leaned more towards modern hip-hop and my songwriting itself which gravitated towards emo and other left-field online singer songwriter-y stuff. On my first album you can hear all those sounds kind of thrown at a wall at random since, while I’m still really proud of that record, I’ll admit I didn’t exactly know what I was doing! At this point, the influence of a lot of fifth wave emo and similarly online rock and shoegaze began to take ahold of me, and you can hear me trying to emulate these very noisy and chaotic mixes. Only on my more recent material, like on Hex, have I been able to wield these influences with a bit more intent. It’s also helped that I’ve spent a lot of time improving my skills on guitar and finding tones and mixing techniques that I like for the instrument – although, I should say, my next album maybe strays away from the guitar a bit more than the last couple and veers back towards the piano, so to an extent it’s like I’ve come full circle.

Who was your biggest inspiration?

Honestly, it changes every month, but I think the artist who really inspired me and pushed me to start writing songs for myself was Parannoul. I massively admire how his early albums were somehow made entirely in the box, with his vocals recorded on an old Samsung phone, and yet it’s some of the most emotionally raw and compelling shoegaze music out there. I know I’m not alone in taking influence from him, but the fact he was able to make such a resonant record on such a shoestring budget is a testament to how far music production has come in the digital age, and really convinced me that maybe I can do it too. I have so many online generation artists to thank for this kind of inspiration; Asian Glow, what is your name?, acloudyskye, Vylet Pony, even P.Rosa who I collaborated with on my last album – there’s an incredible wave of creatives who started out as just kids writing songs in their bedrooms and again it’s impossible to hear some of this music and not be desperate to write your own.

Which song best represents you musically to date?

Maybe “Softly, Softly”, one of the non-album singles I put out during the summer – I think it’s maybe one of my most direct songs, but it encapsulates a little bit of everything that I’d done up until that point. It’s got a dark and gloomy atmosphere, some super noisy yet blissful guitars, tortured vocals and lyrics and even some of the weird left-field electronics, all packaged into a little bundle under 3 minutes.

Which song has been the easiest / hardest to write?

There’s a song on my next album called “Ever Turning Field” which is by far the hardest song I’ve ever had to put together for a number of reasons; not just because it’s 8 minutes long or so but also because it’s a massive dirge of emotions that I still haven’t quite managed to wrap my finger around. It’s the one time in my career so far where I’ve put together a song that’s larger than life – it feels like I’m trying to confront something unknowable throughout that song, which I hope will make sense within the context of the record when it eventually comes out.

Which song is “the one” that turns listeners into fans?

I’d like to think my new song “I’ll Be There”! Maybe it’s recency bias, but I feel like people who might have been curious about or enjoyed elements of my music in the past, maybe even people who didn’t like my last album, can hear it and get the impression that this is Kit Le Bihan 2.0 so to speak, and that now’s the time to really start taking note of my music. It’s why I think it’s a perfect single – it’s got elements of my first 2 albums, but a new layer of tenderness and clarity that I think maybe they lacked at points.

Do you have any favourite quotes/sayings?

“…even if something is a lie, even if it’s fiction… If it has the power to change the world, then it must contain some kind of truth. Aren’t we proof of that?” – Shuichi Saihara

What does the future of “Kit Le Bihan” look like?

Aside from my own university deadlines, I’m currently hard at work putting the finishing touches on my next album, which will come out in 2026. I started writing it sometime towards the end of 2024, and had envisioned it to be my “rock” album, but as time went on it actually ended up being my most electronic and piano-leaning album yet! I feel like every record is a bit of a left turn for me, but all I want to say is be prepared for something different, something more gentle and yet more emotionally intense, something brighter and yet more heartbreaking. Oh, and some more weird genre combinations – there’s bits of synthpop, EDM, indie rock, folk, even a bit of glam. I’m also really hoping to play some more live shows – I did one which was streamed live on the Live forever twitch and had such a great time doing it, so I really think I’d like to try and carve some opportunities to play my songs a bit more in the live space in person.

What are your next steps to get there?

Lots of work and promotion! It’s no secret that it’s always gonna be hard to carve out a niche for yourself as an indie artist, but I really think I can build on the steady growth I’ve had this year and do something really special in 2026.

Find out more about Kit Le Bihan here; https://www.instagram.com/kitlebihan/

Harry Bray

ByDaniel PackhamCategoriesInArtist InterviewsPosted onOn

How did you get into making music? – What started it all for you?

I naturally learnt to play drums when I was in year 7, and that just developed. When I was about 12/13, I massively got into the Beatles. I had a few downloaded songs on my old phone, such as Hey Jude and the No.1 album. When I was 14 (2017), my dad had an old Casio digital piano and an old Beatles songbook, which had the music of the Beatles in it. I remember trying to play Hey Jude and individually studying the notes with my dad just to get the first “hey Jude” and the F chord. For the amount of work it took, it wasn’t worth it. For weeks after, I kept playing little bits of notes and coming up with tunes and melodies. Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. I never had any piano lessons, as I couldn’t afford them and learning to read music when I had already taught myself my own way just didn’t sit right with me. Eventually, these melodies I came up with developed into more complex note patterns, which were basically chords. I then remember googling the notes of C major and minor, etc., as I did music GCSE, I wasn’t completely unaware of this. I realised that a C major chord is the same as all other major chords and minor chords, whichever note they are. What I’d do is study how many notes are between each played note there are and apply it to any note on the keyboard. Eventually, I learned all chords, and then around 2019, I started to get better at writing tunes. Ever since, I have written full-blown songs and just kept practising and perfecting them constantly. Just having a pure love and a near-obsession with music made me constantly play and sing stuff which became songs. 

What does your songwriting process look like?

I pretty much always start with the music. This involves just playing random chord patterns on the piano, which is usually GarageBand on my iPhone when I’m out and about, and on my piano at home and sometimes on my guitar, which I also taught myself. This involves playing chords and just whistling tunes; it’s all subconscious. I just whistle whatever comes out; I never really think about it, just whatever comes naturally to me. A lot of the time, instead of whistling, I’ll just sing random lyrics, and if I like them or they stick, I’ll keep them. Lyrics have never been my strong point, and so they sometimes require more conscious work. To be honest, playing my keyboard is also slightly subconscious; I sort of just think, “What will happen if I play this and then go there after?” Whenever I write a song, it’s all experimental- it’s just trying stuff out, just hearing and feeling how it sounds and if I like it. The whole process of writing music for me is a feeling. If it feels good and sounds good, it’s good. I do have a reasonably good self-taught understanding of music theory, but I never think “I need to follow it”. Just like, for example, how Card Factory starts in F major and modulates to G major for the “Card Factory” lyric and the rest of the song, almost adding excitement to being in a card shop. I think you do need an understanding of music theory and how keys relate to each other though, or else songs can just be bland. If a painter wants to be truly creative, they need to have a very full palette of colours. It’s the same way, I believe you do need a musical understanding because it does help you write. After crafting the music, which is the chords and melody and sometimes lyrics, I’ll then tweak and adjust, change and usually need to add more lyrics. 

Who are your main influences?

I was brought up on The Beatles from both sides of my family, and I have a fond memory of my grandad and me singing along to them. They got me into playing the piano and guitar, and music in general was fully opened up to me because of the Beatles. After that, I massively got into the Beach Boys (mainly Brian Wilson) and the Pet Sounds album, which boosted my songwriting inspiration from coming up with some cool tunes on the piano to writing and producing proper songs. My dad has always been into Mozart, and only in the last year or so have I actually become massively into Mozart’s music. Another massive influence is Mac DeMarco, who I discovered in 2020 and whom I recently saw in one of his concerts in Manchester.

How would you describe your song ‘Card Factory?

 I was in Card Factory around August 2024 with my girlfriend Kate. We were in there for a good 15 minutes while she was looking for a card for someone, and I got my GarageBand keyboard out on my phone and just started playing chords and singing as I was getting bored. The lyrics and chords and tune literally came all at once. I hadn’t even thought about it. I just started playing and singing, and the whole song came out straight away. At first, I was laughing at the spontaneity of it and playing it to Kate, who was getting embarrassed about me singing a cheesy song about the Card factory while in the card factory next to her. It was a very funny and fun experience. When I later recorded and produced the song at home, I hadn’t really changed anything; it was basically a copy of what I had just come up with while out and about in the card factory. It’s not really about anything apart from literally being in a card shop. It’s a very laid-back and obviously un-serious track. 

Is there an album in the making that we can look forward to? If so, what’s the vibe?

I spend most of my time working on projects with my songwriting ‘partner’ and best mate, Jack. Our duo is called ValleyBoy and is totally separate from my own solo work. We’ve finished an EP that will be out soon, with proper artwork called ‘This Little Town’. It’s a very serious piece of work and at the moment is my main focus. It’s set around the decline of Northern towns and industry and is quite political and socially focused. I don’t know what you’d call the genre though. I’d link it in a category similar to what Pink Floyd, Bowie, and slightly, the Beatles are in, maybe? I’m not sure, though. We’re also looking for band members to join ValleyBoy who can play with us live, as we haven’t even done any gigs yet or anything aside from a few open mics at Northern Quarter. Aside from this, I do continue to write my own solo work as well and may potentially be releasing an album of mostly done material, but it probs won’t be for ages. I don’t know when the time is right, even though it’s basically almost done. 

What’s next for you?

My girlfriend Kate has nearly finished a lovely and extremely creative animated music video for Card Factory, which she has drawn and used stop motion for. We just need to finish the last few seconds of it, so that should be out very soon. I hope also to soon be performing with a full band for ValleyBoy and have the EP released, and hopefully it’s well-received and known about. I will also keep releasing stuff under my own name.

Find out more about Harry Bray here – https://www.instagram.com/brays_music/

Sophie & Songs

ByDaniel PackhamCategoriesInArtist InterviewsPosted onOn

What was it like to be a student studying music whilst also trying to get your name out there in the industry? – How has studying music affected your musical understanding?

From when I studied music in college, I found my coursework was a great way to motivate myself to build my skills in both performance and production. However, coursework was extremely overwhelming, and I struggled to find the time to work on my solo project whilst also working hard for my grades. I wouldn’t change my choice to have studied music, though, because it’s helped me to raise my understanding of composition, the art of performance and has helped me gain a lot of musical connections.

What got you into making music and specifically folk music?

I’ve loved music from a very young age: I have memories of dancing around the room singing ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ with my dad from when I was two years old, to learning to play ‘Song from Bridget’ with my mum on the ukulele when I was around 7. Singing and performing mean the world to me, and if I could do it every day, I would. I’m not quite sure how I’ve ended up making folk music, as the majority of what I listen to is rock and pop with a lot of other genres in the mix. I’ve found folk to be the only music I’m able to write freely without thinking too much about it and how it’s going to work with other instruments; it’s just me and my guitar.

Who are your main musical influences?

My musical influences change a lot, but my main ones at the moment have got to be Sofia Isella, Ok Goodnight (specifically their vocalist Casey Lee Williams) and Seb Lowe. All create very different sounds, but all are absolutely incredible music.

Have you got anything in the works right now that we can expect soon?

I have a few pieces of work at the moment, but how soon we can expect them is a different question. I produce and record everything at home right now, and, with my limited knowledge and skill with production, I’m struggling to get anything finalised to a standard that I think is acceptable. With regards to producing at home, I find writing is the easier part, although it’s still pretty difficult. I’ve got several songs that haven’t seen the light of day because they’re incomplete or just aren’t up to my usual standards. Recording is fun but extremely hard work and I need a lot of motivation to manage to get any done; the actual recording part is fine but getting the best take and then all the editing afterwards as well as trying to compose extra instruments is so difficult and more days than not I just give up, leaving behind a project until I can come back to it with fresh ears.

What is the story behind your song ‘Love betrayed me’?

‘Love betrayed me’ is honestly quite funny, the more time that passes since I wrote it. I was in a very bad place and struggling with communication in my relationship at the time. I got it in my head and wrote this just a day after I thought everything had finally become clear, my anxiety overwhelming me and leaving me feeling like I couldn’t breathe right. This song became an expression of my anger and was almost like my voice of reason, trying to snap me out of the little delusions I’d trapped myself in. ‘Love betrayed me’ is a reality check up until the last chorus. A drastic change to the first two lines, flipping the song from a rational place of rage to one of hope and longing, almost childlike in a way: “Do you love me, do you love me not? Because I’m getting sick and tired of all these anxious thoughts.” Honestly, I could ramble on about the way I interpret my songs for hours, especially this one. I love getting to analyse writing and go over the potential meanings because a lot of the time, I still haven’t fully understood what I was writing about, or even better, the meaning of the song changes with time, and I get to look at it in lots of new ways.

What does performing your music mean to you?

Performing, in my experience, can be almost euphoric, especially if I’m feeling confident about my setlist. I’m usually extremely nervous and pessimistic before I go onstage, but once I’m there, I’m having such a great time getting to sing my heart out. Whether it’s covers or originals, in a band or on my own, I have so much fun performing, and I would love to get more opportunities to be able to do it much more frequently.

What’s next for you?

I have absolutely no idea what’s next for me. I’m trying to figure out everything all at once for both my personal and musical life. I hope that I’ll get to perform a lot more gigs, write hundreds of songs and release them (with good quality production of course), but I know I struggle to stay motivated and have been in a slump with anything musical for months now, but I’m hoping to bounce back soon. Ideally, I’ll be better than ever when that happens.

Find out more about Sophie & Songs here; https://www.instagram.com/sophieandsongs/

LOMENS

ByDaniel PackhamCategoriesInArtist InterviewsPosted onOn

What is your songwriting process?

We try to make this process as organic as possible, as we know we all have our own distinct individual styles that we like to nurture as much as we can, so that it shines through in each song and gives us a sound that is hopefully distinctly ‘Lomens’.

Generally speaking, one of us comes to rehearsal with a very loose idea, whether that be a vocal melody, a guitar riff, a chord progression on the synth or even just a groove with drums and bass

We then most of the time sit on that idea and jam it together as a band and see where it takes us. Sometimes it naturally forms itself into a song very quickly. Unplug the Earth was like this, for example! Sometimes we can spend weeks/months exploring lots of possibilities and really refine each section as much as we can.

The main thing is just trying to keep things as organic and fun as possible!

Who is your biggest influence?
Now this is always a tough one as we’re all pretty nerdy with music, ha! What we get compared to isn’t necessarily what we listen to, and we all listen to quite an eclectic mix of music!

Vocally, Chris (lead vocals) takes a lot of inspiration from bands like Everything, Everything and Kid Kapichi. Some of us are pretty big fans of Radiohead, and there’s some Muse thrown in there too, a little bit of Prog as well, Porcupine Tree, TOOL, Leprous, The Mars Volta, Deftones.

Jordan (Drums) tends to have a raw attitude towards the drums, where he can, early Nirvana and The Melvins spring to mind, but again, the eclectic taste comes into play, and there’s also some Latin and Samba influences, especially coming from Tom! (Synths & Percussion)

These are just some influences that spring to mind, but as we’re all just massive music fans in general, it tends to make for some interesting jams and songwriting; we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Do you have any pre-gig rituals?
We tend to try to run the set in our studio on the day, get ourselves nicely warmed up, a couple of pints and seeking out some cool food doesn’t go amiss! 

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
This is a difficult one; we’ve not played that many yet in the grand scheme of things, as we’ve only been active just over a year. There have been 16 gigs in that time, and we’ve played 3 headliners in that time (Parish, Huddersfield), Oporto, Leeds, Grass Fed 1 at Picturedrome, Holmfirth), so it would have to be one of those; they’ve all been equally fun and with some great supports! 

What’s next for you guys?
Write. Write. Write. We only have 4 singles out, and we just need to get more music out there! We’ll still be playing some shows in between, but the focus is definitely on increasing our repertoire and output. Expect an EP after our next single. We also have a Headline show at the new Parish space, Amped! on Mad Friday (December 19th) with support from Pageant Mum and Slipped Disco, that will be a big end-of-year party and a great way to see the year out! 

How would you describe your new single, ‘Kinetic Currency’?
Big! Our most out there song to date.

It’s got a punky edge to it with some proggy elements interspersed throughout. Also, a screamer of a riff at the end! We’ve recently been able to get our bassist, Josh, onto guitar as we’ve welcomed a new member on bass (Andrew Parkinson), so we’re now a 6-piece dual guitar assault on stage! 

Kinetic Currency is an observational anthem told through the lens of a working-class person in Britain in 2025. Through some vivid lyrics and striking imagery, the song captures the struggle to rise above the noise of modern life’s complexities, seeking simplicity whilst desperately trying to avoid unnecessary confrontation and stress.

We’ve kept it politically neutral, presenting observations without aligning with any cause. It’s simply what we see on a day-to-day basis, whilst most people are skint yet forever being bombarded with grandiose political movements and news cycles, whilst simultaneously struggling with the normality of everyday life. It’s not a commentary; it’s an observational piece about the everyday rat race of Modern Britain. We invite people to find their own meaning and use their own lens to establish their relationship with the song.

LOMENS is for everyone. 

Kinetic Currency, is out now on Spotify and many other major streaming platforms.

You can find out more about Lomans via their linktree: https://linktr.ee/lomens

Good Good Blood

ByLillie-Apple ChartersCategoriesInArtist InterviewsPosted onOn

His music is the product of trusting his ear and his creative vision alike, telling stories in his own interesting way. This is an attribute I am always drawn to in an artist, especially in a genre such as folk. The intimacy of each tale sat alongside his experimental recording techniques make for a unique listening experience, reminiscent of autumn in the countryside.

Read MoreGood Good Blood

The Kirklees Most Wanted Showcase

BySaving Grace MusicCategoriesInArtist Interviews, Gigs, NewsPosted onOn

Check out the exclusive interview, highlights & snaps from the Kirklees Most Wanted showcase at Northern Quarter in March.

Join Lillie as she goes behind the music with all the talented performers who lit up the stage at the first Kirklees Most Wanted Showcase. Each act opens up about their musical careers, sharing touching moments, amusing anecdotes, and ultimately insightful perspectives on their creative paths.

The Kirklees Most Wanted project is being delivered by The Saving Grace Collective and is part funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund 
© Saving Grace 2025