Artist Spotlight: Meet Ebony Buckle
How did everything come together?
This album is our second original album. But to be honest the songs are older than those on our first album, ‘Disco Lasers.’ I like to think of this album as all the little puzzle pieces that got me to make ‘Disco Lasers.’ We’ve been recording parts of it for several years and it feels so good to be finally releasing it all out into the world. I write and record with my husband and producer Nick Burns. We have a little studio in our house and we have some beautiful guest musicians playing on the album, like Nicole Collarbone on cello and Laura Williams on drums. It’s been a very organic process because we have been working on it for so long.
How did you approach the arrangement and composition of the music for 'Hearts Get Started?’
I write in a few different ways, and many of these songs were inspired by real life moments. “Golden Sand” is about my childhood in Australia, “Run” is about thinking I was being followed by spies on the underground (a long story), “Jupiter Rising” was inspired by a fox I met in London and “Soph My Dear” was written after I heard a report about the children of refugees in Sweden who were suffering from “resignation syndrome”. The title track “Hearts Get Started” was written when I finally got my visa to stay in the UK permanently.
Whereas ‘Disco Lasers’ was a very ethereal album with songs that are inspired by myths and legends, ‘Hearts Get Started’ feels more grounded and vulnerable to me.
Can you talk about any standout tracks on the album and what makes them special to you?
They are all really special to me but to choose a few… “The Whiskey Song” is one that I wrote for my Dad. For several years, whenever I went back to Australia to visit, we would stay up late drinking whiskey and talking about everything and anything. My Dad is a geologist and his classic quote is “rocks are the silent witnesses of this earth, they were here before us and they’ll be here till the end” and we recorded him saying it for the song so listen out for it over the chorus in the track.
I actually stopped drinking 5 years ago and it changed my life. Dad and I still talk about everything there is no whiskey involved anymore. I wrote “I think I Just Saved My Own Life” about stopping and we released this as a single in September. It was the kindest thing I have ever done for myself.
“Fall Behind” is the first single we released from the album and it was one of the first songs I ever wrote. It’s about breaking away from who you think you should be and becoming who you actually are. I wanted it to be the start of this album, as a way to invite the listener to let go and come with me on this musical adventure. I was so lucky to be able to collaborate with the Australian Drag Artist Miss Martoya for the music video…
How has your music evolved since you started as a singer-songwriter? What have been some key milestones in your artistic journey?
Writing music and poetry has always been how I explain myself to the world. When I was younger I studied opera singing and musical theatre and I still work as an actor now. I have always written my own music but never really had the confidence to think it was something I could actually do as a career. I think there comes a point sometimes where it’s more painful not doing the thing than it is to just start doing the thing. These songs in this new album are the ones I started writing when I decided to “do the thing”. I think that’s why they feel so special to me. There is something very special about having autonomy over your creative self. I wasn’t feeling that I had that as an actor.
Some big milestones so far have been releasing our first album Disco Lasers, an immersive concept album set in a parallel universe. We’ve been playing some amazing shows in London and all over the UK in the last few years, including some overseas gigs in Norway, The Netherlands and Australia.
We’ve just booked our first tour in the Netherlands next year and will also be headlining Soundle Festival 2025 which feels pretty surreal.
I have an album launch at The Camden Club in two weeks on the 17th of October and will be playing with the 6-piece band. To be able to sit in a room full of musicians you admire while they play your songs is one of the most glorious feelings in the world.
As I mentioned earlier, I am funded by my beautiful patreon community which allows me to keep making music in the way I want to. The community is continually growing which feels really special to me.
Can you share a memorable experience from a collaboration that enriched your music?
I think meeting my husband Nick Burns has been the most powerful collaboration. When we met, he was the front man in a rock band called Ocasan and I was in my last year of musical theatre training. He sat down with me one day and listened to my songwriting and his encouragement and support made me start to take myself seriously as a songwriter. He is a brilliant producer and musician who always honours what the song needs, rather than imposing his own style on it. I like to think of myself as the blue sky thinker of the team, and then Nick builds the musical world around the stories I write.