Robyn Sherwell: Momentum
Guernsey raised, London-based Robyn Sherwell has had an impressive 18 months. Her debut single Love Somebody became a firm favorite of Lauren Laverne‘s on BBC Radio 6 when it was released in September 2014, and signaled the arrival of a new heart-on-sleeve female singer-songwriter in the mold of Imogen Heap and Sia. Follow up single Islander quickly secured support from Huw Stephens and BBC Introducing, and catapulted Sherwell onto the latter’s stage at Glastonbury in June 2015, as well as notable slots at The Great Escape and Wilderness Festival.
That same month, her stripped-back cover of Fleetwood Mac‘s 1975 classic Landslide was chosen as the soundtrack to the trailer for the new film Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter. This led to Lauren Laverne making the track her 6Music ‘Recommends Track Of The Week’, and Jo Whiley playing it twice in one show on BBC Radio 2. “Sometimes there are musical moments that just need to be repeated”, declared the latter, before inviting Robyn into the studio to perform a live session.
Fast forward to 2016, and it looks set to be a pivotal year for this young artist. She has amassed over 4 million cumulative streams across her releases on Spotify so far, and her current single My Hand has already won support from radio and blogs alike. Her full-length debut album, produced by Bat For Lashes collaborator David Kosten, is released on 25 March 2016, with a 6-date UK tour to coincide.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have been awarded this grant from the Momentum Music Fund. The funding is a lifeline for my live activity during what is an absolutely pivotal year in my career, with my debut album being released in March 2016. I’m able to tour, to develop my live production and work with a band – none of which would have been realistically possible without this source of financial support” – Robyn Sherwell