Tag: Where Shall We Begin

Chloe Foy first started to attract attention as far back as 2013 when her debut single ‘In The Middle Of The Night’ was picked up by BBC Radio 6 and Radio 2. Follow-up singles, ‘Flaws’ and ‘Asylum’, brought huge streaming success – the latter is approaching 8.5 million Spotify plays – and festival appearances followed soon after – SXSW in 2018, Greenman and Cambridge Folk Festival in 2019.

Where Shall We Begin is the sound of someone who has spent years working away, content to only unleash their first full body of work when they, as an artist, were at their most complete.

“For me, this album has come out of a decade of hard graft, trying to balance my craft with making a living, whilst taking my time to get it right. All whilst dealing with the fallout of a huge bereavement in my most formative years. I was finding it hard to work out who I was within this new, alien context of losing a parent”, explains Foy.

Inspired by songwriters like Gillian Welch, Edith Piaf and Tyler Ramsay, and producers like Blake Mills and John Congleton, the resulting album revolves around Foy’s spinetingling, pure vocals and her near perfect songwriting. Expect the melodies to lodge in your head for days. Recorded at Pinhole Studios in Manchester, an army of musical collaborators dropped by to lend their embellishments to Foy’s patchwork; viola and harp contributions taking the work to a whole new level. Foy co-produced the record alongside musical collaborator, Harry Fausing Smith, who is also responsible for the string arrangements.

The songs themselves are both incredibly empathetic and self-compassionate. ‘And It Goes’ is about how her mother’s love remained unfaltering even as she came to terms with the loss of her soulmate, while stand-out ‘Work Of Art’ is about the warmth created for both songwriter and audience when a community of music lovers come together to spend their evening lost in song.

It all adds to make up for a soothing and incredibly vulnerable listen. An album that could both rock a baby to sleep, and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, inspire deep self-excavation and existential analysis. The kind of album that doesn’t come around very often.

Arriving 11 June, the album closes the chapter on a formative period for the Gloucestershire-via-Manchester songwriter. After losing her father to depression, Foy embarked on a ten-year-period where she followed her career path tirelessly whilst also dealing with the internal and external fallout from losing an influential figure so young.

The title-track is a microcosm of what makes Foy so special. It begins pensively with Foy’s poetry-like lyricism taking centre stage, before swelling into a hair-raising, choral harmony that gleams blindingly and brilliantly bright.

Speaking of the track, Chloe Foy said:

“This song is about the moment that the complexity of life dawns on you. When you lose people you love, you realise life isn’t what you hoped or expected it to be and feel quite betrayed by that.

“However, it’s also a nod to those who are around to comfort us and who bring us round to the idea that maybe it’ll be OK”.

The new single is coupled with the announcement of a UK Tour this Autumn, which will see Foy taking in a total of fifteen dates throughout October. With tickets on sale now, catch her at the following venues:

Tour Dates 

October 1st – Dead Wax, Birmingham
October 2nd – The Met, Bury
October 4th – The Cookie, Leicester
October 5th – Leaf, Liverpool
October 6th – The Hug and Pint, Glasgow
October 7th – The Old Cinema Launderette, Durham
October 8th – The Dorothy Pax, Sheffield
October 9th – The Louisiana, Bristol
October 13th – Gullivers, Manchester
October 14th – Paper Dress Vintage, London
October 15th – Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
October 17th – The Jericho Tavern, Oxford
October 19th – Tunbridge Wells Forum, Royal Tunbridge Wells
October 20th – The Prince Albert, Brighton
October 21st – The Boileroom, Guildford

Tickets on sale at: https://www.chloefoy.com/live

‘Where Shall We Begin’ – live, acoustic: