The making of Skywalker began in June 2016 and it is coming into full fruition this June 2019.
One evening after busking in Glasgow where I was attending university at the time I went and bought a ukulele. I had been living in the city for over a year at the time and music was my salvation in the dreary, wet, Scottish weather. I started songwriting on guitar but my lifestyle was gradually becoming more and more nomadic. I spent less time at home and more and more time walking around the city, hitting up my favorite busking spots, staying on friends’ couches and catching the rare glows of sun light in the parks. I switched to a smaller instrument to cut down on some carrying weight and was overjoyed to find that through this new instrument I was able to develop a completely new musical aesthetic.
During the summers of my time attending university in Glasgow I would go back home to visit my family In France before taking off with my backpack to busk across Europe. I started to become more involved in mountain sports such as high lining and climbing and the instrument switch was very welcome when it meant hiking up into the mountains with a lighter, more manageable load.
The name of the album comes from one of the songs. The song Skywalker was written after my first attempts at high lining, a sport in which you rig a piece of one inch webbing between two cliff faces (or anything tall enough) and you try to maintain enough balance and focus to walk across it. You are always attached by a leash going from your harness to the webbing, so that in the event that you did fall, you would take a swing in the air but would not fall to your death. I remember the very first time that I walked across a high line. The moment you stand up, your legs shake and everything in your body and your mind tells you that it is wrong to keep going. But there is a split second of calm and concentration when your mind becomes silent the vast emptiness below your feet pushes you forward. You are able to grasp hold of the reality of where you are and just walk - in the the sky. The wind on your cheeks, the sunlight in your hair, the lightness of your feet, the breeze coming up from below and the birds soaring beside you all bring a different sense of calm and freedom and it is in this moment that my fear can only bow down to my self.
The album as a whole reflects this; the ability to look at fear in the eyes and not only embrace it but overcome it, whether it be fear of dying or living, of falling in love, making big life changes, taking chances or simply being human. The songs come from a place of honesty, observation, fragility and strength, written at a time of transition and change, whilst falling head over heels in love and finding my life and musical partner Atticus Mckittrick. They reflect the nomadic lifestyle that I adopted since leaving home, as well as the growth and changes I experienced as a young adult. Skywalker is about diving head first and full force into the alternative to the beaten path and not looking back.