Make Music Day was on the 21st June and I took part in a fun global initiative called ‘my song is your song’ in which musicians from different parts of the world were paired and asked to interpret their partner’s song. I was paired with an artist from St Louis, Missouri and given her song ‘Actor’s Song’ to play with and make my own. There’s so many things I love about this! I love that connections are made between people from opposite sides of the world. I instantly felt a sense of comradery with this person that I’d only just met through a couple of emails, a joint task, and their song that I have come to know rather intimately.

I love both sides of the process - of letting go of one of your original songs and giving it to another to play with, and also of taking someone else’s song and reimagining it. I don’t know how other artists felt, but I felt something akin to being handed some eggs and being tasked with the responsibility to care and nurture them until they hatched. I wanted to honour the artist’s original expression and I also wanted to make it my own somehow.

Listening to Devon’s recording of her song in which she plays guitar, I was initially drawn to playing along on piano. Worried about it sounding too close to the original, I ended up pulling out the harp to breathe a different feel into the song. I really enjoyed mimicking Devon’s vocals, trying to feel in to her unique vocal phrasing. To my ears, there’s definitely a country flavour to her sound, but it was more than this, it was the unique nuances to her individual expression that I was trying to embody. Because of this I found myself singing with a different energy and tone than I usually would.

I feel like all artists are a mix of mirroring what they see in others but, in doing this, must also find a way to remain true to their unique palette. For me it was also a wonderful chance to pull out the much neglected harp. And I have to say that I haven’t wanted to put it down since!