WATCH: Tara Nome Doyle - 'Lighthouse'

"Those who matter won't mind and those who mind don't matter." 

Completely and utterly haunting and beautiful, this one. Tara Nome Doyle is back with Lighthouse, taken from newly announced album Ekko, due via FatCat Records on 11th April. The track is currently sitting atop my acoustic/folk/chilled playlist for the year alongside songs from Hayden Thorpe, lilo and Martin Luke Brown and I can't get enough of it. 

On the track, Tara shares: "I wrote ‘Lighthouse’ for a friend who was going through a difficult time. I saw myself in her struggles to please everyone while neglecting her own needs. This song is meant to be a warm embrace, offering reassurance and gentle encouragement. The mantra ‘those who matter won’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter’ has guided me through my lowest moments, and it felt meaningful to share it through this song. I hope it reaches someone who needs to hear it, remember it and repeat it."

Pre-order/ pre-save Ekko here.

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LISTEN: Tara Nome Doyle - 'Caterpillar'

Anybody else already a little (or a lot) overwhelmed by just how much brilliant new music has already been released this year? It often feels like a scramble to keep up with everything while trying to remember to take time to enjoy it, let alone finding time to discover new artists. A track I am very much enjoying at the moment is Caterpillar from Tara Nome Doyle. This one, I feel, almost demands that you stop and listen - building suspense with its pulsating rhythm. Hypnotic. It is as brilliant as previous two offerings Snail I and Crow - I can't wait for her record Værmin which is releasing on the 28th. 

On the track, Tara shares: "Sometimes it seems to me as if my depression is actively trying to lull me into a false sense of comfort in times of perceived hopelessness. I wanted to explore my relationship with this state that is at once harrowing and oddly tempting, so I wrote Caterpillar from the perspective of personified depression."

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LISTEN: Tara Nome Doyle - 'Crow'

"Gave your heart up to the nightingale, and so begins another star-crossed lovers tale... " 

It's no secret that I've become a bit (a lot) of a bird nerd this year, so it was probably only a matter of time before it started seeping onto the blog. Consider me instantly sold on a track called Crow, the latest to be taken from Værmin, the upcoming second record from 24 year-old Tara Nome Doyle. She's an artist with Norwegian-Irish roots and a new name for me, but I'm delving into her back catalogue as I write this and very much liking what I'm hearing... 

Following recent single Snail I, the crow takes its place among a line-up of leeches, worms, spiders and moths - each track on the record shares its name with a so called 'pest', with the hope of in fact celebrating their beauty and questioning our relationship towards them (and, in doing so, exploring our relationship with one another...) Storytelling is clearly a large part of Tara's music, and here we see it through the Romeo and Juliet-esque narrative that the crow finds itself within. Each aspect of the track, sonically and lyrically, combines to celebrate the many sides of the undesirable creature. It's gorgeous and atmospheric, and I can't wait to listen to the new record (and to carry on that back-catalogue deep dive...) 

On the track, Tara shares: "Crow tells the tragic love story of an opposing couple. The 'shadow' (referring to the theories of C.G. Jung) feels harassed, while the 'persona', unsuspecting, rises into naive romantic fantasies. There are many references in the lyrics to Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet to describe this doomed dynamic." 

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