Tamzene releases her gorgeous new single ‘sleeptalking’, a story of betrayal, heartbreak and love gone cold – the pain of rejection transformed into something quite beautiful by the Cromarty-born singer.
But, like all the best pop music, there’s much more going on under the surface. The single is, not coincidentally, Tamzene’s first release with her new independent label home Young Poet. And therein lies the tale…
Late in 2022, as she collected a coveted Scottish Music Award at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom, Tamzene should have been looking ahead to a new year with excitement. Her first major label EP was out in the world, she’d supported Jack Garratt, James Bay and Adele, played prestigious festival slots across the UK and Europe at the likes of Great Escape, TRNSMT, Reeperbahn, Latitude and Sziget and was about to head out on her own headline tour. But, amongst the applause, the truth was far from celebratory.
“I was burnt out,” says a now-revitalised Tamzene, fresh from a trip to visit her mum in Jamaica. “My step-dad had been diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year and things were changing radically at my label. I knew that signing a deal was just the beginning of a lot of hard work and I’d had such a positive and exciting year with so many great opportunities. But gradually it seemed like my whole team had left or moved on and I had something to prove all over again. I was writing music and sending it to a label that wasn’t engaged. I just wanted a bit of honesty and respect for everything I was putting into it and the reasons they’d signed me in the first place, but I felt isolated. It was honestly a relief when it was finally over and I felt free to be creative again.”
A writing session with her friends Joe Wander (Cian Ducrot, Måneskin) and Mikey Gormley (James TW, Ber) came at just the right time. “They helped me laugh about it and make sense of it all, accepting something is coming to an end and being able to own it. We wrote sleeptalking in that session and although it was about a difficult and very specific experience, it came very naturally. We wanted to disguise it a little and tell the story in a way that was accessible for everyone. It felt like an important song for me, so to have it as my first release with a new team feels absolutely right.”
That new team is independent label Young Poet, who Tamzene met in 2023 “at a really interesting time. I was touring with Katie Melua and we started talking about what I wanted to do next. My stepdad was in the end-stages of his battle with cancer and they were really patient and waited for me to be ready. They were there when I came through the fire and it felt really clear.”
With much more new music to come from Tamzene throughout 2024, sleeptalking proves that, with the right people around you, heartbreaking endings can lead to powerful new beginnings.
Tamzene has announced a London headline show at The Lower Third in Soho on Wednesday 1st May. Tickets on sale Monday 22nd January, 10am.
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