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RNZ: Dianne Swann discusses The May Project with Jesse Mulligan
Dianne Swann discusses The May Project and ‘The Last Waltz of Summer’ with Jesse Mulligan.
18 FEB 2026
The wonderful Dianne Swann played and discussed the new May Project track ‘The Last Waltz of Summer’ with Jesse Mulligan on RNZ this afternoon, and also chatted about related projects The May Magazine and Etta Every!
Take a listen to the segment here.
The May Project releases new single 'The Last Waltz of Summer'
‘The Last Waltz of Summer’ - a new single and capsule collection by Etta Every are out today!
2 FEB 2026
Brand new single ‘The Last Waltz of Summer’ is out now! It’s an ethereal song about leaving something behind and moving on to what is ahead. It sits alongside a capsule clothing collection for Etta Every, also released today.
Take a listen below!
View the Etta Every lookbook here.
Stream on Spotify | Soundcloud
Bedtime Story: Lodestar Audiobook
An audiobook version of 2019’s fairytale novelette ‘Lodestar’.
12 OCT 2025
Back in April this year while we were in lockdown-the-first, I stumbled across some beautiful retellings of George MacDonald fairytales on a meditation app. They were narrated by a softly-spoken Irish woman, and sent me to sleep in no time (with some unusual dreams!). It got me to thinking about the value of storytelling in its spoken form - there is something quite different about discovering a story by listening to it rather than reading it; it’s brought to life in a different manner altogether when someone colours in the settings and characters by reading it aloud.
And so I thought I would make a chapter-by-chapter audiobook of Lodestar, the fairytale novelette I wrote as part of the Lodestar release at the end of 2019 (explore here). You can listen to it on SoundCloud below: I’m releasing two chapters every Monday and Thursday until it’s finished (we are currently halfway through at six chapters!).
As they like to say, find yourself a comfortable position, feel your body relax completely as you let go of the day that has been (can we ever!), and let me begin to tell you the story of a young girl called Martine who became quite hopelessly lost in a forest.
Sweet dreams, o precious ones!
La Tendresse: Journal / Playlist
A playlist and reflection of the necessity of tenderness.
30 AUG 2025
Moon river, wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style some day
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way
Two drifters, off to see the world
There's such a lot of world to see
We're after the same rainbow's end, waitin' 'round the bend
My huckleberry friend, moon river, and me
Well hello there! How are we all doing?
If you’re anything like me, you swing from being a little bit fragile, a little bit irritable, thinking you are doing okay after all, and then suddenly getting a little bit misty-eyed at the drop of a hat. Four seasons in a day. An hour. A minute. Battling an invisible enemy will do that to a body. We’re all in a position we’ve never had to be in before, and it’s wild. Quite terrifying at times, frankly. I’ve found for me that it’s exacerbating anything going on “under the hood”, so to speak. It’s an odd thing. Past issues flare up, situations you could normally handle you struggle to, and so on. Negative emotions are not so fun to deal with, and it’s hard just to let yourself accept that you’re feeling a particular way. Like, that you are feeling really, really sad. Anxious. Uncertain. Nervous. Scared. And if you then try and smother those emotions with a pasted-on smile and whichever platitudes come swinging around your way, all the while clinging onto whatever it is that gives you a sense of security with a white-knuckled grip, it can just make the eventual unraveling that much worse.
So. I am beginning to see that sometimes we have to just accept that “something is wrong, that is that” (in the words of This Mortal Coil - Mr Somewhere, which consequently is on this playlist, would-you-look-at-that). We have to sit in the boat that we’re in, not knowing where things will wash up, but trusting that we’ll get through it some way or another. It’s hard! There is no easy way about it. But what I did when I got home from work yesterday was sit on my back doorstep with a glass of wine in hand, and turn my face to the late afternoon sun and let it warm me. Watched the irrepressible weeds that have sprung up between the cobblestones in my courtyard defy anyone’s efforts to contain them, and shake their small green leaves in the gentle breeze. Appreciated the sunlight turning my cat’s fur into fine-spun silver shafts shimmering all over his little body. Listened to the birds singing, because that’s what they do, whatever is happening. Life still goes on. So do we.
Around the theme of all of this, I’ve made a new playlist. Playlisting is one of my top, top things to do in life. I like to clap on a pair of good headphones, lie on the rug in my living room for an evening, and take myself on a musical journey of putting together songs I love along with new-to-me discoveries, and then ordering them. I never know where I’m going to end up, but I find it so therapeutic. Allowing yourself to do nothing other than listen to music is absolute bliss. Recommend.
This particular playlist is called ‘La Tendresse’, so named after a song on it, and it’s a compilation of songs that make me feel. Some songs are ones that have been meaningful to me in different stages in my life, some are new discoveries, and a handful are ones I wrote: some are a little naive, some are weightier, some are gentle, some are melancholic, some are affirming. On the whole, it’s a playlist based around tenderness. It’s cinematic and soundtrack-like, with dashings of classical favourites. Much of it deals with tenderness in a romantic sense, but I think this translates through to love, relationship and security, and the need for these things now more than ever. I’ve been listening to it for the last few days while rearranging the order over and over (but don’t worry: you can play it on shuffle, I will not be mad - Spotify has good shuffle algorithms!), and I’ve found it surprisingly soothing. It’s given me back some peace. A little bit of space to let yourself feel what you’re feeling is a worthwhile pursuit. Keep that box of tissues handy!
Talk to someone if you’re struggling. Don’t lock yourself away alone in it, or think that you’re the only one feeling the way that you do, and that therefore it’s not legitimate for you to feel awful. It totally is. You can send me a “me too, I’m feeling this way too” message if you like. I hear you! If for you, like for me, it’s brought up other issues, you’re not alone in that either. I like to think of it like my shoebox filled with spools of thread: each spool has a loose end, and these (thanks to me not being careful enough when putting them away) are currently ridiculously tangled. Yet I know that all of those tangled threads belong to their own spool, and that there’s order right there beneath the disorder. It’s just a temporary, surface thing. So I’m not too worried. It feels incredibly messy just now, but tangles are untangle-able. It just sometimes takes a minute.
Turn your face to the sun. Literally. We’ll all get through this together, and in the meantime, there is still loveliness in the world, because our world is a beautiful, living thing, just like us. There will always be warmth, somewhere. But it’s okay to feel low too.
Enjoy a little bit of tenderness, from me to you.
x
Bones / Buyer’s Remorse Mixtape
A sassy mixtape to accompany Bones and Buyer’s Remorse.
22 AUG 2025
Bones and Buyer’s Remorse have now been out a week, and in honour of them I’ve compiled a playlist that I’m just quietly REALLY INTO. It’s going to be my Saturday soundtrack while I’m busy sewing face masks, and my Sunday soundtrack while I’m busy doing a good ol’ houseclean. A little bit of heartache / heartbreak, but also a little bit of sass / swoon: I prescribe popping it on while you’re cooking dinner, perhaps accompanied by a vino should you so wish. Enjoy.
The Motels / The Kills / Robyn / The Waterboys / Cocteau Twins / Phantogram / Radiohead / Phoebe Bridgers / Eurythmics / Tamino / Talk Talk / Blur / Roxy Music / Talk Talk / Leisure / Davidda / The Magnetic Fields / Air
Bones: Video and Back Story
An abstract video and the back story to new single ‘Bones’.
15 AUG 2025
‘Bones’, newly released alongside ‘Buyer’s Remorse’, is a pretty special track to me - it’s a song that grew from a sequence of emotive chords coupled with a poem I’d written not long before. It’s often not until after I’ve written and released a song that I understand what I was actually writing about, or what I was feeling. When I write poetry, it comes from a place where I’m not really thinking, just allowing words to flow, and my music works the best when it comes from that place too. So this particular song grew from two merging elements, both birthed from that same subconscious space: the poem and the chord sequence. Now, listening back months after it was first written, I understand much better where it came from. Writing in this way is such a personal endeavour because it comes from a deeply authentic place, and it can be quite scary to let that be seen, and to openly discuss it. And that, in a way is what the song is actually about!
It bears a theme I think many would identify with, and that’s that of not quite feeling comfortable in your own skin, because if such-and-such a thing about you were different, you might perhaps be more acceptable. And so you try to reflect and mirror what it is that you think you should be, or that you think people want you to be - you hide elements of your innate self because you don’t like these parts of you and don’t think they’re good enough on whichever level. But in the end, doing so only leads you to extinguish your own light and your own uniqueness: there’s only one of each of us, after all! And so this video is an abstract representation of this: it’s a meander through a kaleidoscopic mirroring of trees. The mirroring replication is beautiful, yet it is not natural: a tree has limbs that bend, bow, and intermingle with others, yet no limb is ever exactly the same. I hope in some way that this gives you a nudge to be the beautiful you you’ve been blessed to be, and I hope you enjoy the video! Lyrics below.
Stream on Spotify here
Buy on Bandcamp here
Listen on Soundcloud here
I, I will bend limb for you
Twist my form, contort
Make the natural unnatural
If that is what you want
But see these bones are not safe
Brittle, and you'll hear them break
As I bend towards you
Hide my colours just to see
If this new outline
Is more pleasing than the old one
But these shades of black and white
Are not the same
They'll steal my soul and slowly kill my song
As I bend towards you
Too late to give
You were indifferent
I lost my will
To be your shadow
Too late tonight
This love has lifted
And I won't bend towards you
New Release: Bones / Buyer’s Remorse
The May Project releases new two-track single Bones / Buyer’s Remorse.
14 AUG 2025
Two brand new tracks fresh out into the world today: Bones, and Buyer’s Remorse - they’re both about the intricacies of being a human. Bones explores the oh-so-familiar feeling that if you were slightly different than you are you might be more acceptable, and Buyer’s Remorse is loosely about loss: thinking you’ve found something good only to lose it - and then realising that life goes on and it’s great that it does, because perhaps that thing you found wasn’t actually such a good thing in the first place. Emotions.
Out now on all platforms - enjoy!
Listen on Spotify here
Listen on Soundcloud here
Find on all digital platforms here
Seuls, Ensemble Playlist
A playlist for being alone, together.
9 APR 2025
It’s been a funny old spell of things hasn’t it: a little bit like having the rug pulled out from under your feet. Putting on a pair of decent headphones, lying on my couch, and having a wonderfully relaxed session doing nothing other than listening to music has been one of my lifelines of late.
In honour of this, I’ve pulled together a Spotify playlist that I thought perhaps you might like too. It’s called ‘Seuls, Ensemble’ (or Alone, Together), featuring the likes of Peter Gabriel, Mustafa, Active Child, Julee Cruise, The Motels, Natalie Merchant, The Cure and Agnes Obel.
Enjoy treating yourself to some mindless hours of sonic pleasure, and take care!
Living Room Sessions: Descent
A Living Room Session for ‘Descent’.
9 MAR 2026
The fifth in a back-catalogue series exploring past May Project tracks, presented as a lo-fi ‘living room’ video and accompanying blog post and playlist.
LIVING ROOM SESSION #5.
Track: Descent
Year of release: May 2018 as part of the album ‘Elpis’. Descent is a song that was one of those lovely collaborations that just work: Sean Harvey, The May Project’s guitarist, emailed me a beautiful guitar riff, and the melody that sprang to mind was pretty immediate. I added some piano and some eerie synths (in the final version), and ‘Descent’ as it is came into being!
I think, ultimately, it’s a song about being in a particularly dark place - feeling a kind of numbness and detachment, but at the same time seeing little glimmers of light and hope, and knowing that it’s possible to move forward and out of those heavier spaces, but struggling to do so. Its ending is intentionally unresolved.
Listen to the original track here. Lyrics below video.
Listen to The May Project on Spotify here.
Living Room Sessions: Hshsh (The May Project and Vanguard One)
A Living Room Session for ‘Hshsh’.
20 FEB 2026
The fourth in a back-catalogue series exploring past May Project tracks, presented as a lo-fi ‘living room’ video and accompanying blog post and playlist.
LIVING ROOM SESSION #4.
Track: Hshsh (The May Project and Vanguard One)
Year of release: February 2014
It’s been exactly 6 years today since both The May Project and its fashion label counterpart, Etta Every, were launched, and what better way to celebrate than a living room session for the very first May Project track! Hshsh was a collaboration between Ben Bartlett of Vanguard One and The May Project: Ben composed and performed all of the instrumentation, emailed it to me, and I composed the vocals, which were then recorded by Ben King, who mixed and mastered the final track with his special touch! In a fitting follow-up to this collaboration, Ben Bartlett went on to produce and mix the first full length May Project album, Elpis, in 2018 (listen here).
Hshsh’s premiere was in an industrial-style warehouse space, and it echoed plaintively and hauntingly through it as the soundtrack to models walking for Etta Every’s first fashion show at the label launch. The Etta Every collection, called ‘Storm in the Morning Light’ (named after a line in Portishead’s ‘Roads’), consisted of monochromatic layers tempered with aubergine and sage green: the bruising and fragility of a body hurt, needing to be wrapped in soft, protective layers, until ready to re-emerge with a new strength and new fight - black, boxing wraps, nickel hook-and-eye tape - the vertebrae of the spine. Essentially, that’s what the song is about: the heartache of heartbreak and the need to heal to be able to move on. What I like most about it is the grittiness Ben brought to it with his synth work and the backbone of the beat: despite the weight of the song, he still managed to imbue it with a kind of wistfulness and hope. To complement this, I was then free to do what I love best: layering up ethereal vocals in order to create a track that tugs the listener earthwards with its grit, but tempers that with something of a lighter otherworldliness.
And so, behold the living room session for ‘Hshsh’! This one I pulled together using Ben’s work as the backing, and adding my vocals on top (what a treat to only need to play very little!) with a little sprinkling of extra synth work. In it I’m wearing pieces from the Etta Every collection.
To view the Etta Every collection it accompanied, visit here.
Listen to the original track here. Lyrics below video.
Lyrics:
still fighting the heartbreak
deep within, i'm bleeding still
i'm bleeding
bleeding
still hurting, still warring
with the sound of my own heart
i'm bleeding
bleeding, bleeding, bleeding
this heartache, this daybreak
of a morning torn in two
i'm bleeding
bleeding
this new day won't replay
what has passed, you'll be my last
i'm bleeding
bleeding, bleeding, bleeding
New Release: Lodestar
The May Project and Etta Every release Lodestar: a two-track single, capsule collection and fairytale novelette.
6 DEC 2025
PHOTO: ADAM BRYCE
TWO-TRACK SINGLE / CAPSULE COLLECTION / FAIRYTALE
Lodestar (n): a star, especially the North Star, that is used in navigation or astronomy; a point of reference to show the way.
The Lodestar capsule collection accompanies a new duo of tracks, ‘Lodestar’ and ‘The Poet’s Dream’, by Etta Every’s musical counterpart, The May Project. Alongside these is an original short story written by Katie of Etta Every / The May Project. Each facet explores an aspect of the concept of a lodestar: exploring what guidance really is, and what it means to keep to an internal ‘true north’ through thick and thin.
The Etta Every collection consists of six clean-lined styles available in black and white only, reflective of the juxtaposition of darkness and light, hope and despair; the struggle of living an authentic life.
The two tracks by The May Project represent this struggle: ‘Lodestar’ tells of the fight to keep to an internal vision, and ‘The Poet’s Dream’ (derived from Percy Shelley’s poem of the same name) plays out like stripped-back, slightly eerie lullaby: a balm offered to a troubled mind (Shelley originally wrote this poem as part of a work titled ‘Prometheus Unbound’, and in the context of the work, it was sung by a spirit sent to soothe Prometheus, who was chained to a cliff as a punishment by Zeus, following his act of gifting fire to man!).
Written in the style of a fairytale and filled with ribbons, forget-met-nots and roses, the Lodestar short story is an innocent and light-hearted take on the whole concept: sometimes you just can’t beat a simple, traditional tale!
Explore the whole release by clicking the images below. Enjoy!
Spotify | Apple Music | Itunes | Bandcamp | Soundcloud
Lodestar Collection
Lodestar Two-Track Release
Lodestar Novelette
Teaser: The Poet’s Dream
A teaser video for ‘The Poet’s Dream’.
3 DEC 2025
PHOTO: ADAM BRYCE
Here’s a short teaser video for The Poet’s Dream, releasing Fri 6th of December. A little hint of what’s to come - enjoy!
Place your pre-order for the Lodestar / The Poet’s Dream release here (you will receive three bonus tracks too - hurrah!): Bandcamp
Meet Davidda!
I sat down to chat with Davidda about her debut single ‘Kindle’.
29 NOV 2025
About this time last year, I was pulling together a backing band for our Festival One show at the end of January this year. Davidda, who I had only ever known as a singer through church, put her hand up to play drums. When she showed up to the first rehearsal and began to play, we were all completely blown away: she has that rare kind of skill that combines not only an amazing technical mastery but also a sensitivity to the songs and just where the beat needs to sit and interact with each of them. She’d learned all of the songs in advance, was flawless right from the outset, and added just the right colour to each. Not only did she effortlessly slot right in as drummer, but her unassuming and sleeves-rolled-up attitude made it an absolute joy to have her involved.
Fast forward to today, and Davidda, who is also a keen guitarist and has been writing her own songs from an early age, has just released her debut single called ‘Kindle’ (listen below). It’s poignant, refreshing and almost wistful, and Davidda’s sweet voice glides smoothly through it anchored in a grittier depth, weaving the story she’s telling through her clever melodies. It speaks to her unique skill as a wordsmith, and takes us on a journey through the mind of someone struggling to be true to themselves, and the courage it takes to do this.
Recorded and produced through Parachute Studios as part of a special opportunity Davidda won, it’s out now on all of the usual streaming platforms. In honour of the occasion, I interviewed Davidda to learn a little more about the genesis of this intriguing song. Read more below!
FIRST UP, TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF: WHERE DID YOU GROW UP, AND WHAT IS YOUR MUSICAL BACKGROUND?
Kia Ora, Katie. It’s a pleasure to share a little bit of my story with you. So, I grew up in a small town called Paeroa.
I have this little disclaimer, whenever someone asks where I’m from, I have to make mention of the L&P bottle so we’re all on the same page.
In a tiny nutshell, my parents are musical, and my Mum is a music teacher.
I learnt how to play the guitar when I was around 3 years old, and I think it was the same for my brothers too. Mum made sure to expose us kids to all sorts of music, and often volunteered us for different events that needed musicians.
When I was about 11, we needed a drummer in the music team at church, so I stepped in. I think Mum taught me a basic beat, and I figured the rest out over the next couple of years.
Playing the drums feels like the most honest way for me to connect with music and spill out what I am feeling.
Watching how my Mum and brothers engage in and with music is what drew me in the same direction.
HAVE YOU ALWAYS WRITTEN YOUR OWN SONGS?
I would write words and sing them to myself when I was a kid, this was before I started singing in public, so they never reached other peoples ears.
I went to intentionally write songs when I was 14. I went through this really cliche Shakespeare obsession at high school when we were studying some of his work, and I started using portions of his sonnets in my songs. The first ‘proper’ song I wrote was for a songwriting competition, and one of the lines “you’ve got me falling like the leaves in autumn” was inspired by that sonnet.
Today, I’m less about the Shakespeare and more about writing down the truth of what I am seeing or feeling. Lately, my writing has reflected my self-awareness, and how I fit into the world - or kind of how the world fits inside of me, or something.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE SONGWRITING PROCESS THAT REALLY DRAWS YOU TO IT?
I like how songwriting is essentially capturing ideas, experiences and feelings in a concise manner. Often it just spills out of me, rather than me sitting down to write a song. I’ll be doing something and then a sentence or two will spring to mind and I’ll have to write it down or record it.
Sometimes I do other types of writing such as journaling or poetry ~ and if a melody presents itself then I know it’s a song I’m working on.
‘KINDLE’ IS YOUR DEBUT SINGLE: HOW IS IT FEELING TO BE PUTTING YOURSELF OUT IN THE WORLD AS AN ARTIST?
I had to really think about what my intent is here. I had to think about why I want to share this with the world and what the next step is.
I want to release this song so I can engage with the world and share how I process the things happening in my life.
I was nervous to be sharing this song, especially because this isn’t all of me - it’s just one part of me, and wondering how I might be perceived. Kindle is a glimpse at one section of my brain/heart. I would hope that ‘Kindle’ creates room for whoever embraces her, to feel a sense of reflection or contemplation.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THIS SONG?
Kindle was me exploring the mind of a person wrestling with their intuition. We are susceptible to following temporary joys and keeping at bay the things that look problematic because we think we’re fragile, which is true, but we’re also made malleable.
The bridge is the part of the song that is the lightbulb moment, when in hindsight everything stacks together and you see the full picture.
It’s like this cycle of coming back around time and time again, met with this epiphany that you can’t always do it on your own; sometimes you need external intervention to help lead and refine your balance.
YOU WON A PRETTY EXCITING OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THE TRACK PRODUCED AND MIXED BY PARACHUTE STUDIOS – TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT THIS, AND HOW THE EXPERIENCE WAS FOR YOU?
Oh, yes! It was a wonderful experience! I spent a little bit of time with Jeremy McPike the studio manager - such a cool guy, and I was super lucky to spend the day recording with the incredible Dan Martin.
My boyfriend Dave and my friend Ty accompanied me. Ty ended up laying down some bass and electric guitar for the song, and I am so stoked to have had his musical input.
It was good to learn about what you should have prepared before you head into the studio, and what sorts of things you’ll be required to do.
The studio was beautiful. What made it even more awesome was getting to work with my friend Ty, someone who really knows me, and also recording with Dan who understands music and was able to interpret what I was feeling. I’d be keen to do some more recording in future with Dan at Parachute Studios, so fingers crossed that we can do some more tracks.
WHAT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING ABOUT THE PROCESS, FROM IDEA TO COMPLETION?
The most difficult part for me, was getting to the place where I’m ok to let go of the song. When I feel that it is complete; I have to get over the hurdle of taking my hands off the song and letting it exist as it’s own entity.
I also needed to come to terms with sharing a product that represents who I am as an artist, and accept the vulnerability involved with releasing the song.
It’s probably a common thing, but I always get a bit nervous about baring too much of myself, then I get a bit mixed up about being misunderstood.
DO MUSIC AND YOUR FLORISTRY STUDIES RELATE?
I think so. In some ways. The colours or textures are like melodies, and I find where they fit by listening to and seeing the song as a whole. You can put together and pull apart/ rearrange a bouquet, popping each piece where it fits. It’s like a little symphony - everything fitting where it should to make some sort of harmony for you. It’s exercising my eye vs using my ear, maybe? I dunno. One tangible way that my floristry and my music have overlapped is when I made a floral arrangement in an old guitar I had lying around.
Stepping into floristry has also been a relief - finding another outlet for my creativity away from writing and music has been so freeing. While they are separate pursuits, for me there is definitely some overlap between the two.
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST HOPE FOR YOUR MUSIC, AND WHAT’S NEXT?
Across the years I have shared snippets of songs, little ideas or full length videos of me mucking around on facebook. Someone replied to one song in particular and said that it made them cry.
They felt that it was an answer to a really tough spot they were in and brought peace. The word ‘solace’ came to my mind and has been something I draw back to. If there is a chance that someone will find solace or calm from the words I write and sing out loud ~ this is the peak. This is the greatest, most important thing I can offer through my music.
I believe in our hopes and dreams manifesting when we are diligent to the process and things that we need to feel and look at inside ourselves. I think I’m just going to keep writing and backing what I like making. I’m going to write up my dreams for this next year and work towards these things in all the practical ways that I can.
FOLLOW DAVIDDA ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
Hunter Mixtape
A mixtape to accompany ‘Hunter’.
22 OCT 2025
Here’s the Spotify playlist to accompany last week’s Living Room Session #3: Hunter (read about / watch here). This one I was especially looking forward to put together - lots of my favourites all chilling in the same space! It’s a bit darker and grungier (for the most part), in fitting with its namesake track. Hope you like it!
Living Room Sessions: Hunter
A Living Room Session and back story to ‘Hunter’.
15 OCT 2025
The third in a back-catalogue series exploring past May Project tracks, presented as a lo-fi ‘living room’ video and accompanying blog and playlist.
LIVING ROOM SESSION #3.
Track: Hunter
Year of release: 2015
‘Hunter’ is something of an ode to keeping on keeping on when the going gets tough: I wrote it in the middle of a rather unsettled season in my life, and it translated itself into an expression of gritty determination despite challenges (that ol’ chestnut!).
At the time, I was juggling a couple of part time jobs while trying to get my label off the ground (still a work in progress), was picking myself up from being burnt out, and had the sweet-and-sour aftertaste from odd little affairs of the heart still lingering.
The track built itself up around an initial ‘knock-knock’ drum loop, and lo and behold, morphed itself into a song referencing the children’s story of the Three Little Pigs (I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!): danger, bravado, ignorance and indifference, pleased to make your acquaintance. It’s a kind of sing-song chant, and ends with a layering of the different melodies (like the ‘rounds’ we used to sing in childhood): “cry like a child who’s seen the night (the wolf is at the door), scared by the shadows being cast by light (he’s blowing at the walls), I’ll see them grow, see them turn into signs (he’s a hunter, he’s a hunter)”.
Here’s my living room version - lyrics below the video. Hope you enjoy it!
Listen to the original here
Lyrics:
The wolf is at the door
He's blowing at the walls
I don't care,
I don't care at all
Cry like a child who's seen the night
Scared by the shadows being cast by light
I'll see them grow, see them turn
Into signs
I am at the door
I'm clawing at the walls
You don't care,
You don't care at all
Cry like a child who's seen the night
Scared by the shadows being cast by light
I'll see them grow, see them turn
Into signs
The wolf is at the door
He's blowing at the walls
I don't care,
I don't care at all.
Interlude Mixtape
A mixtape themed around ‘Interlude’.
22 SEP 2025
PHOTO: NATASHA VERMEULEN
Following on from last week’s Living Room Session of Interlude (a demo I made in 2017), here’s its accompanying mixtape: an amalgam of the atmospheric, eerie, wistful and cinematic, with a smattering of trip-hop (think This Mortal Coil, Radiohead, Enya, Kate Bush, Portishead).
Enjoy!
Living Room Sessions: Interlude
A Living Room Session for ‘Interlude’.
16 SEP 2025
PHOTO: NATASHA VERMEULEN
This is the second from a back-catalogue series I’m making at the moment while I’m working on a new EP / album (in the name of going backwards to go forwards, or some such thing!). This consists of me making a lo-fi video (see below) of some of my key songs in my living room at home, and popping them up here with their back story.
LIVING ROOM SESSION #2.
Track: Interlude
Year of release: 2017
‘Interlude’ is a track that came to life while I was configuring songs for a show a couple of years back - I was playing around with setting an infinity delay on my vocal pedal, which is where the main looped vocal comes from, and this dark, eerie song was born when I sung a melody over the loop. The lyrics are from Percy Shelley’s poem ‘A Dirge’, which was published posthumously by his wife, Mary Shelley, in 1824.
I am always interested in the kind of dissonance that exists between despair and hope and trying to reconcile the two, and this song is a little snippet of that. I never released it as anything more than a demo (link below if you’d like to listen to the demo version!), but it’s one I enjoy performing live because of its free-form structure and the atmosphere it creates.
So - let me transport you to a dark, stormy night out in the wilderness for a few minutes: the wind is howling around your ears, you are tugging your coat closer about you but the bitter chill still knifes its way in - there’s a plaintive song sighing in the wind-buffeted trees, and the inky blackness is closing in all around…
Lyrics and demo version link below video
Listen to the original demo version here
Lyrics:
Rough wind, that moanest loud
Grief too sad for song;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud
Knells all the night long;
Sad storm, whose tears are vain,
Bare woods, whose branches strain,
Deep caves and dreary main--
Wail, for the world's wrong!
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Where Have All the Colours Gone Mixtape
A mixtape of inspirations surrounding ‘Where Have All the Colours gone’.
7 SEP 2025
With each ‘Living Room Session’ I’m putting together a playlist based around the session’s song - here’s mixtape number one to accompany ‘Where Have all the Colours Gone’ (explore the session here) - a blend of the old, new, and several in between. Enjoy!
Living Room Sessions: Where Have All the Colours Gone
A living room session and back story to ‘Where Have All the Colours Gone’
2 SEP 2025
I’m kicking off a back-catalogue series just now while I’m working on a new EP (in the name of going backwards to go forwards, or some such thing!). This consists of me making a lo-fi video in my living room at home of some of my key songs, and popping them up here with a bit of their back story. The great thing about this is that it is making me get a bunch of these up to scratch for live performance again (I see you, November), so really it’s a win for us all isn’t it.
LIVING ROOM SESSION #1.
Track: Where Have all the Colours Gone
Year of release: Dec 2014
This little number is the very first track I wrote solely as The May Project, and one of two I released together (the other was called ‘Aurora’) - they were to sit alongside a capsule clothing collection for my clothing label, Etta Every. The collection, like the song, was called ‘Where Have all the Colours Gone’, and consisted of a handful of very brightly coloured, simple pieces, built around tonal variations of primary colours. I wrote the track while studying an electronic music production course at SAE (recommend!), and I wanted it to be bright, fun and cheerful without taking itself too seriously. But life wasn’t so peachy just at that point, and naturally that juxtaposition of the ideal and the actual worked itself into the song, and as is my wont, it became a cheery sounding track with slightly less cheery lyrics. It’s a little bit wistful, I like to think, because if I do write something darker I like to sprinkle it with a dash of hope.
The image for the cover art (above) is actually layers of fabric from the collection that I threw in the air and photographed falling, and then superimposed them on top of each other. It’s a key image for me because I keep it in my mind beneath the black and white that is the visual presentation of most of what you’ll see of The May Project: a testament to the possibility of there being so much more depth hidden behind a plainer surface.
Anyway, here’s my living room take of the song, wearing Etta Every (I cringe slightly to show this, but here it is nonetheless!), and you can find lyrics, a link to the original version, and the collection gallery below. Enjoy!
Listen to the original version here
Lyrics:
Life is like a riddle when you’re stuck in misery
Staring upwards blindly, can’t see the forest for the trees
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
Chasing after shadows that are always just out of reach
Forever dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing all the ‘t’s
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
This is something new and I am simply trying to see
A new expression and a reason to believe
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
Torn apart in desperation, trying not to bleed
Reaching out for someone’s hand to hold and set me free
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
Being awake is like being alive
I am breathing because I know
That I can see it coming,
See it beginning to change.
"Where Have all the Colours Gone" collection by Etta Every
Photography by Evie Mackay
Hair and Makeup by Lauren Gunn
Models: Bridie Crawford @ Unique Model Management and Lydia Grace @ Red Eleven
New Single: High Treason
The May Project releases sultry new single High Treason
7 JUN 2025
PHOTO: ADAM BRYCE
Welcome to the world High Treason - a smooth track about navigating and finding the light in the darker places. It’s out now across all digital platforms, and on Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Enjoy!
A big thanks to Adam Bryce for cover art photography, and Sophy Phillips for hair and makeup.