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Fast Five: Miel de Botton

MTTM

Triangle

When did you begin making music, and did you ever ponder a different career?

I began making music about three years ago after I embarked on an album project with my producer, Andy Wright, who encouraged me to write my own music. Before that I had a different career as a clinical psychologist and family therapist and I worked mainly in drug addiction centres.

How would you describe your music?

My music takes two forms; I perform and record traditional French chansons from the forties and fifties, which are passionate and romantic, with innovative arrangements, and I write songs myself. These, I would describe as soft, lyrical ballads with much emotional significance, which are meant to reach and move people in a healing way.

What have you been up to so far and what can we expect over the coming months?

So far I have been performing as much as I can at various venues in London and abroad and I have been pursuing my album project with Andy Wright. This was finished last summer (2014) and the first single, ‘Bad Men’, came out in the autumn of this year, along with its accompanying video that was shot at the original Sergio Leone spaghetti western set in Spain. I am now beginning to promote the album, ‘Magnetic’, on radio and in the press. It will be launched on 27th January 2015 at The Southbank Centre in London and released on 1st February 2015. I am also performing a live, ticketed, event at The Pheasantry in The King’s Road, London on 13th November, so I hope many of you will attend!

If you could duet with anybody who would it be and why?

Firstly, for the French songs, I would love to sing with either Julien Clerc or Patrick Bruel because they are people whose songs I sing and love myself. I would be very honoured to sing with them. On the English speaking front, I absolutely adore Van Morrison and Leonard Cohen and I would be wonderfully happy to sing a duet with either of them. All these people have deeply influenced my own music writing.

What’s your desert island disc and why would you take this one album?

At the moment one of my favourite albums, which I would like to make a desert island disc, is Sam Smith’s album. I find it very relaxing and with a profound emotional intensity and range that I really appreciate. It touches me deeply.

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