Page 10 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2019

MW: What was your fanbase like at the time? Did you go on social media prompting
people to vote for you or did you take a step back from that?

RD: I posted a link on social media for people to vote, but I didn't ask them to vote for me. That
sort of thing doesn't sit very well with me. I just posted the link and said vote for who you think is
the most deserving. I've had people messaging me in the past asking me to vote for them, but
it's just not my style. So, when I won, it was a complete surprise because I hadn't done any of
that. I think people genuinely voted for me because they wanted to, which was amazing.

MW: There were no awards in 2017, but you won ‘Best Female Blues Vocalist’ in 2018.
How did it feel to win again?

RD: Just incredible! I didn't expect to win again ‘cos I thought some people class me as blues,
but others don't. So, I thought that might have worn off with people thinking, ‘Oh, she's more
rock, so we're not going to vote for her anyway.’ It was great to win it again because it meant the
first one wasn't a fluke.

MW: It's like a confirmation that you're doing things right.

RD: Absolutely.

MW: Your style is heading more in the rock direction these days. Was that a conscious
decision or a natural progression?

RD: Natural progression, really. I was always in rock bands. Some very heavy back in the day;
some more blues. But it was just the style of writing really, it was darker. It's not heavy by any
means. It's still got bluesy overtones, especially in the vocals. But the overall feel of the music is
darker and a lot heavier. It's the way I was writing with Steve Birkett. That's the direction it's
taken.

MW: How did you come to meet up with Steve and did you know straight away that you'd
clicked?

RD: I met him through a bass player I knew and he's a multi-instrumentalist. We needed a keys
player and a guitarist then, and Steve could do both. I didn't know he wrote at all. He was in a
signed band some years ago. I went round to his house one day and he played me some of the
stuff he'd written. I said, ‘Why aren't you playing this? This is what you should be doing.’ So, we
ended up writing together and it all went from there really.

MW: You play with a full electric band, but also play stripped-back acoustic gigs. Which
do you prefer?

RD: I couldn't really choose between the two. You like them for different reasons. The full band
gigs are full-on, exhausting in every capacity…and you walk off the stage dripping in sweat. But
with the acoustic shows, it's more personal and it's a different interpretation of the songs. I like
them both for different reasons.