DEMI LOUISE
Twenty-year old singer/songwriter Demi Louise has taken the plunge and left our Aussie shores to live and perform in the UK.
Like all average Melburnian songwriters, Demi spent her days songwriting, gigging and Youtubing. “Songwriting sort of just happened.” Not to mention, she also successfully completed her degree in Clinical Exercise Science at Victoria University in 2013.
But it was only last year that her life started to change when she began writing her first EP. “Basically at the end of last year, I met Joe from Sound of Melbourne Records and with some opportunities that were coming up, we decided that it was a good time to try and release something that was completely stripped back and unproduced.”
‘Songs From My Bedroom’, released in November 2013 is a collection of everything she had wrote and recorded till the date of release. “I think that it is a great starting point to release acoustic music like that and so it will be great to see my growth from here.” The EP received high praise from the public which inspired Demi to continue on with her work.
On 18th November 2013, Demi performed to a sold out crowd of 2,000 in Nottingham, UK supporting British singer/songwriter Gabrielle Aplin on her Autumn Tour after winning a competition run by Aplin’s website. It was here where she launched ‘Songs From My Bedroom’ and brought it to the big stage. (See video here)
“It was incredible. It was great to know that all those people were there appreciating the type of music that Gabby makes and that they would be open to what I was doing also. Everyone was so receptive and it was just everything that I could want from my life and I hope that I get the opportunity again.”
In early 2014, Demi auditioned for the new upcoming season of X Factor Australia. After her success in the audition rounds, Demi made the brave decision to leave the show with the sudden urge to release her own music. “I decided that as a whole concept for me and where I am, it was important that I go out and reach people with the music I want to reach then with. Although it’s great exposure, (and you could never ask for a bigger push than that), I just decided that it wasn’t where I needed to be.” It was after this that Demi packed her bags and headed to the UK.
Demi is definitely keeping herself busy with constant performances including her first UK festival at Liverpool Sound City and being part of the Aussie BBQ run by Sounds Australia. Meanwhile, she featured in an interview on BBC Merseyside with Billy Butler and performed ‘Stay’ live. Also, she was involved in a songwriting workshop held at Tileyard Records in London run by APRA where she and other Aussie and New Zealand songwriters were given the opportunity to collaborate, write and record music.
When asked about how it felt to be gigging in the UK representing Australia she replied with, “It’s an honour really. The support from Australia has made the whole experience happen for me and I’m very lucky.”
Amidst all the excitement and busy schedules, Demi released her first single titled ‘Ruins’. A song with a simple acoustic and heartfelt melody, Ruins talks about the effects of how a broken relationship can affect your future love life as taken from the following lyrics:
“There’ll be pieces of you, and there’ll be pieces of me, and then there's all the other messed up things that fell in between. And while the spaces between our ruins grew, I knew.”
“My grandparents inspired me, (especially) my grandfather’s fight with dementia, and how even though they are still so in love, it will never be the same again.” The music video, directed by Jared from The Amadis Project was released in April and is worth a watch. Following its release, Ruins has received lots of positive feedback with a current total of over 2000 views on YouTube. Her Twitter support base is very active with fans constantly re-tweeting links to the video.
So, what’s next for Demi Louise? We believe there may possibly be more releases coming, or a tour, but Demi urges her fans to keep checking out her sites for upcoming details. When asked about returning to Melbourne, Demi said that she may return in the summer to catch the sun!
“I am honestly loving what I am doing right now. I have so many goals musically and obviously the first of all of them is to gain national radio access through a release. So that’s what I’m aiming towards at the moment, but, we will see.”
