Twinnie bares her soul on her latest EP, Blue Hour (After Dark), available now. The singer/songwriter wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks on the project. Songs like the triumphant “Bad Man” showcase her powerhouse vocals while “Lonely Long” sees the artist moving on following a breakup.
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Ahead of her Grand Ole Opry debut on Friday (November 3), where she becomes the first Romani Traveller to step into the famed circle, Twinnie shares a track-by-track on Blue Hour (After Dark).
“I’m so honoured and excited that I am making my Opry debut on November 3,” Twinnie tells American Songwriter. “It’s been a dream of mine for so long and I cannot wait to make that a reality. I’ll also be making history as the first Romani Traveller to step into the circle so it’s also a huge moment for the Gypsy community as a whole and I’m honoured to be representing that too as well as my homeland England. This is for all the dream chasers out there.”
Find Twinnie’s track-by-track on Blue Hour (After Dark) below.
1. “Lonely Long”
(Written by Twinnie, John Luke Carter and Tommy Lee James)
I wanted it to have this sense of freedom reflected in the music. To me it’s wild, sultry, and empowering. Like a Gypsy with a broken heart dancing under the stars finding herself again,
I wanted a track on the EP to be like, “Okay this dude has left me, but I’m making the decision that he’s never coming back.” I found closure within myself. I don’t think you ever get that from the other person so I had to find it somehow as he was never going to have that conversation with me. This is an empowerment song. By building myself back up again and being like, “I am worthy of being loved,” I started looking at my new life as a gift and not something to be sad over. After the breakup, I moved to Nashville because apart from family and friends who were in different cities anyway, there was nothing tying me to London. This whole EP has been a bit of a rollercoaster because back when I was heartbroken I couldn’t see what was in front of me and now a year on I’m happier than I’ve ever been and I’m also about to make my Opry debut so although that breakup was a sad ending he set me free and I’m now forever grateful to him for doing that as I feel I’m in the right place and I’m overwhelmed by all the love the EP has had.
2. “Sad Boy”
(Written by Twinnie and Paul Sikes)
I wrote this with Paul Sikes, and Barnabas Shaw produced it. This was a song that I had actually written before the breakup. But I wanted some sass on the EP. I wanted to encapsulate that feeling of how some people think the grass is greener on the other side but it’s only greener where you water it. I’ve had this happen to me where somebody has wanted the talk with me to say it’s not working but then 3 weeks later they come back and you’ve already moved on. I thought it just fits perfectly with the different emotions on the EP. It takes you on a journey. I also love the production on this one. It’s a lot more pop-esque than the rest but it kind of suits the song. and I really wanted a lot of background vocals and for it to feel quite anthemic. I just want sad girls who have been done wrong to be screaming this with me at my shows. It’s got a really good groove too and I love all the slide guitars that are featured.
3. “Just Like Earle”
(Written by Twinnie, Sophia Scott, and David Messy)
I wrote this one with Sophia Scott, and David Messy in Nashville. As you can imagine after being broken up with over email I was very angry, especially after 10 years. In my songs, I like to play characters especially when it comes to the videos and I took inspiration from people like SZA (“Kill Bill”) and The Chicks (“Goodbye Earl”).
Murder is only legal in songwriting so I was able to take my frustrations and anger out through this song. I actually really like the psychoticness of this song although it has probably scared away potential suitors. I just wanted to create a character and it’s got a very dark comedic undertone which is not always that common. The first line is: I’ve already planned your funeral with all of your favourite flowers and from that moment on we knew we were going full-on psycho. We did feel like, “Should we bring this back a little?” when we were writing it but we committed to the crazy, psycho vibe and I’m proud of the fact that this is the most psychotic song you’re ever gonna hear.
4. “Bad Man”
(Written by Twinnie, Jessica Farren, John Kelly Dyke, and Kyndal Inskeep)
This is kind of an explanation to anybody new that comes into my life. As we grow older, we’ve all got trauma and triggers and issues that have affected us from past relationships and sometimes we bring those into a new relationship unintentionally. It just sort of happens, so this is a lyrical explanation of how someone did me wrong, and if I act in a certain way or I’m not as forthcoming then just be a little bit patient with me. One of my favourite lines is: I loved a bad man, left me with scars and tore out my heart and sold it for parts. Now that I’m falling into you, I hope you’re not a bad man too. It’s just me explaining to the next person that this is the shit that I’ve been through. There’s something particularly beautiful about this melody and it’s so personal to me. I just wanted it to be quite anthemic. It starts out small and then really grows especially towards the end. I would say this is the song that really shows off my vocal range.
5. “Blue Hour”
(Written by Twinnie)
So, this whole record was a very painful but cathartic experience. I went through a breakup from a relationship that I was in for 10 years and the way that it ended wasn’t great and I really struggled with that. The only way I knew how to deal with that was to express it through art which I’m really grateful for. The title track, “Blue Hour” is something that I wrote at night in my bedroom at about 2 a.m. Memories of him and what we did together would just kind of hit me and I’d be going through my camera roll and I couldn’t delete the pictures or videos. Some would make me cry, some would make me laugh.
I realised that blue hour is a certain time of day that happens twice a day; when the sun goes down and just after the sun comes up. I thought that was a really cool concept for a breakup and that’s how the idea for the song came about. I found during the time that was really dark for me it was always after the sun went down, at night when I would need to try and rationalise and fight with my own brain to go to sleep, and not look at my phone. To not call or text him. So I wanted to portray a breakup in that concept. “Blue Hour,” I wrote by myself and it’s the most throwback country track on the EP. It’s just that sentiment that no matter how old we get there are still always going to be people and memories that we look back on and it’ll always make us a little bit blue about how we’re not in contact with that person anymore. Barnabas Shaw produced it with me and we had a lot of fun creating it. There are a lot of harmonies and this beautiful kind of choir, BV behind that make it very classic sounding.
6. “The Way I Loved You”
(Written by Twinnie)
I wrote this, also by myself. When I first went through the breakup I was very disillusioned by it all as I thought he would come back and I was waiting and going through the stages of grief. I was angry then I was sad, I was bargaining with myself. One of my favourite lines in that song is: Even stars burn out, but their light still shines on like you and me it’ll never be gone. That sentiment summed it up for me. I don’t know how I’m ever going to love another person the way I loved you. You’re always going to be in my heart, how do I move on from this? No matter if we’re 70 or if I see you one day and you’ve got a family… I guess I’ll always feel this way about somebody that I’ve loved for 10 years.
That was really the sentiment behind that song. It’s grieving someone. If you’ve lost anyone, this song relates to that feeling. Only that person can fill that void and somebody else might come along but you’ve then got to trust yourself again to trust another person and will it be the same as how you loved that other person? Probably not, it’ll be different. I think this is what this song embodies. It’s honestly one of my favourite songs. Some of my closest friends played on this track. Latavius Mulzac who’s an amazing pianist, Lenny Pey on guitar. I would sing the melody lines of what I wanted the guitar to do and the Lenny or Barnabas would play it. I wanted it to feel very intimate and the vocals to be very clear. It kind of reminds me of something you would hear in a church, the music is very powerful as it builds.
Photo Credit: Lily Nelson
