Westcountry folk-rocker Gabrielle Aplin got her commercial break on a John Lewis ad, but used the moment to hone her songcraft and find her voice. Now she’s marking the reissue of her 2013 debut album with a tour, and looking back with Emma Way.
It’s winter 2012, and the latest John Lewis advert airs during The X Factor’sad break. That year’s campaign featured a cover of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s The Power Of Love, performed by a 20-year-old Gabrielle Aplin. The singer-songwriter’s debut album English Rain followed in 2013, showcasing Aplin’s knack for sophisticated, heartfelt folk-pop songcraft.
This spring, English Rain’s vinyl reissue is being marked with a European tour, which includes a Cardiff date in May. With her debut centred on themes of home and human connection, Aplin never expected her music to resonate on a global scale.
“I didn’t realise how much it had changed my life at the time, I suppose because it just happened so quickly,” she says, reflecting on the impact of English Rain. “I’d never travelled before this album, and it took me to parts of the world that I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d be able to go to. When I think back to that time, I think of Japan, I think of Australia, I think of the people there who are listening to these songs I wrote in my childhood bedroom. I’m meeting these people, and we’re communicating through a translator.”
Another song from this era, Start Again, was written for the last series of Bristol-set cult teen drama Skins; never formally released until this year, it’s now a bonus track on English Rain. “That was for hardcore fans! They really care. Wherever Skins fans and my fans crossed over, that song lived. I grew up watching Skins – my family are from in and around Bristol, and we all watched it. When they did the final three episodes with the original characters, and they asked me, it felt like a big deal for me personally.”
Aplin moved to Somerset in 2020, and gives the impression of favouring a slower-paced life. Now 33 years old, she’s been advocating for animal rights and veganism for a decade or so: she currently keeps dogs, sheep, chickens and ducks, having adopted bottle-fed orphaned lambs from a local farmer friend. Of the exchange, she tells me, “We have very different views on things, but I think that’s a big thing about living somewhere like here – the farming community – and having to learn to get along with everyone, even if they don’t think the same as you.
“I really am very grateful for my time in London. I always tried to make [living between] there and the southwest work for me, but it got to the point where I realised it was never going to, not because it was bad in any way. I just want to create a world where I can go on tour, make music, and then still look after my animals.” After speaking to Buzz today, she’ll be ripping out a kitchen in her farmhouse.
Aplin’s last album, 2023’s Phosphorescent, was recorded in the countryside with Mike Spencer, who also produced English Rain. “I like to keep my team small, even if I do enjoy trying new things. I’m going up to this place with these people who have known me since I was a teenager, and they feel like family, and it makes it so comfortable that there are no bad ideas. It’s a completely safe space.”
In a similar vein of understanding what shapes creativity, Aplin was diagnosed with ADHD in 2017, something that helped her view her brain in a completely new light. Did she, with this hindsight, notice those parts of herself in her earliest songs?
“At the time, I was writing these songs about home when there was so much change happening, and I didn’t realise how different that change was. There are good changes, but differences are scary when your brain is wired that way. I was writing a lot about how things feel uncomfortable and scary, but maybe they’ll be fine in the end.”
Things have turned out more than fine for Gabrielle Aplin, including a spring tour which has already sold out some of its dates weeks in advance. “I regularly get messages from people who were teenagers [when English Rain came out], and now they’re coming to the show because they’re old enough.” She even takes a moment to speak to one of those fans during this interview.
Gabrielle Aplin, Tramshed, Cardiff, Mon 11 May
Tickets: £25. Info: here
words EMMA WAY
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