THE LATEST instalment in the singles club run by Leeds grassroots organisation Come Play With Me – the label, zine, promoter and all round caring body active on the West Yorkshire scene – comes from a fine female singer-songwriter, now resident in the capital of God’s Own Country, but who came south from the Highlands last year.
Her name is Josephine Sillars, and on the strength of this slice of nuanced piano songwriting, she has a bright future ahead of her in the lineage of Fiona Apple and others.
The song is “I’ll See You When I See You” and aptly for someone who’s so recently upped sticks and shifted their life into a new phase, it finds her exploring the idea of treading one’s own path in life, while also being heartfelt about those you’re leaving behind; and it comes in the weave of swinging electronic drums, phasing, shimmering keys, and high, heart-tugging declaration. You have a colder heart than mine if you don’t fall for those gradually rising exhortations: “Please don’t go“.
This single follows her six-track Desperate Characters EP, released in March and underwritten by the Help Musicians Do It Differently fund. Previous single “Enemy” was track of the week on BBC Introducing West Yorkshire in January.
Josephine says of the song: “’I’ll See You When I See You’ is a song about being far away from friends and the bittersweetness that comes with missing them, but knowing that you’re only apart because you want different things.
“Interestingly it isn’t actually about lockdown – it’s mostly reflecting on older friendships and people who have moved away.”
Josephine Sillars’ “I’ll See You When I See You” is out now from Come Play With Me on digital streaming platforms; connect with her elsewhere on the web on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
