Up next in 10
Marika Hackman joins us for a cuppa, a Jaffa Cake and a little chat about her new album, 'Big Sigh' – a record that took a while to come together but was more than worth the wait.
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excellent oh God I'm not very familiar
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with
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teapots
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right do you want me to talk about the
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[Music]
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biscuits um I don't eat a lot of
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biscuits um because once I start I can't
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really stop um but yes I I do like this
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because I like them too much
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particularly short breads very good
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shout um also chocolate digestive which
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hasn't made the cup but it's fine go for
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it what is it a v something be well I
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want to say be well okay let's give it a
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well there be a lot of me crunching
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isn't there ASMR so make a Hubble tea
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don't blow up is there's two separate
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things there are things that I would do
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um if I was feeling very anxious so I
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would I mean the song no caffeine so I
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would not be having tea or coffee I
1:00
would have herbal tea instead and then I
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often feel like I'm going to throw up
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and I feel anxious so it's like don't
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throw up not herbal tea will make me
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throw
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up I feel very calm now the records out
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it's a it was a very long
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process huge buildup over such a long
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time that you can really go down lots of
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different Avenues in your brain and so
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now that it's also out I just feel
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like great like really calm like really
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ready to make another one as well cuz I
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can't really start a new record until
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I've shelved an old one but I think the
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writing
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took oh my God I don't know like a year
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a year and a half it was it took so long
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and that's why I made that covers album
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um that was kind of because I was trying
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to write big side but I wasn't getting
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anywhere fast so I just thought let's be
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creative put something else out cut out
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the middleman like I don't have to just
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blank page it I can work with someone
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else's stuff but then even after that it
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was kind of di me back in and just yeah
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it was it felt like kind of one song
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every two and a half months or something
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it was just like so slow Nostalgia is I
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think something that I it's a really
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uncomfortable feeling for me and always
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has been I was very strange even when I
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was a kid I always kind of felt this
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sense of
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nostalgia particularly in the summer and
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it used to make me feel very odd and
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sort of sad remember when I went to art
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college and did my Art
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Foundation I all of my work was sort of
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about that um and I haven't really
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looked at it from that perspective again
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until the writing of bigi I think it
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kind of developed as I was writing um
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particularly with the with the dynamic
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range of the record and the
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instrumentation and production where it
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was the choices of these these pushing
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these parameters and pushing those
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opposites and you have the kind of
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organic next to the industrial and
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things like that I think it gave this
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really clear feeling of like before and
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after there's like a shift like there's
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something there and that I realized was
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very much
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this kind of slightly more Carefree
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childlike almost like illustration from
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a child's book view of the world with
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the kind of crushing realities of being
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an actual adult which we all know and
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love like when I talk about with Polly
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like she's always like I could not wait
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to go she's a very very capable
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responsible person she she's smashing
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adulthood I think she has been since she
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was like 18 whereas I'm still like can
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we just play hide and seek in the garden
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for a few hours
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I wanted it to be like subtle um I guess
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the brashness of any human friend I felt
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like I needed to maybe push back
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slightly against that and keep it really
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vulnerable and understated rather than
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um trying to slap everyone around the
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face all the time I mean relationships
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are really easy to write about it's they
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pull up a lot of emotions but that also
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being in a relationship is I think where
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you learn the most about yourself like
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you can reflect back on who you are
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Through The Eyes of the other person so
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I think that's why I'm very drawn to it
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because I'm constantly sort of searching
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for that like self-reflection and who I
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am in any given time and place whatever
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um and growth the idea of growth I think
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you grow the most in relationships and
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you know it's they're huge big defining
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moments in your life so they're always
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there floating around and even if I'm
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pulling from relationships from five six
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10 years ago it's always with a
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reflection of like who I was then and
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who I am now um but when it comes to the
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other person you know I really never
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ever want to make music that would upset
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anyone or pull someone into a situation
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um it's it's a one-sided argument if you
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will like I it's not particularly fair
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so I don't like name check and things
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like that I think it's important but
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it's very much just like this is this is
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me in my perspective and these in my
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emotions you did this you did that and
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you know it's kind of it's it's not
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about that it's about how you've seen
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yourself in a new light I guess I feel
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very settled now in my life I feel like
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I turned 30 within that time which is Al
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such a cliche but like there's something
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I feel much more like in my skin and
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like quieter um there's less of a
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constant hum uh which is also arguably
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why it's maybe slightly harder to access
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some of those more chaotic emotions um
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if you're just feeling pretty good um
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which is again such a Trope but it's
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it's Trope for a reason it's true um
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which I'm not saying tortured artists is
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a thing we should try and be but I think
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um you have to start thinking about
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different ways of working or different
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ways of accessing things when you're not
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a kind of chaotic mid 20s running around
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shagging everything and causing chaos
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like that's literally like so much
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easier to write about if I hear tracks
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from the first like EPs and things that
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I was releasing I sound like a terrified
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choir boy and it's like I feel like now
5:57
certainly the journey going through was
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the second album really that shifted
6:00
that into the third It's like because I
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was singing about stuff that had so much
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more attitude I really had to like push
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myself and be really present and like
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change the way I was singing to reflect
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the lyrics and that's really scary like
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I sang like a choir boy because I just
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wanted to get it right I wanted to hit
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the right notes and I was just only
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thinking about that rather than like
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performance um the more of a performance
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you do the more like you can look like
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an idiot so that's like really scary but
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I did all that stuff and it's like now
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then when I came to Big side like I'm
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singing more about the kind of quiet and
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more emotional things
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but my voice is so much more confident
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when you hear it it's like it's it's
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able to inhabit so much more emotions um
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because I've had that whole growth and
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confidence all of that whereas before
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like I said it was just like oh my God
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the mic's on you know someone's
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listening to me it's like terrify so I
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put the Telly on um and I have it fairly
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low down volume wise with subtitles and
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I will sit with my guitar and watch
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TV and basically kind of unconsciously
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be playing my guitar um and then if
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something sounds nice it's like we just
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focus on it for a second start writing
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something and then if it's properly
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going somewhere then I just pause the
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Telly and start working on it I have
7:11
really
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inan program choices that I put on so I
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don't have to concentrate I wouldn't
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ever put anything on that I actually
7:18
wanted to like invest in a plot line but
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it's kind of nicer doing that than maybe
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sitting at a desk picking up my guitar
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and being like let's start on an a chord
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and be like you know it's just a bit
7:28
more
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because it's unconscious it feels so
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much more like instinctive as if
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something's just coming out of somewhere
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but it is like below deck on the tell or
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Real
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Housewives bad
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stuff so what I'm most looking forward
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to with the touring but it's also the
7:47
biggest fear is creating a set that
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still has the tracks that people want to
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hear because I think that's really
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important I'm definitely not one of
7:55
those artists that's like I'm never
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going to play like my big single ever
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again it's like if if I'm in the crowd
8:00
that's I want to hear a few of those so
8:02
I always do that but how do I take a
8:04
song like
8:06
boyfriend and pull that into the world
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of big S side because it's it's the
8:09
latest record that dictates the world
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and I have to try and work out how I can
8:15
make a set and how I can probably
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rearrange a lot of those other tracks to
8:19
actually come into that world which is
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intimidating but I think it's also a
8:24
really nice challenge to have um it
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should be should be fun fish
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oh well that's an easy one to answer
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isn't it I thought there was a
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scientific there's a scientific law
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about cake and biscuit that a cake when
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it goes stale goes harder and a biscuit
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when it goes still goes
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softer so that means a Jaffa Cake is a
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cake not a biscuit shortbread is a
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classic though so for dunking purposes
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am I allowed to reveal that I've
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actually got coffee in this cup you are
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I think that maybe the Jaffa Cake might
9:02
win for the dunk for the coffee and the
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the dark chocolate and the orange why
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don't you have one yeah yes used to be
9:11
my favorite Jammy Dodgers but you know
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in the era of the the kids parties in
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the late 90s big bowls of wat sits and
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they have those foxes party Rings Jammy
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Dodgers chocolate fingers another great
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biscuit but Jammy Dodgers I used to love
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um pulling them apart and actually
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pulling the set jam out and then just
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like chewing on that for a while cuz
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it's very chewy maybe you can do that
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now um I'm too old to be playing with my
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best
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kids I me actually would have been
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really shocking if I had eaten all of
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them like because I felt like I had to
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like it was some kind of this is a food
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contest
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right
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