One day, when I was coming home from uni, I stopped off at Johnny Roadhouse - a famous music shop here in Manchester. I found a violin and hastily decided to buy it. I couldn't play violin and when I got home, I couldn't even tune it up without the bridge falling down. I took it back the next day and they would only let me swap it for another instrument. I found a small guitar that was essentially a six-string ukulele, known as a guitalele. Essentially it was a guitar that started from the fifth fret. This ended up being the defining sound of my early Roman Lakes songs. This song is actually about a rollercoaster crash at a local theme park. Heavily influenced by Morrissey and The Smiths, 'Crash' is a love song gone bad, dressed up in major chords and catchy melodies - I fully intend to re-record this one as a full band song one day.

These two songs were released on Bleeding Gold Records, based in LA. Roger from Bleeding Gold helped me get heard across the pond in the US and I got some of my first bits of recognition as a musician through BG. His support for my music still is incredibly important to me. I'm very lucky to have been supported by someone like him, who sees the value in emerging independent artists. Roger had a celebratory release where BG artists covered each other's music. I loved 'Stay All Night' by Tape Waves and decided to cover it. I still love their original version.