Monthly Archives: February 2021

Here are the latest answers for the Edinburgh Evening Newss daily crossword puzzles.

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EVENING NEWS DOUBLE CROSSWORD ANSWERS 25/01/2021:

Cryptic: Across: 1 Arms traffic; 9 Top; 10 Extension; 11 Demon; 13 Funfair; 14 Stripe; 16 Region; 18 Anemone; 19 Since; 20 Close race; 21 Sue; 22 Fertile mind.Down: 2 Rip; 3 Skein; 4 Ratify; 5 Finance; 6 Imitation; 7 At a distance; 8 Entrance fee; 12 Morse code; 15 Poorest; 17 Recall; 19 Steam; 21 Son.

Quick: Across: 1 Misanthrope; 9 Man; 10 Enactment; 11 Refit; 13 Confirm; 14 Glance; 16 Genial; 18 Arrange; 19 Fleet; 20 Lingering; 21 Ado; 22 Desecration. Down: 2 Inn; 3 Alert; 4 Trance; 5 Retinue; 6 Precipice; 7 Impregnable; 8 Stimulation; 12 Fragrance; 15 Concede; 17 Senior; 19 Fight; 21 Ago.

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Evening News crossword answers Monday, January 25: Here are the solutions for our daily puzzles - Edinburgh News

KARACHI:All MCU fans were teary-eyed to see Vision die inAvengers: Infinity War.While his return is a pleasant surprise in the latestWandaVisionseries, it does not quite sit well with the entire narrative that the universe is following. How did he suddenly come back to life with no memory of his death and no mention of what their life was before they somehow ended up in a suburban neighbourhood happily married?

The answer is simple, alternate reality. For the first time, MCU looks into a superheros mental health agitated after taking major hits in the past.

Where do Wandas mental health issues stem from?

We didnt give Wanda enough time to grieve. She had lost her (adoptive) parents at a young age. Discovered byBaronWolfgang von Strucker, who had been experimenting on humans to further the evil motives of Hydra, Wanda and Pietra Maximoff live their lives as lab rats in Sokovia. Pietro, who had superhuman speed, and Wanda, who can alter reality with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, soon have a turn of conscience and join the Avengers.

Ultron, the evil sentient robot, creates a more powerful body using the mind stone from Lokis scepter and aims to transfer his mind into the new body. However, Avengers who escape with this new body, bring it to life after uploading J.A.R.V.I.S. (a friendly AI built by Tony Stark) into its body instead. This creates Vision, who soon falls in love with Wanda Maximoff and she reiterates.

Raised in Sokovia, Wanda is extremely close to her twin brother. However, she has to bid him farewell after Ultron kills him. Soon afterwards, inCaptain America: Civil War,Wanda accidentally causes a building to explode. The burden of guilt weighs on her heart strongly especially as she is growing accustomed to life outside the lab. During this time, Vision is her constant source of emotional support.

ByInfinity War,Thanos, who is on a quest to obtain all the infinity stones, kills Vision to obtain the mind stone attached to his forehead. With the source of his power gone, the android dies. Wanda is soon snapped out of reality when Thanos snaps his finger, only for her to reappear five years later with herVisionlost. This could be an enormous blow to Scarlet Witchs mental health. After her reappearance, she possibly does not even get the catharsis she awaited when she attacks Thanos who is from a time several years before the events of the infinity war, saying, you took everything from me. To which Thanos replies, I dont even know you.

The universe of WandaVision

Progressing with a lapse of 10 years in each episode, the superheroes hardly aging, living a peaceful life (often revealing their powers by accident to a group of people who remain oblivious), the universe seems a little out of the ordinary. With its sitcom-like treatment, the universe does take into account the comics, such as Wanda getting pregnant and quickly delivering her children in a days time. It feels heartwarming at first until the sound from the radio starts to address Wanda asking, Who is doing this to you?

Even if it is initially difficult to catch that Wanda is the one rewinding reality, by the third episode when she rewinds a scene with Vision realizing there is something wrong with their surroundings, the audience becomes sure. Heartbreakingly enough, it is extremely likely that Vision is simply a figment of Wandas imagination and a memory she refuses to let go of.

There are ads in between, such as a toaster by Stark Industries, a wristwatch by Strucker, Hydra, and Hydra Soak bath minerals that appear from time to time. This really gives an insight into what is going on in Wandas head. In her subconscious, she holds repressed memories of Hydra, Strucker, and Stark.

In this alternate-reality, Wanda gives birth to twins, and as she does so, she remembers being a twin sibling to a brother she lost. It is possible that Wanda has created her own twins in the loving memory of her brother. As soon as Geraldine states, He was killed by Ultron to Wanda who is singing a Sokovian lullaby to her newborn twins, she makes sure to throw Geraldine out from the world that Wanda aims to keep for herself. Perhaps, this represents her repressed memories resurfacing.

The nosy neighbours

The nosy neighbours who somehow always appear happy and (ironically) ignorant of two superheroes living in their neighbourhood for decades may very well be people from SW.O.R.D. The helicopter with a sword in its logo hints at that. The sound from the radio appears to be of Randall Park, a CIA agent who kept Scott Lang in detention. Either S.W.O.R.D. has penetrated the alternate reality created by Wanda, or are accessing her mind somehow, going allInceptionon her, or it really is an unconscious Wanda accessing her happily ever after, refusing to step out of her imaginary world.

The show also introduces Kathryn Hahn as Agnes. But she could just be the witch Agatha Harkness, an MCU character who wipes her twins out of existence and causes Wanda to go rogue. The twins getting wiped out could really be Wanda coming to terms with the actual reality where neither Vision nor his children with Wanda exist, which could be extremely heartbreaking and could shift her character for the worse. We also see Agnes dressed up as a witch in one of the trailers, hinting at her look from the comics.

Another theory suggests Mephisto lurking in the neighbourhood posing as the snobbish Dottie. Mephisto can alter his appearance and in the comics takes a particular interest in the Scarlet Witch. When Dottie states that she has heard things about Vision and Wanda and does not trust the couple, Wanda feels threatened.

What to expect

What S.W.O.R.D. could really be doing here is protecting Wanda from Mephisto. Wanda, keen on staying in the universe might come face to face with either the evils of Mephisto or simply her own fate. This could possibly loop in Loki and Doctor Strange as Wanda expands her universe.

However, what really seals the deal for MCU this time is their approach to mental health issues. It portrays them as more insidious wars fought internally, often harder than most battles we fight externally in our lives. The WandaVision series tries to convince watchers that trauma does shape our behaviours, whether we choose to confront our mental health problems or deny them.

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WandaVision: Heartwarming or heartbreaking? - Cutacut Entertainment News

Google Image search Steven Wilson sadness meme, and youll find plenty of hilarious results.

His music rarely sounds depressing despite the groans of the modern prog-rock community, hes just as likely these days to channel Abba as Gentle Giant. But he does tend to explore the dark corners of the human psyche, from the ultra bleak conceptual framework of Porcupine Trees 2002 LP, In Absentia, to the tragic real-life story that inspired his 2015 solo LP, Hand. Cannot. Erase.

If anyone could expertly channel the despair and division of the pandemic/Trump era, its this guy. And the songwriters perfectly titled new LP, The Future Bites, does traffic in the paranoia and general anxiety of our current dystopia. But Wilson finished writing the project in 2018 it just happens to feel like an ideal soundtrack.

Somebody said to me earlier, Youre very lucky that your album is so relevant,' he tells SPIN. I said, Its not really luck, is it? Theres some kind of synchronicity going on.

Wilson fully wrapped The Future Bites in January 2020 and he was eager to release the album, which widens his already massive canvas to more deeply explore modern, beat-driven sounds. But he had to table his excitement, pushing back the project by over six months. Still, with each passing week, the songs only felt more relevant and prescient.

He recently spoke to SPIN about that thematic resonance, shattering the preconceived notion that hes only a prog artist and, well, evil spirits.

Steven Wilson is over the future CREDIT: Andrew Hobbs

SPIN: Take me back to your mindset when you were writing The Future Bites.Steven Wilson: That was a strange, depressing time [in Britain] because we were right in the middle of the Brexit hoo-hah. And it was right in the middle of the Trump administration, which affected everyone on the planet. I wasnt feeling particularly optimistic, so I started to write these songs about how the future was not looking as rosy as it should have. I was writing about how our sense of self and identity had been affected by social media, by the politics of hate. There was an unbelievable amount of belligerence online at the time about any subject: Brexit, Trump, Boris Johnson, anything. The album came out of that feeling.

Now the world seems even bleaker. How have the pandemic and the horrifying events of the last year affected you creatively?I have started a couple new projects, but I stopped writing about the [same kind of subjects] on Future Bites. I feel like I wrote the album I should have written now two years ago. [laughs] I wonder if its too close to home now. The stuff Ive been writing the last year or so has more of a sense of escapism. You turn on the news, and its almost too much as it is.

After you pushed back this album, you had a lot of time to sit with these songs. That can be dangerous for a songwriter and producer since there are infinite tweaks you could make. Did you revise anything?Its the first time and it will probably be the last time that Ive ever had the luxury of going back to an album I thought was finished six months later and have an objective listen. By the end of the 18-month [creative] process, its hard to look at it as anything other than a science project. Its like, you dont really hear the music anymore. What you hear is, Is that backing vocal [panned] over too much to the right side? But I was able to put the record away for six months and then approve a test pressing of the original vinyl edition. I thought there was one thing terribly wrong with it: The last track was the wrong tone to end the album with, so I replaced it. It made me wonder how many records, if Id had the opportunity to do that, Id have made changes to.

That brings to mind Kanye West, who famously kept tweaking 2016s The Life of Pablo and re-uploading the songs. It makes you think, Is the album format now this living and breathing thing?I kinda like that idea that an album these days, because of Spotify, can be in a constant state of flux. I wonder if it might be possible to approach making a record with that kind of philosophy in mind. So many of the really interesting innovations in modern music are coming from the urban music world. Its a shame that so [few] are coming from rock music, which I think is largely disappearing into a marginalized niche much like jazz before it. I suppose what youre talking about is an extension of remix culture, isnt it? A song can be endlessly reworked and remixed. But now were in the realm of the album itself, which was always cast in stone. Now its liquid.

The Future Bites sounds much more current. Given how often people try to pigeonhole you as this retro prog guy, did that encourage you to push further into contemporary sounds?If my previous albums are guilty of something that I dont particularly like, its a sense of nostalgia. [2017s] To the Bonewas kind of nostalgic for the great era of experimental 80s pop. My earlier albums were very rooted in the 70s conceptual rock world. My first solo album was like an homage to shoegaze and post-punk. This time around, it was a very conscious decision: This record has to sound like it only could have been made now. I dont like to repeat myself. I dont like the [misconception] that Im a generic artist. Ive always kicked against that idea.

Part of the problem is that my most successful records come from that tradition. I started my career in a synth-pop band, No-Man, but for whatever reason, that wasnt very successful. Porcupine Tree, which started as a little side project, began to take off, and that was more rooted in classic rock. So I became known as someone who made classic rock music and progressive rock and conceptual rock. As a consequence of that, I started to get a lot of invitations to work with other bands in the same tradition, like King Crimson and Opeth. For a long time that pigeonholed me in that particular genre. I always thought of myself as quite eclectic someone whos just as much at home making ambient or drone or noise music or pop. Its not like I set out to upset people who thought of me as making classic rock. But I was aware that this would move the goal post. People might finally start to understand that you cant easily put [my music] in a box.

Youve always been very hands-on in your music: producing and playing multiple instruments. Yet you usually surround yourself with these elite musicians. The Future Bites seems to be the most solo of your solo records.Youre right. I dont think Ive made a more solo record since the early Porcupine Tree records, which were completely just me on my own. This relates back to what we were talking about I was trying to get away from classic rock tradition. Over the last five or six years, I kinda fell out of love with the muso aspect I had in my band for awhile. I loved having these extraordinary musicians, like Guthrie Govan, whod often be given free rein to solo and show what they could do.

But I didnt want that this time. I wanted a very streamlined, direct record doing away with those classic rock tropes. I dont think you hear soloing at all in modern pop or urban music. Sometimes I feel its a shame there isnt more of a signature of the musicians. But at the same time, I also love that music continues to evolve and things become old-fashioned. Im sure musicianships and soloing will come back one day. But right now, it seems a modern pop album would not have those elements. The music I was listening to didnt have those elements.

One of my favorite songs on the album is King Ghost. Theres a reference to what sounds like sceocca. Is that the actual word? Where did that come from?I have absolutely no idea. I know Its an Old English word. Like a lot of songwriters, I often sing nonsense when Im working on songs, just to get the melody out. Sceocca was just a nonsense word I came out with. Maybe I read it somewhere at the time. I just became attached to the poetry of that little section.

I went down a rabbit hole online, and the definition seemed to have something to do with evil spirits. I thought, Hm, King Ghost / evil spirit maybe theres a connection there.Lets have a look online. An evil spirit ah! An evil spirit of demon. Youre right! I didnt know that. How beautiful is that? Im going to pretend, in my next interview, that I knew all along.

I love the idea of an instrumental mood informing a gibberish lyric, which then creates this cyclical writing process. How often does that happen for you?It just happened right now, didnt it? I had no idea, but now I find out [sceocca] is perfect. Its a magical thing. A lot of people talk about certain artists being geniuses: Dylan, McCartney, Lennon. But all of those artists have made terrible records too. No one completely understands the songwriting process because if they did, theyd never write bad songs. Robert Fripp says this thing about genius, which I love: Theres no such thing as genius. Genius is a spirit that temporarily visits someone before moving on to someone else. He said the spirit of genius visited King Crimson in 1969 and then moved on to whoever else, Fleetwood Mac. I love the idea that genius temporarily inhabits someone and then gets bored and moves on.

Genius, one might say, is a sceocca.There you go! There you go. [Laughs.]

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Steven Wilson on Channeling Evil Spirits, Defying Expectations With New LP - SPIN

If you hadnt heard of Glass Animals by 2020, youd be forgiven. Itd be deeply surprising, but we could let it go.

Afterall, not everyone knows every band and we all have our musical blind spots. But if thats still the case this week, then surely youve been living off grid.

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The British four piece formed back in 2010 in Oxford, led by the warbling, weird and wonderful vocals of Davey Bayley. Not content with simple writing and singing these eccentric pop songs, Dave also produces them too and has done so across the three records theyve given us across a steadily swelling career. Their debut album Zaba made waves and their second album How To Be A Human Being saw them nominated for a Mercury Award in the UK but this story really gains steam around album three, last years aptly titled Dreamland.

Featuring big singles like Tangerine and Tokyo Drifting (featuring some supreme bars from Denzel Curry) were big singles but the biggest was yet to come the almighty Heatwaves.

Fast a fan favourite, the song set ears on fire and found a steady place in many hearts going on to become first a hot favourite for a high position in the 2020 Hottest before actually winning the damn thing. But you know all that. You know this band is a big deal, you know Daves voice is magic, you know his production is criminally clever and you know that theyve had a global influence in the way theyve married hip-hop beats, pop hooks and indie vocals.

What Im here to hit you with is something new.

If You Like is a regular series from Unearthed thats seen us serve you new crme in the spirit of Lime Cordiale, Benee, Ruel and Chance The Rapper. This time round Glass Animals get the If You Like treatment and we even sat down with Dave Bayley, central figure within the band and deep music fan, who lent us his time to listen to these acts and give us his opinions on them.

Sherbert synths and thundering bass that could level cities and lower mountains. This doesnt necessarily showcase the gallop and pop sensisbilities of a Glass Animals record but that woozy wonky production is front and centre and Abraham Tilbury serves up a left of centre vocal, drenches in production, thatd do Wavey Davey proud.

"I think the voices are amazing. The vocals sounds and production are insane with crazy weird vocal delays and pitches going on. I love an 808 bass, that deep heavy bass theyve got that and my favourite thing wonky drum beats. Where the drums groove but in a really unexpected way. The snare hits in the right place, but not where you expected it. Youve got some amazing chord work in there and theres a little bit in the middle eight where the chords get really tweaked and it sent a little tingle up my spine."

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We know Glass Animals have some deep roots in US hip-hop (listen to the audio special above to hear more about that!) so naturally I had to look deeper into that side of their sound for something fun, bouncy and a little bit thicc. US born but Sydney based rapper Dante Knows partnered up producer Tasker for this crunchy club jam, a slinky, late night bumper with production that sounds like an unravelling mind. Its a little unhinged but very cool.

"Firstly, theres this combination of acoustic drums and electronic drums. I spend a lot of time trying to get analogue sounds to fit with digital sounds so Tasker crushed it. Its really hard to get those worlds to work together! Its got the bass which is great, because if a song doesnt have heavy bass Im like 'Come on, just put one 808 in'. This song paints a picture really well, I feel like Im there. The beat has a real wonk to it so its a credit to Dante Knows, in the way his words and the beat work so well together to make you feel like youre blown out of your mind in the club."

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Ok youre gonna have to bear with me here because this just might be a longbow, but I reckon if you like Glass Animals, youre going to like this song from Molly Millington. Interestingly, Molly comes at music from an entirely different launch pad to Glass Animals with a background in acoustic and folkier pop sounds. She and Sydney producer Xavier Dunn teamed up on this mad and modern record of twisted production choices and pitch shifted vocals.

"Absolutely love it. I love that song, Im gonna listen to it a lot. The production and melody are super clever, its got this childish playful nursery rhyme feel which draws you in before you realize that these lyrics are tweaked. It feels so sinister! Its got so many amazing arrangement movements, big parts, little harmonies, little beat cuts and at the very end this Sergeant Pepper Style blowout? Wicked, Im going to listen to this every morning."

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Holyoak only just recently started uploading his music to Unearthed, with his debut upload Sit Tight. Of the five tracks in this playlist, this is the one that I that sounds most perfectly in line with Glass Animals by virtue of that wobbly vocal and left-of-center hook.

"The soundscape is so well crafted, warm and fuzzy. I want to know how you got that opening bass sound, its really clever, fuzzy and psychy. Youre voice sounds wicked and reminds me of a lot of bands I grew up with. It does make me feel a bit like Im on mushies, wandering through the space of my brain."

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Meet Komang, not just the vocalist and songwriter on this track but the producer too. She says she blends groove based production with her artistry influenced by her Balinese heritage to create vibrant electronic R&B. Its hazy and thick with groove, a great new offering from this modern songwriter.

"I listened to this song at 4am last night and it just felt right. That acid bass really threw me back. When I moved to South London I got into all these bass music like Mt Kimbie, Burial and Joy Orbison and this sort of bass sound takes me back to that time when I would come home from DJing at 4am and would have a little ciggie out the window to cool off, and this would be the perfect song for that moment. The drums sound super crisp and the combination with that bass is just great."

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Love Glass Animals? Meet these five local legends from triple j Unearthed. - Unearthed - triple j - ABC News

Its almost a year to the day that Celeste Waite made an almighty splash at the 2020 Brit Awards, wowing an audience of Billie Eilish, Courtney Love, Stormzy and Harry Styles with a pin-drop version of her gothic jazz ballad Strange before picking up the hotly contested Rising Star gong. The following evening, still in something of a daze, Celeste found herself at another starry event, sitting next to Florence Welch at a Gucci show. For Florence whod won the Rising Star gong in 2009, back when it was called the Critics Choice Award it was like looking through a portal to the past.

Youre in the position I was in when I started out, said Florence to the then-25-year-old singer and songwriter. And, um, had you finished your first album at that point? inquired a nervy Celeste. Oh no, I was still working on it! responded Florence.

I was like, Phew!, chuckles Celeste over video call from her north-west London bedroom. That gave me some comfort and confidence, because you see how far these artists have come when they receive those things and assume they had it all figured out. But I guess its like one of those things, you just kind of learn as you go along

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME. Jacket: Stella McCartney, Tights: Stylists own, Earrings: Patcharavipa, Rings: Phase, Katherine Scarlett and Len Manso

Which is exactly what Celeste has been doing for the past seven years. It might seem as if this fully formed, main stage-worthy talent has popped out of nowhere, but theres been some extremely hard graft behind that voice: a burnished croon which sounds like it feels everything at 10 times the intensity of mere mortals. A husky fusion of jazz and soul greats across the decades, from Eartha Kitt and Dusty Springfield to Billie Holiday, its a vocal tailor-made to accompany candle-lit evenings, a martini or three and maybe, just maybe, floods of tears.

And though Celestes debut album, Not Your Muse, was far from finished when she and Florence had their fashion show chat, its now out after months of chopping and changing release dates due to coronavirus. And its worth the wait. A super-slick offering, the records jazzy, horn-section tooting and Bond theme-worthy roots are wrapped up in modern pop glitz, otherwise known as the Amy Winehouse-meets-Mark-Ronson method. If there were a surefire recipe for superstardom, this would be it.

Named after the last song she finished for the album, the heart-on-sleeve sound of Not Your Muse isnt just a rollercoaster of ever-fluctuating emotions, but a celebration of hard-worn confidence. Id already started writing two or three years ago, but I just couldnt fully get across what I really wanted to say, explains Celeste. The defiant Not Your Muse saw her finally nailing her colours to the mast. It was me taking a firm stance and saying, This is who I am.

Celeste on the cover of NME

As well as being a Brits Rising Star and NME 100 alumni, Celeste also had the dubious honour of being named the winner of BBCs Sound of 2020, a year most of us would rather forget and one which saw her first ever headline tour scrubbed off the schedule. The day we speak more cancellations are afoot, with Glastonbury pulled for the second year running. I guess in my mind I was optimistic that some of that stuff would happen, sighs Celeste. But the idea of hundreds of thousands of people [at a festival] didnt seem that realistic

Though shes accepted the fact that the biggest party of the year is off the table, with one of the most eagerly anticipated debut album releases of the year, its easy to imagine Celeste would have been a highlight of the weekend, had it happened. Picture the scene: a sunny Saturday afternoon, Celeste on the main stage in full diva mode and a fabulous frock belting out her bluesy bangers while you work on simultaneous sunburn and alcohol-induced dehydration. Bliss.

Im still learning the ropes in my new relationship, and am writing about how its made me feel

Thats something well have to wait another year for at least, but thankfully Celeste was able to experience the event in 2019, when she played the BBC Introducing Stage. It wasnt the ideal set-up for her first time, however.

I was performing on the Sunday, but I was there from, like, Thursday, she remembers. My band could go out all night and get drunk, but if I did that, I would have lost my voice. So I was just this hermit going home really early and not really getting to fully have the whole hedonistic Glastonbury experience. Added to that, when she did finally get up to play, one of the first things she saw when she looked into the crowd was a guy shed fancied for ages, whod popped out at the front of the stage with his shirt off. I had to keep on trying to angle my face, so it didnt seem like I was singing all of these love songs to him!

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME. Top: Dom Sebastian, Rings: Gillian Horsup, Earrings: Stylists own

Celeste Waite was born in 1994 in Los Angeles; her mum had moved to California to work as a make-up artist in the film industry, meeting the man whod become Celestes dad while she was living there. Despite such starry roots, Celeste doesnt have any memories of her Hollywood years, having moved back to her mums native Dagenham when she was still a toddler. With her parents separated, Celeste and her mum eventually settled in the seaside town of Saltdean, just outside Brighton. That the young Celeste ended up with a passion for music was no shock.

My mum comes from that rave era of calling up from a telephone box and finding a big party to go to out in the middle of nowhere, she grins of her mother, whom she lovingly calls lairy, adding with more than a hint of pride: She used to hang out with Paul Oakenfold in the early days. Raised on a diet of party-starting anthems such as Dutch producer Hithouses 1988 dance banger Jack To The Sound Of The Underground as well as a decent helping of The Clash its almost fate that one of Celestes early breaks was working with synth-pop band Real Lies, whose sound plugged directly into the acid house party aesthetic.

Lily Allen said, You just gotta keep writing songs, in quite a stern way! I respected that

Not long after a teenage Celeste started uploading her own songs onto SoundCloud, Celeste would meet the trio at their sweaty club night on Londons Holloway Road, where, once a week, theyd take over a Jamaican bar, selling cheap and cheerful cans of Ting topped up with liquor as a middle finger to the scenester mixologists of Dalston a mile or so away. At that point, Real Lies and Celeste shared a manager and it was quickly decided that Celeste had the perfect voice with which to sing the bands big and baggy soul breakdowns, just like Happy Mondays vocal powerhouse Rowetta. The band and Celeste soon hit the road for a run of dates supporting Foals.

I made friends with Yannis and he used to tease me because I was quite nerdy still and quite shy, recalls Celeste of her first tour experience. But I could tell he liked what I was doing and thought I was good.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME. Skirt, trousers, corset and t-shirt: Charlotte Knowles, Boots: Acne, Rings: Katherine Scarlett, Earrings: Scout by Scout

By 2016 Celeste was starting to slip off that veil of shyness to branch out as a solo act, ditching her part-time pub shifts and releasing a woozy but confident debut single Daydreaming through Lily Allens record label, Bank Holiday Records. Like Florence Welch would do a few years down the line, Lily was on hand for some words of wisdom.

She was helpful, because she was quite honest, Celeste says of Lilys real talk, delivered when Celeste was struggling to work out if one of her tunes was up to scratch. She was like, You just gotta keep writing songs, in quite a stern way! I just thought, Yeah, youre right. Im not just gonna get it overnight. I respected that.

She took Lilys words to heart: five years down the line and Celeste has well and truly nailed the art of songwriting. Love songs are what she does best, running the gamut of head-over-heels infatuation to gutting break-ups. Theres her Brits-wowing Strange with its heartbreaking dissection of an affair: Isnt it strange / How people can change / From strangers to friends / Friends into lovers / And strangers again? the intense passion of the Adele-worthy Stop This Flame, which also comes complete with a Nina Simone-style piano riff, and crushed-out current single Love Is Back.

At the end of last year, I felt completely insane and didnt how to calm down

Yet Celeste herself is the first to admit that many of her songs were inspired more by wanting than through experience. Its only really been recently that Ive found myself to be in a real relationship, properly, she reveals. But I think before that it was coming from a place of longing for that idyllic love and romance. I think it keeps people alive and engaged in something.

Her other half is a fellow creative, bohemian poet Sonny Hall, who features alongside Celeste in the video for last years tear-jerking piano ballad Little Runaway and, when hes not writing, works as a model, signed to Kate Mosss agency. Despite their similar jobs, Celeste and Sonny have contrasting approaches to work. I have all of his poems that he has, sort of like a work-in-progress, on my computer, explains Celeste of her boyfriends casual way with a Google Doc. Sometimes I can see it in real time as hes editing them. But we have a very different process; he doesnt really get to hear my stuff until its mixed and mastered!

So now shes got the big love that she always desired, will the songs dry up or will there be absolutely bloody loads of them? Im still learning the ropes in this relationship its not like everything is just sublime and perfect, she offers. Im writing about how this has made me feel. Im figuring it all out as I go along. Actually, I feel more inspired again. Im quite excited to see how that will come out in the next few months of writing.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME. Jacket: Stella McCartney, Tights: Stylists own, Earrings: Patcharavipa, Rings: Phase, Katherine Scarlett and stylists own, Boots: Christian Louboutin

Despite global lockdown, the past year has been a busy one for Celeste. With no festivals or tours to clutter up her calendar, its not a surprise to hear that shes already thinking about writing album number two, despite a recent promotional run thats seen her jumping onto an eclectic bunch of projects.

These have ranged from the uber-cool to more grandma-pleasing opportunities, the latter including a Tom Jones duet on Jools Hollands Hootenanny, a John Lewis Christmas advert theme (shes the first artist to pen her own tune for the retail giant, the typically lilting A Little Love), the Royal Variety Show and even the final of The Voice UK.

I made friends with Yannis from Foals I could tell he liked what I was doing

Curiously, all of this sits in sharp contrast to her edgier appearances. There have been guest slots on every hipsters favourite radio station NTS, on which she selected tracks by Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist Kiki Gyan and New York soul queen Sylvia Striplin, as well as tastemaking YouTube performance channel Colors. Then theres last years collab with Billie Eilishs big bro Finneas, who was so taken aback by her Brit Awards performance that he tracked her down for last years understated I Can See The Change, while Billie has sung Celestes praises too. But bringing people together is what Celeste does best.

In fact, it was at the seemingly stuffy Royal Variety Show that Celeste first met Mel C, who makes a cameo in the 1980s office-inspired Love Is Back video alongside underground clubland legends like Princess Julia as well as actress Jamie Winstone, an experience which Celeste calls surreal. Her busy year also gave Celeste the idea for a trio of shows at London venue Union Chapel, set for this coming July; shed recorded a live version of her song Hear My Voice there for a promotional video to accompany last years Netflix film The Trial Of The Chicago 7, whose soundtrack she appeared on.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME. Top and skirt: Dom Sebastian, Earrings: Stylists own, Boots: Paula Canovas, Tights: Stylists own

It was the first place that Id sung all year that without people or a crowd still felt like it had a genuine atmosphere and feeling to it, she says.

Though theyre likely to be socially distanced and with masks compulsory, these shows are the silver lining we could all do with right now. It seems theyll be just as beneficial to Celeste as they will her fans, as she admits that being busy doesnt always mean being happy.

At the end of the year, I did just feel completely insane and I didnt really know what to do to calm myself down, she explains, adding that she ended up in therapy for the first time in her life. Its really difficult because I felt completely fine and then I felt like, Oh my God Im literally about to have a breakdown. The therapy improved things, as did making small changes. I tried not to get too absorbed in the news and paranoia and anxious thoughts, she says. I made sure I was outside and was cycling around and painting and just listening to music probably the most basic stuff, but it does help.

Celeste holds up one of her paintings, others of which can be found scattered across her and her boyfriends places. Its a vibrant, camp and cartoon-ish portrait of a stern-looking woman with neon pink hair and horn-rimmed glasses, whom she has named Gertrude. Theyre the kind of the ladies that would be rude to me in the shop, says the UKs next pop superstar. 2020 might have done its best to rob Celeste of her big moment, but with Gertrude by her side, shes going to make certain that 2021 is her year.

Celestes Not Your Muse is out now

CREDITS:

Styling by Ella LuciaMakeup by Porsche Poon using NARS cosmeticsHair by James Catalano

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On The Cover Celeste: This album is me taking a firm stance and saying, 'This is who I am' - NME.com