Drawing influences from the likes of Eva Cassidy, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, and Dusty Springfield, Abi Farrell has a singer-songwriter sensibility flecked with gospel and soul inflection, and a command of pop hooks. The London-based artist has spent the past few years exploring the city’s live music scene, with an upcoming appearance at The Camden Chapel.
Farrell’s debut EP The Only Way I Learn stems primarily from the anxieties and insecurities she experienced in her early-mid 20s. Speaking to The House That Soul Built, she explains: ‘It’s so daunting trying to find out who you are when you’re straight into a full time job after university, in this digital world where there’s so much pressure, and for me it was so easy to put my self-esteem in other people’s hands and lose my sense of self-worth. I was basically basing my happiness on what other people thought of me and how much they were prepared to love me. It was so unhealthy but it was all I knew.’
She kicks off the EP with ‘Change the World’, a pop-soul tune with nifty guitar lines that marries a feistiness with eloquent rebuttal. ‘You might change the world but you will not change me,‘ she sings.
‘Ivy’, a song about ‘that pesky sinking feeling of anxiety creeping in’, is a ruminating piece with a sparse arrangement. It is quietly epic with a spiritual nod to the lyric as Farrell ‘[goes] down to the river‘ to seek some catharsis. ‘Rather Be A Child’ reflects her longing for a simpler time, without the competition and vanity fostered by digital media.
Title song ‘The Only Way I Learn’ – the most conventionally soulful track – closes the EP. As Farrell explains: ‘It’s about the moment you decide you’re going to dust yourself down and re-build’. Farrell scales her range beautifully as she leads the way to the chorus. Though one senses that her journey is far from complete, there is still a sense of resolve: ‘And if it takes an hour I’m gonna be feeling oh so strong / And I can tell the ghost inside of me to just move on.’
Throughout, her vocal is clear and pure. Listen to her live performance of ‘The Only Way I Learn’ below.
(Photography Credit: William Pavli Photography)
