Creating your own opportunities is something I’ve always championed as an independent artist. What’s the fun in waiting around for the things you want to be delivered to your door on a silver platter? Get proactive, get creative, think outside the box and build your dreams yourself.
This summer I released a very fun EP called Let’s Go Swimming!: 4 indie-pop tracks taking you on a journey from pre-pool excitement all the way through to post-swim exhaustion. It’s fun, it’s silly, it’s niche, plus it is very very me: I love swimming!
I taught myself to swim (properly) via YouTube tutorials after watching the Paris Olympics on my sofa. It quickly became my favourite hobby, I started swimming 2-3 times a week at the local pool lane swim sessions and it became all I could talk about. I also started following professional competitive swimming, watching the World Champs, World Cup, Europeans and Nationals on my TV and in-person — it’s been so fun to find something I’m so passionate and excited about.
Securing funding
In March 2025, I took a trip to Germany to see my friend and fellow songwriter/producer Finn; we had 2 days in his home studio and no plan. I started talking about my new love of swimming (of course) and he said “ooh let’s write a song about it!” and boom. Next thing you know, 48 hours had passed and we’d written and recorded 4 songs about all swimming. We were blowing bubbles, splashing water around in a bucket, playing slide whistles — we had a right laugh.
This project became my whole life, combining my two loves of music and swimming — hello? I’m in heaven! I have never worked so hard on anything. First up: funding applications. I applied to PRS Women Make Music, Arts Council and Help Musicians Next Level. I spent hours and hours every morning before going to teaching, hunched over my computer dreaming and scheming and researching and budgeting and planning out this project.
After 2 rejections, I was surprisingly still hopeful and lo, I was successful with the Help Musicians fund! I am forever grateful and I would not be where I am today without them. This application was a video submission, so I filmed myself yapping about my ideas in my swimsuit, swimcap and goggles sitting on my living room floor! I do wonder how many people in the Help Musicians’ team have seen me looking rather ridiculous… but hey, it worked!
Making the music video
My dreams that I made reality included: filming a music video in my local pool on an old cam-corder and a GoPro with my friends and Olympic athletes; fun pool party vibes — swimming, blowing bubbles, jumping in, diving and racing. I got to race Olympic athlete Jacob Peters, what do you meannnn!? Of course I lost by miles but it was a dream come true!
Did I have connections to the athletes beforehand — no! I sent the Aquatics GB Bath Performance Centre a DM on Instagram, asking if the athletes would want to be part of it and they said yes! So send that message, ask that person, reach out to everyone you can possibly think of, because you never know who might respond.
Then I taught myself how to edit a music video and I have never been more proud of anything. Try watching it without smiling!
Pool party!
Then of course, we needed a launch show live concert party for the EP, and what better place than the very same pool where we filmed the video? My band, Poppy Rose & The Pool Buoys (Finn, Cian and Ieuan) played live on the pool deck, with the audience IN the pool, swimming, floating in rubber rings and dancing. It was so much fun!
Turns out hiring a pool is not like hiring a music venue, and this is where I am grateful for the MU.
Public Liability Insurance is a must, especially when you’ve got amps and speakers only a few meters from a swimming pool. Thanks to the MU, my PLI is renewed every year with coverage up to £10 million and all my equipment has been PAT tested at a MU Members Day — this pool party extravaganza would have been impossible without these things.
Think outside the box, create your own opportunities
I learnt so much along this journey. Being an independent artist can be overwhelming and exhausting and challenging, but it can also be incredible. There is a wonderful magic in creating something from nothing and knowing it only exists because you made it. And even better when it makes people smile.
My message to everyone is to always have fun and be authentically yourself with your art. Don’t be afraid to go super niche. Think outside the box, create your own opportunities, be brave, send messages to the people you dream of collaborating with, work hard and surround yourself with good people. And, of course, go swimming!
Photo: Léa Veillon, @leaveillon98.