By Sophie Wyatt
Using her music to explore her natural creativity and draw to adventure, flourishing artist Rudie Edwards is taking the music industry by storm. After growing up around a constant stream of music played by her father, the iconic sounds of classic soul artists rubbed off on Rudie and shaped the amazing artist that we love today. We were lucky enough to catch up with the talented musician following the release of her latest single ‘Worst Ways‘, to discuss her musical journey, soulful tunes and the future of her music.
Photo by Henry Rich (@henry_rich)
Rudie’s voice is so full of emotion and a developing depth, far beyond her years and time in the music industry. And she puts a lot of this down to her fond memories of growing up surrounded by music. We asked her to take us down memory lane to her first prominent memories of music from childhood.
‘I remember when I was very young, my Dad would get his records out every Sunday. He’d be blasting all of the Soul Classics at the time and we’d be dancing around the living room with him. Great memories!‘
And of course our next question was, at what point was it that Rudie realised she wanted to pursue her passion as a career. Naturally, it was not long after she developed her love for old soul music that Rudie realised her own incredible talents.
‘It was my end of year talent show at primary school, and couple of girls and I sang ‘Bootylicious’. We had the whole crowd dancing and clapping! I remember getting off stage and one of the mums came up to me and said she thought I could really sing! It was then I thought maybe I can do this as a job!‘
The pandemic has seen some really lows for the creative industries, but the future is bright, and live music is back. But that does not diminish the troubled times artists went through over the past year. Rudie let us into how she got through national lockdowns and restrictions as a creative.
‘It’s been difficult, I was set to release my EP just before the pandemic hit. I had already been waiting so long to put music out, so it was quite difficult to continue being patient. If anything it’s just been a reminder of how much I want to make music and play shows, when something you love is taken from you, you realise just how much it means to you.’
Describing her music as ‘Soulful Non-Fiction’, Rudie sums up her music perfectly. The narrative which her tracks take allow listeners a window into Rudie’s heart, soul and creative balance. Her latest track ‘Worst Ways‘ explores the hurt and simultaneous growth that comes with letting go of toxic factors in life. She goes on to explain more about what went into making the song.
‘I truly believe a song can mean different things to you at different times, while writing this song it was about losing someone. Months later I’d listen to what we’d written and it was about how I felt someone had gotten in the way of my true love and I being together, like that love had been stolen away from me. Presently I hear it and it makes me think of how I’ve come so far out of a toxic relationship and how I’m still standing. ‘Worst Ways’ is about letting go of things we can’t change and how that’s not always easy!‘
‘Worst Ways‘ was taken from the forthcoming EP set to be released in the near future. We asked Rudie if there was anything she could give away about the upcoming project.
‘This EP is the result of me being able to completely let go and let myself remember things from my past, the good and the bad and just write it all.’
Finally the developing artist spoke about the future. As lockdown slowly becomes a thing of the past and we look towards the horizon of live music, we cannot wait to experience the talent of more and more artists such as Rudie.
‘I hope it’s very busy, full of live shows and more writing! I look forward to making the most of every moment.’
Head over to Rudie Edwards’ Spotify page to check out more of her soulful singles, including newest track ‘Worst Ways‘.