To describe British singer-songwriter Roxanne de Bastion as a pioneering DIY artist does little justice to the hefty list of accomplishments and accolades she’s assembled in her young and very busy life. She was the first artist to virtually tour in lockdown, performances she can add to her incredible run of over 500 gigs to date, including two USA tours and a slot at Glastonbury; she has self-released a debut album ‘Heirlooms and Hearsay’ (2017); was invited to join the FAC’s (Featured Artist Coalition) Board of Directors (alongside members of British music royalty Blur and Radiohead); and more recently procured Bernard Butler to produce her forthcoming album ‘You & Me, We Are The Same’, simply by emailing him a demo. As Bernard says “some cold calls turn into beautiful projects…”

Roxanne resides in London but was raised between the West Midlands and Berlin where her late father worked as a musician. It was his passion for music – as well as her own – which inspired Roxanne’s path and helped her complete what she describes as her “cathartic” second album ‘You & Me, We Are The Same’. The ten songs were written by Roxanne during the two-year period Roxanne was losing her father. However, ‘You & Me, We Are The Same’ is not a sad album. It has moments of euphoria, of fun, of falling in love, as well as falling apart, because as Roxanne explains “all those things still happen, even in our darkest chapters.”

Roxanne makes great modern pop songs. Her work is the sound of someone who has not only spent a lifetime passionately devouring the music of others but also mastering their own musical craft and sound. Roxanne cites artists such as The Beatles through to Regina Spektor as influences, with a love of folk, psych and late 60s production. What most stands out though is Roxanne’s voice. It has a rare purity to it: clear, characterful, deliciously soft yet powerful in the way it reaches out of the songs to hold your attention, as if Roxanne were talking direct to the listener.

Three tracks have been released so far from ‘You & Me, We Are The Same,’ collectively garnering attention from the likes of Clash and The Independent, and receiving huge radio support from BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio London and Absolute Radio. Most recently ‘Molecules’ (May 2021) which asks big existential questions about divinity. It is described by Roxanne as “the loudest boldest thing I’ve ever created” with subtle nods to Roxanne’s love of The White Stripes in its blasts of guitar and ‘Seven Nation Army’-esque visuals in the video. Preceding that came the singles ‘Heavy Lifting’ (November 2020), a moving, introspective track about what Roxanne calls “the quiet, dark moments we usually battle on our own;” and ‘Erase’ (May 2020) a far slinkier and aggressive beast with 60s pop production and a rush of thundering drums and dramatic strings that rise to match Roxanne’s soaring vocal. Its impassioned sound is apt for the troubling 1984-mirroring times we live in, as the song outcries those who re-write history, on both a personal and political level.

‘You & Me, We Are The Same’ runs the spectrum of deeply intimate moments through to exuberant pop songs, the former found on songs such as ‘London, I Miss You’, its charming simplicity belying its sadder origins, written in Berlin whilst Roxanne’s father was in intensive care; and album closer ‘The Weight’, a song perfectly capturing the bittersweet vulnerability and magic of unconditional love. These songs are perfectly nestled among the livelier tracks such as the exhilarating rush that is ‘Delete Forget Repeat’, a song about the human race’s failure to stop history repeating itself, and ‘Ordinary Love’ a track Roxanne wanted to be unashamedly “joyous” and one which comes with a hidden surprise – the beautifully jangly guitar is Bernard Butler playing a Gibson 12-string that once belonged to Johnny Marr.

The oscillating sounds and emotional spectrum captured on ‘You & Me, We Are The Same’ snapshot a poignant moment in Roxanne’s life whilst showcasing her incredible and durable talent. It’s an album born out of a terrible time but one that offers up the sweet with the bitter, the joy with the sadness, the hope with the despair. It takes a deeply personal experience and explores it alongside the blasts of light that come to us through life’s nicer adventures such as falling in love, and weaves it around enticing existential questions – why are we here? Why do we do what we do? With “You & Me, We Are The Same”, Roxanne has creating an album true to her as an individual, but also a universal one that also explores our collective experiences.

Roxanne de Bastion currently resides in London. She has previously released the aforementioned debut album ‘Heirlooms and Hearsay’ (2017) as well as ‘Live at Moth Club’ EP (2020), a recording of her lockdown Moth Club gig which was streamed worldwide. The latter was shortly preceded by her virtual tour in support of #saveourvenues which garnered coverage on Metro, Huffington Post and BBC News. She has performed at festivals such as Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival, supported artists such as Lambchop and Wainwright Sisters, performed at Roundhouse, London supporting the PRSF Women Make Music fund, and sold-out The Lexington, London to launch her tour diary book ‘Tales from the Rails’, on top of repeated tours of Europe, the UK and the USA. Most Recently, Roxanne has played an in-store tour to support the album release and has opened for Nerina Pallot and Bernard Butler on his first solo shows back in twenty years.

Roxanne is currently on the Board of Directors at FAC (Featured Artists Coalition) advising and representing artists alongside Imogen Heap, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and Blur’s Dave Rowntree, and also sits on PPL’s Performer Board. She founded FM2U, a music conference which aims to empower & educate as well as create a strong community of artists, and also somehow manages to fit in hosting a show at London radio station Boogalo Radio.

‘You & Me, We Are The Same’ was written by Roxanne de Bastion, produced and mixed by Bernard Butler in his North London studio in 2019, and mastered by Jon Astley (Close To The Edge). The album was released on 3rd September 2021 on Nomad Songs via Rom, and is available digitally, on CD, standard vinyl, and on a limited 500-run deluxe vinyl version with mirror-board sleeve.

“I’ve been listening with a great deal of interest to Roxanne de Bastion…Beautiful. There’s quite a few good things on this record.” – Iggy Pop (BBC 6 Music)

“There are elements of psych, new wave, late Beatles, indie folk and synthpop, corralled by her clear, pure intonation and unfussy delivery on the rising singer-songwriter’s ambitions second outing.”– The Observer

“Roxanne de Bastion works with a rare degree of assurance. The songwriter has a potent and refined aesthetic, matching slight gothic tinges to some late 60s flourishes.” – Clash

For North American bookings please contact:
Denis Grabill
denis@blackoakartists.com