Flora Fiora has released her debut EP In No Particular Order, alongside new single Kick The Tyres.
The four-track EP also features recent singles Mad In The Head and Getting Out, plus new song Dreamer, and comes at a pretty exciting time for the 19-year-old from Chedworth in Gloucestershire.
Flora has spent the last few years building things independently, travelling from her tiny home village to play shows around Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud, with plenty of longer trips to London thrown in too.
More recently, BBC Introducing has been firmly behind her music, she recorded a beautiful KOKO Studio Session and has signed a publishing deal with Right Tracks, the new venture from Chrysalis co-founder Chris Wright.
But In No Particular Order isn’t really about everything suddenly falling into place. A lot of it was written while Flora was still trying to work out what was happening in the first place.
“It’s one of those things where you don’t really know what’s going on until it’s over,” she explains. “Songwriting for me is where the answers flood to. With this project, once all the songs were together, that’s where I realised the importance of reflection and understanding. Whatever order it comes in.”
That probably explains the EP title rather perfectly.
New single Kick The Tyres comes from a slightly different frustration: wanting to make music for a living, putting everything into it and then wondering why you aren’t further along already.
“When I wrote this song I was so frustrated I hadn’t made it yet. I was thinking, I’m writing so many songs I love, how are we not selling tickets, how are we not selling out venues yet?”
Flora continues: “Sometimes having a dream you live for is so intense, you’re burning the candle at both ends working hard to make it, and then stressing that you’re not working hard enough.
“My parents always tell me the journey is just as important as the goal. If there’s no journey, then how are you supposed to get there and be ready?! That’s what this song means to me.”
Musically, Kick The Tyres has far more energy than you might expect from that subject, building towards layers of choral vocals rather than wallowing in the frustration behind it.
Elsewhere, Dreamer takes things somewhere softer and more romantic, completing an EP which moves between indie-pop and the more intimate singer-songwriter side of Flora’s music.
All four tracks were written by Flora, with one co-written by Crispin Burton, and the EP was produced by Mike Batt and Luke Batt.
Flora has been busy live this summer too, playing Beautiful Days Festival and The Sub Rooms in Stroud, as well as performing a Matblakk showcase at The Cove in London.
She’ll be back on stage a little closer to home on 7 November, supporting Devon at Gloucester Guildhall.
In No Particular Order is out now.
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