Folk Radio UK put out the first review of Ocean of Stars! Find out what Peter Shaw says here: ​https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2019/03/saskia-griffiths-moore-ocean-of-stars/

Thanking Folk Radio UK for the glowing review, and premier of my new video 'These Hours'!

​See here: www.folkradio.co.uk/2019/03/saskia-griffiths-moore-these-hours/

It's nearing my 4th anniversary as a full time musician! 🥳 SO I'm doing a little 'Did you know'....

- I lived in my van to make it work.
- I started out busking and STILL busk in London when I run out of cash (quite a lot of the time to be honest, especially in between tours)
- I shaved my head when I started
- I've raised £13K from the arts council and a whopping £19K on Kickstarter from individuals like you and me who care about the arts, and sold approximately 5K CD's
- I've managed to get my music videos played on Sky TV 6 times
- I'm self made. There are two sides to this, but in this case I mean I didn't go to Uni, I have no training in music, singing or business, I didn't have any startup money (actually started by maxing out a credit card to £2K to buy the equipment needed), and no-one encouraged me to do this. Actually when you tell people you want to do music they usually start to wrinkle their brows....and now when I tell people I do music they ALL say 'Ah, but do you make a living'? And while I take pride in being a full time musician, I'm not keen on defending the implicit assumption that it's unrealistic.

And do you know what IS unrealistic? For someone who loves music? To conceive of a life where music is not the centrepiece, one way or another, performing, creating, or listening and enjoying. I honestly don't know how people survive in this world without the joy of music to help them through.

Anyway, back to the topic...

- The other side of being self made is that I'm not really self made of course....what is an artist without an audience? I wouldn't have lasted 30 minutes without the people who've tipped me a coin, told me something encouraging, or pushed me to go beyond my limits. Or inspired me to. And nowadays, the people who've backed my kickstarter campaigns, come out to live shows, and helped me keep a roof (a real roof, not a tin one) over my head by buying all my merch. Or industry people putting me on, booking me for gigs, and helping to spread the word.

So here's the real reason I'm here this morning coming over all sentimental.

- Did you know...I live to share music with you? Sharing is the most important part of it.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART.

So, HERE'S TO YOU!

And a fabulous, music filled 2019! 🎊🎉🎊

Let's take a walk through my 2018!

At the start of the year I was touring my album 'Night & Day' for the second time (Arts Council funded), taking it to newer and further out places... and it got wonderful reviews in some of the national circulars too... ***** "the sound of a major artist" RnR, **** Maverick Magazine, "Rising star of the UK folk scene" Music Republic Magazine

Mid spring I was delighted to have this video featured on Sky TV! (actually, ended up on Sky 5 times this year!)... The single was played on 13 BBC stations too, including national radio in Scotland ;) Which leads me on to my first Scottish tour! This was in April, and where I connected with the musicians with whom I would proceed to record the current album 'Ocean Of Stars' <3

Summer? Well festival Season! I was delighted to support Show Of Hands again at Lyme Folk Weekend, To play the Top stage at Keynsham Music Festival, proud to be invited to play Costa Del Folk Festival in Portugal with my lovely band, oh and the height of course being playing on top of Europe's tallest building - The Shard! Right at the very top, open air and everything! Had a lovely stint at the Troubadour in London, enjoyed Bristol Festival of Nature, the beautiful David Hall at South Petherton Folk Festival, and my first ever show at Hitchin Folk Club too. Oh! And....I was awarded my first instrument endorsement from Steve Agnew, which I have flaunted at every gig since ;)

And now for the autumn...as the seasons changed I began to crowdfund for the new album, knowing I was going to record in Scotland in October, and together we raised a whopping £7,500 (of initial goal of £3,500, which was reached within 5 hours of launching the campaign)! All set, I headed up to Scotland, wrote and recorded 'Ocean of Stars'.

Then all of a sudden, during halloween, my bag was stolen at the pub, and what did I do? I created a fundraising album, just for fans, and raised back the money needed to replace everything! It's called 'Lemonade' as an homage to turning something bad into something good, and is still available here.

And as the winter drew in in grey London, it stayed warm enough for me to busk in Trafalgar Square all throughout Christmas! I also managed to sneak a few gigs at the O2 ICON centre!!

So...2019?

So far on the cards is a 22 date launch tour for the new album in England (starting soon!), with the worldwide launch being 3rd March in London, and I'm currently booking a Scottish tour for May. NYC is also on the cards for April, and my team and I are preparing some mind-blowing video surprises to be released throughout the year! Festivals are booking in, we are making our debut in the Netherlands in June, and I plan to bring out more music, more energy, more shows and to reach many more people than ever before! 

As you may have seen on my New Years Day Livestream (check my fb page), the thing I'm most grateful for is you. My fans and listeners. And all I want for next year is MORE!

Here's to a fabulous 2019!

Lots of love,
Saskia.

Today I got the final version of my new CD Ocean & Stars from producer Clive Gray in Scotland, and it's sounding immense!!! 🤩
I know it's a little premature, since no-one has heard it except me and him, but I want to take a moment to share a HUUUUGGGEEEE and public thank you to the musicians who made it possible!  Calum J. Gordon, Neil Fraser, Nick Fry, Ali Petrie, Joseph O'Tweefe, Lukas Drinkwater, Jack Cookson 👏
I am incredibly grateful to everyone involved behind the scenes too (literally hundreds), and I'll put out a proper credit-post at a later date! Just wanted to focus for a moment on the musical talents of all these people I was incredibly fortunate to work with on this! :)
...we will be celebrating this new music with a 22 date tour in England next spring (Saskia GM // Ocean of Stars // 22 Date UK Album Launch Tour), with a launch in London on 3rd of March (Saskia Griffiths-Moore // Ocean of Stars // Album Launch Show), and I will start booking for a Scottish tour in May now.
This whole project was inspired by the creative community of the East Neuk of Fife, centred around Clive Gray himself, and it represents our combined efforts to blend people, countries and genre's together, and to be guided by our collective sense of beauty!
I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out, and I am jumping in my seat to share it with everyone next year!
Lot's of love as always.
X

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they make the best of everything!"

Well, I had my bag stolen a few weeks ago in London, and I wasn't sure what to do, when a fan emailed in suggesting I make a fundraising album, recording my most requested cover songs!

So, I thought - this is a great way to make the most of a bad situation, and I asked my fans to pre-order a new album, and vote on the songs!

760 votes, 1 week, and 1 studio session later, here it is! I get things done fast ;)

This is a limited edition, fan-only, exclusive CD! 

If you'd like to order a copy, you can see it in my shop here :)

Enormous thank-you's to my fans who supported this, and helped me turn a robbery into a reason to make more beautiful music to share with people!

I'd been wanting to make a solo acoustic album for a while, since my latest releases have been band oriented, so this was my chance to go back to the roots, as some people prefer, and to record the simple, original sound of one person and one guitar. No effects, no autotune, nothing artificial. Just the way I like it.

Enjoy! And much love to everyone!

​Saskia.

Today it is my great pleasure to announce a new endorsement from Scottish luthier Steve Agnew. We met during my first tour of Scotland in April, and after enjoying some deliciously moist ginger sponge cake in his workshop and lazily playing through some tunes with Demi and Clive, we agreed I could borrow an Agnew guitar for my gig that night in Cellardyke.

Any instrumentalist will tell you that once you play something of great quality, it's hard to go 'back', and that's exactly what happened to me that night! I mean look at it...(pictured below)!

Once I'd left Scotland Clive played point person in arranging an endorsement for me, and a few facebook messages later this beaut was delivered to me by Parcel Force (who were, by the way, really, really annoying to deal with!).

I am honoured to be trusted to represent an instrument made with such integrity and to such a high standard and I look forward to performing with it at my future gigs! I expect a flood of guitar-enthusiasts to approach me at folk gigs wanting to play it for themselves ;) Come along, I will welcome you!

Steve Agnew fb page: https://www.facebook.com/pitscottie/
Official Website: https://www.steveagnew.com/

And if you are nosy enough to want to see the official press release, I'll attach it below. I'll also attach something much more funny... while I was researching how to write the best attention-grabbing headline, I came across a headline generator app! So I input the key words, and it came out with....(see below). Enjoy!

Just wanted to say a HUUUUGGGEEEE thank you to Rush Release PR for helping release my single 'All For You'! Here is a little breakdown of what happened...

13 BBC stations picked it up - several of which opted for an interview as well, and I got my first play on BBC introducing in London!

​And...thanks to The Folk Show, the music video itself (made by Mat Green by MHG Music Videos) was actually premiered on SKY TV on April 20th!

​About the song itself.... it's a rare happy song of mine, celebrating my first two years as a full time musician. It wasn't easy deciding to go full time into something I knew very little about and cared about so much! You know, people give you a bit of a funny look when you first tell them you are a musician. Yes, full time. No, I don't have another job on the side... but despite the sceptical looks and various people's disbelief, after two years I realised that I wasn't going back! And that everything I did with music was for YOU the audience. It's all for you.

Enjoy!

So back in Jan I had the bright idea to apply once more to Arts Council England for funding to support my spring tour - basically just to bump up the fees for my musicians and to add a little extra in terms of PR and equipment. I sat down at the Savoy hotel in London and filled in ALL the forms in once really intense, earl-grey fuelled sitting!! I had been preparing this tour for a long time, and with the help of a project manager too, so, for the first time, this tour was all incredibly precisely organised, and I managed to fill out the required forms in record time!

Given that I was very close to the deadline, and that the tour started 4 weeks ago, I was pretty sure they would reject my application, but you know, I had nothing to lose by applying, and always wanted an excuse to walk into the Savoy... But LO AND BEHOLD! While on a rather long train journey to Bristol yesterday for one of the tour dates, just for something to do I decided to fish out my account login details and read through the letter of rejection, only to find out it was an offer letter!

So...as of today, I am delighted to announce that my Spring Tour has full Arts Council England Funding! And that this is the third time my projects have been supported by Grants For The Arts!

I am incredibly grateful for the support of this lottery funded body - they are making a HUGE difference to the arts scene in England from indie artists like myself, all the way up to top concert halls and nationally touring acts.

Let's make this tour even greater!!

Oh. My. God. Another tour is finished!!! I reached more people that ever before, performed in more places than ever before, and for the first time, played with this lot (see above)!

The idea was to bring together 5 of the UK's most talented young folk and acoustic musicians to perform my new music to a much wider audience than I would have by myself. Mission accomplished!

This band features Jack Cookson, Ciaran Algar, Lukas Drinkwater and Evan Carson whose collective accolades are an essay in themselves. They are a powerhouse of music, and it was a pleasure to bring them all together for this project.

"Not so new and unusual are the musicians Saskia has hooked up with, each of whom have previously been given column inches within these pages" Northern Sky Mag

I have to say, this whole tour has brought about a renaissance for me with my original music. I know it hasn't been that long that I've been performing, but, with every concert on this tour, and with the new musicians I had backing me, I have experienced a new side to performing that I felt as a potential within myself, but now finally was able to bring out! Anyone at the launch concert might agree (see Fatea's review here: ​http://www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/live/Saskia.php/)

"a quantum leap for a performer who has mainly been a solo artist until now" Fatea 

"Saskia was full of smiles the whole evening and she had the right to be" Fatea

It wasn't just that night that I was full of smiles - it was every night. Every gig, every venue, every show. This tour brought out something new within me. Something that smiles!

After the launch concerts, I went on to do live sessions at BBC Radio Shropshire and BBC Radio Gloucestershire. You can listen to the session on BBC Glos here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05l1fzt until Dec 18th.

All of this is happening for two reasons:

1) I ran a kickstarter campaign in February. 109 people backed it, raising a total of £8000 for me to make a new recording. Pretty phenomenal really!!! My campaign reached it's goal within 10 hours of launching, and kept climbing, and without that boost, I wouldn't have been able to bring in so many talented musicians, and to record and produce a world class album with a world class producer. This album is the foundation of my future in music, and I couldn't be more proud of it. (side note, if you want to listen/download it, you can do so, for free, here: saskiagm.bandcamp.com/album/night-and-day)

But, once I recorded the album, I was left with the problem of how to get funding to promote it!! Apparently, the rule of thumb is to double the recording budget. So, I scrambled for resources to give this music the platform I felt it deserved, and put together a tour, working with all the promoters I had met previously, and bringing together as many people as I could find. But, none of it would have been possible without...

2) ...my second round of Arts Council Funding! Which went to the musicians I worked with, the PR I was able to get, and general costs of the tour.

I feel incredibly blessed to have had so much generosity come my way, and so much support for my music from the Arts Council, from my Kickstarter backers, from the media, and from the thousands of people that have heard and liked my music! From the people that came out to the shows, to those who put me and my band up while on the road, the messages of encouragement on social media, and people recommending me for gigs, media placements and to their friends. Thank you so much for contributing to this UK tour, and for allowing me and my music to develop and to flourish.

We are here to create and keep on creating original music, which I am labelling 'Anglicana' as Anglicised Roots music, and to share that music through live experiences with the public, again, and again, and again!

To the next one!

Love,
Saskia