- Work Hard
- 2nd Aug 2024
- 0
- 5 minutes
Meet singer-songwriter India Arkin who started her music career in Newcastle – and now supports Tom Grennan
Image credit: Rob Irish
Singer-songwriter India Arkin talks to High Life North about starting her music career in Newcastle, supporting Tom Grennan and her latest single, ‘Senseless.’
When India Arkin moved to Newcastle to study Fine Art at University in 2019, the singer-songwriter was at the beginning of her blossoming musical journey.
She first started in small bars and pubs, dreaming of performing in big venues across the city. Her dreams are finally coming true as she is performing to those big crowds and supporting acts like Tom Grennan and The Feeling.
India’s musical journey started when she was 11 years old, and her Dad bought her a Spanish acoustic guitar on Christmas Day, which she still writes music with to this day.
This laid the foundations for a life-long creative pursuit but it wasn’t that she made friends with a group of musicians in St Albans before moving to university that she saw it as a real possibility.
When she moved to Newcastle, India joined a short-lived band. However, she had the passion and momentum behind her to continue this venture.
“I wanted to do my own thing because I love it so much. There was no pressure, I just wanted to have fun with it and it exploded from there,” said India.
The artist started performing at Beer and Bourbon on Nelson St during open mic nights and eventually impressed enough to get a residency.
She said that the music scene in Newcastle is “tiny” compared to other big cities across the UK so it wasn’t too hard to immerse herself in this world.
“Everybody knows everybody in the scene because Newcastle is tiny, relatively. All the musicians are super connected. The scene is so united and warm; everybody is trying to give each other a leg up,” said India.
Since those early days, India has signed to HMV’s first-ever distribution deal with 1921 Records and released her album, ‘Home Truths’ in 2022. She also went on to become a National Album Day ambassador and has been featured in Forbes and NME.
The singer-songwriter returns with her latest single, ‘Senseless’, releasing 9 August, which she describes as her “biggest and best single to date.”
“Since I’ve released my album, I feel like my musicianship has developed so much. With time, you become a better songwriter, lyricist and player,” said India. “I cherry-picked incredible musicians to make it the most powerful and poignant thing that I could and I think the track is timeless.”
Despite only moving to Newcastle five years ago, India said that she feels more at home here than anywhere else in her life – as she would regularly relocate as a child due to her parent’s job.
The feeling of “home” translates to her live performances as she said there is a unique feeling when performing in Newcastle.
“There’s always a real warmth performing in Newcastle. We get repeated faces coming through to the shows and there’s a real love and support within the scene. I can’t even begin to express how much that means,” said India.
It is also a special experience performing in Newcastle as this is where she made the first real steps in her musical journey and “started from nothing” in bars and pubs to get to the point “where people actually care.”
It feels like India has finally reached that point as she has recently been going from strength to strength and reaching big milestones.
One such milestone was when Indie heavy-hitter Tom Grennan asked her to support him at his Newcastle Boiler Shop show.
“I went from playing these tiny bars and struggling to get two people to show up. I had just moved to the city and nobody knows who you are. Then you go to a sold-out show [supporting Tom Grennan], it’s a really crazy feeling.”
It was an incredible experience that helped India develop as an artist as she took inspiration by watching an “artist of that calibre” and tried to gain insight into his inner workings.
This experience supporting Tom Grennan and supporting band The Feeling on their tour helped her massively as a live performer as she had to interact differently with a crowd of that size.
“It’s a really different experience with a crowd of that size, it’s a very different interaction. There’s something about being on stage that big that makes you feel a different way,” said India.
She added: “With the smaller venues, you are only really looking people in the eye and then you get thrown into this sea of people in these massive venues and you feel enormous and tiny at the same time.”
Comments