Lately I’ve been feeling happier and more creative! Ideas and projects have been popping up in my head, totally unanounced! I wish it was linked to some sort of breakthrough or method I’ve applied. But really I think it’s because I’ve been in contact with art every single week.

Today I want to share 3 things: some artists I discovered this year, excuses I used to stay in my shell, and how it helped me when I finally took the leap.

Building My 2026 Playlist

Over the past few months I have been reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. One direct consequence is that I have been going out more, feeding myself with creativity, music and experiences. I’ve been booking random gigs and musicals, going to the theatre, stationary shops, the Postal Museum, and painting with watercolour.

And somehow, it’s made me more open to new things, more curious about art out there, and hungry for more!

By wandering around London to see random gigs and musicals, and also by browsing online, I’ve come across new artists that make me excited. I wanted to share a few of them here:

• Scout: Dancy, melancholic yet hopeful, emotional, half-organic half-electronic pop. I saw them at Colours Hoxton, and the show was so energising. It made me want to dance. I was smiling the whole time. Everyone there looked super happy. The little bonus that night was seeing Ellie Dixon (another artist that I like!) helping Scout with stage tech. London is such a small town! Some Links: [Linktree] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Instagram]
• South Arcade: They remind me of when I used to wear Converse trainers, baggy jeans, and used to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 in high school. They sound so much like that early 2000s era, with their punchy alt-rock songs. Super fun, they make me want to jump around singing, and learn how to skateboard. They’re from Oxford apparently! I hope I can catch them live somewhere in London this year (they just opened for 5 Seconds of Summer at the O2!!). They remind me of when I used to listen to The Offspring, Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne. Some Links: [stone cold summer] [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Website]
• Maimuna Memon: I discovered her when I went to see her musical “Manic Street Creature” at the Kiln Theatre in North West London - a musical about this woman who moves South to London to jumpstart her music career, and then falls in love and goes through gritty powerful feelings. She carries this almost-one-woman-show with so much energy and raw emotion, singing her internal monologue to us, making the story so relatable. I was touched, and shocked by the amount of talent. How is this musical only running for a few weeks??? I can see why she won an Olivier Award! Some Links: [Set This House On Fire - live] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Instagram]
• Atmos Bloom: Ethereal luminous folk/pop. It’s like a bunch of Swedish forest fairies decided to play music in front of a hidden waterfall to celebrate spring. I discovered them because they were the support act for Scout, in Hoxton. Their drummer made me smile the whole time, he had so much energy and precision, cutting through the guitars bathed in delay and reverb like a sharp blade! What a legend! Some Links: [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Bandcamp]
• Isaac Holmes: A guitarist who makes ambiant ethereal folk music. It sounds a bit like a long, distant memory, and kind of makes me feel nostalgic of an era I never lived. He uses an e-bow on his electric guitar, wired into layered effects pedals that create that sensation that you are floating in the clouds. I actually love making similar sounds, playing over the same slow loop for 20 minutes while I just enjoy the images it creates in my mind. Some Links: [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Website] [YouTube]
• Roswell Road: They play nostalgic sounding Americana folk music. If you like The Corrs or the Cranberries, you’ll be at home! I went to their first album launch concert - Rebel Joy. Most people there seemed to know them personally! I loved their energy on stage, and how they blend instruments like a mandolin, violin and cello to their sound full of voice harmonies. It reminded me of summers driving along the coast of the English Channel, windows down, singing along 1990s americana music. Some Links: [Holy Moutain - Live Session] [Instagram] [Apple Music] [Spotify] [Website] [YouTube]

I am surprised by how many cool artists I discovered in such a short period of time - even more so that I saw most of them play live. I actually had help from the universe, here. All artists I discovered this year were through Instagram recommendations/ads, or because they were the support act for another artist at a gig, or at a Sofar Sounds¹ concert.

I kind of hate that Instagram was actually useful for once. But I take the win: I had a great time, and the platform helped me discover their music, which is exactly what I wish for artists. Don’t overthink it, Tom!

The Sensible Lies

I could have done this years ago. London is a cool place to live in, and there are so many ways I can expose myself to creativity and have fun.

But I had a lot of excuses for not going to gigs or not opening myself up to new artists. Here’s a list of (super negative but also real) examples:

• This is a waste of time
• I am going to feel jealous
• I am going to feel depressed
• I am going to compare myself to them
• I am not going to like the artist
• I am going to realise I am not good compared to them
• I am going to feel scared or uncomfortable, feel alone
• I am going to disappoint people I know by going to a gig on my own / liking this artist

Now that I’ve done it, I know none of those things were true. My brain was playing me! I thought this would drain me, but it’s the opposite: it’s feeding me with energy and positivity.

The Three Levers

I think I learned something from each of the artists I discovered recently. Or rather, I learned something from how I felt each time. They all made me want to create. I felt a newfound energy from each of them, like they pulled some levers inside me:

• Your teenage loves aren’t dead: They are just asleep, somewhere inside. I used to listen to Y2K alt-rock and americana all the time. Maybe they weren’t the music the coolest kids were listening to, but now I remember how much I loved it. And turns out I still do! I even like new music of the same style! It’s not has-been, young people are reviving it, and writing a new chapter in its history. This is so cool!
• Your weird sound experiments aren’t that weird: They are not boring. They are valid. In fact, they are someone else’s music style. Your long loops with tons of delay, they’re some band’s sonic universe, their song backdrop! They even put words on the emotions that their music conveys: nostalgia, hope, “like everything is going to be okay”, “like some distant memory”.
• Being alone is not a showstopper: If someone wrote an entire musical and built a show where she’s almost on her own, you can do it too. If someone recorded an EP with lots of instruments and layers, and performs on stage with just an acoustic guitar and maybe some pre-recorded loops, you can do it too. If they hired a couple of musicians to play with them, then you can do it too.

These 3 levers pulled together opened a door inside me - a bit like when the treasure gets revealed in Indiana Jones - a voice in my head telling me: “You are not alone”. Other artists love what I love. Even better: they get up, show up, brave their fears, do the work, make me feel stuff. And they show me it’s possible.

On the way back to my flat, the voice whispers: “Now, let me out and play, and I promise we’ll have fun!”.

Is it about leaning into what you love? Into what you find fun? Is it about leaning into what makes you curious, happy, into what makes you feel like a mad scientist? Is it about feeling a sense of belonging?

No idea. Do I need to know? As Julia Cameron says: “You do not need to understand electricity to use it”.