Donna Thompson shares “Be With You”

DONNA THOMPSON SHARES “BE WITH YOU”

DEBUT EP SOMETHING TRUE 

RELEASED 22ND JULY

ON PRAH RECORDINGS

Donna Thompson recently announced details of Something True; her debut EP set to be released 22nd July via PRAH Recordings. Today she shares new single “Be With You“, a song inspired by Donna’s own long-distance relationship and the added strain caused by recent world events.

music video / streaming services

“Like a lot of people, I found it hard not being able to connect with loved ones during the lockdowns. My boyfriend and I are in a long distance relationship and it was really hard, missing him all the time and feeling restless. As things started to open up, I found myself increasingly busy and less time being spent together meant my mind is often on him despite not being around him.”  – Donna Thompson on “Be With You“

“I’m always filming little videos on my travels as keepsakes, so I put this together on iMovie. Some of the clips are from moments when I was feeling the distance between us and others are from our walks together. But a lot of them are from walks I was taking alone.” – Donna Thompson on “Be With You” music video

“Be With You” follows the success of previous single “Matchstick“, which was presented as a reminder to just breathe, be thankful and exist in the present. Both can be found on the forthcoming Something True EP.

About Something True

Music has never left DONNA THOMPSON, but for a while she left it. There was no loss of love for the craft itself; instead it was the collision of trying to find space and time to create running up against the realities of having to pay rent and make a living. And, as anyone who gives up something they love can attest, once you’re out it’s hard to get yourself back in.

Donna, however, is back IN. Skip forward a few years and she’s now a key figure and collaborator in the increasingly legendary Total Refreshment Centre, back in her groove as a musician and fighting hard for that creative headspace she once thought she’d lost.

Across four tracks of swirling, cinematic jazz and meditative R&B, Donna grapples with the importance of self-love, of community and the strength found within oneself and others. It isn’t an EP that simply waves the flag of victory at a journey completed – life isn’t like that after all. Instead, there’s a realisation that the battle never really ends but that the wins should be celebrated when they can, that past traumas stay with you and it’s worth fighting through them to find love both inwardly and from outside.

“I’ve had to sing for my supper. The fact that I’ve even made it to this point is really a surprise to me but it’s where I’ve wanted to be for a long time,” Donna says. “I’ve found love, a home, friends and my passion for music is growing every day. Working on this EP was a way to sketch my own world in the way I hear it now, having been through all of that.”

Growing up and going through Goldsmith’s College chiefly as a drummer and lyricist, Something True was in fact initially put together on piano at the Total Refreshment Centre. With encouragement from the TRC community to develop these skeletal ideas she then took a trip down to the PRAH studio in Margate where she was joined friends John Atterbury (guitar), Hannah Miller (cello) and Alabaster Deplume (sax) to lay down some parts. Later, the bulk of the tracks would be finessed during sessions The Orb’s Michael Rendall (plus one with Pozi’s Toby Burroughs at his studio in Willesden).

“I recorded a majority of the vocals in my bedroom as that’s where I feel safest at the moment. Being safe means being able to be vulnerable… but I try to leave myself open to ideas to flow through my mind at any time in any place,” Donna says. “I’m quite sensitive and my work is predominantly focused on how I’m feeling at that present moment. I sometimes incorporate samples of the room at the time of recording so that the song is kind of like a musical snapshot of the flow happening. Improvisation is key to my sound.”

It’s the improvisation that gives Donna’s music its freedom, but make no mistake, the four songs included on Something True are pure, honest pop. They rest on soulful melodies and effortlessly charming hooks. It’s an EP that’s triumphs have been hard fought for, and taste all the more sweeter as a result.

Donna Thompson Something True EP tracklisting

Be With You
Come Home
I Try
Matchstick