We last heard from Manchester-based artist Lindsay Munroe when she released her 2021 EP, Softest Edge, a record written on a week-long perspective-shifting solo trip to the Lake District. In the time since that first trip, Munroe has developed a writing practice built around isolating herself in nature. Today, she is sharing her new single, ‘Wild Me’, the product of another week spent alone in the Lake District.
Since Munroe’s departure from an oppressive church and the end of a long-term relationship, she’s been on a journey of learning exactly who she is when she’s totally free. “A lot of my music over the past 3 years has been about difficult things that I have been through – leaving the evangelical church, dysfunctional relationships, big breakups – and all of those are encapsulated in ‘Wild Me’” she says. “But ultimately the song is me realising that the core things never changed; when I was a child I was a ‘tomboy’, I was obsessed with being outside, I was stubborn and sensitive and smart and quite weird,” she continues.
Lots of us experiment with trying on different personas in our teenage years, most ultimately stumbling across the right fit somewhere down the line. However, in her adolescence, Lindsay found herself shying away from her true, more ‘wild’ self. “I was singing backing vocals in folk bands, wearing floral dresses, shrinking myself to fit into a conservative church environment, desperately trying to find that sense of self and freedom I had as a child,” she explains. “And when that whole tumultuous time was over, I looked around and realised that the same things were true about me now as when I was young. I dress androgynously, I feel most at home outdoors, I’m stubborn, sensitive, smart and still pretty weird.”
It took Munroe years to make the difficult decision to break from the church she had been involved with since her mid-teens. When she finally did, and at the same time went through a breakup, her identity was shaken to its core. On her debut EP, 2020’s Our Heaviness, she explored the pain and turbulence that came with the departure. In 2021, on her second EP, Softest Edge, we found Munroe embracing the opportunity for growth, both personally and professionally. Instead of writing with the pure catharsis of Our Heaviness, Munroe applied her new sense of endless possibilities to her songwriting, exploring the depths of genre and production while lyrically drawing from a wider pool of experiences.
Today, with the release of her new single, we find an artist truly embracing who they are. Through experimentation Munroe has come to find a true sense of comfort in her own skin and the confidence that accompanies that comfort can be heard across her triumphant new cut. “I find it incredibly heartwarming and beautiful that despite all the difficulties of the past years, and the efforts put in by myself and others to change me, I now have more in common with myself at 7 than I do with myself at 17,” she says.
Munroe has also announced upcoming tour dates, supporting Kyla La Grange…
10 Oct 22 – Bristol – Thekla
11 Oct 22 – Birmingham – Hare & Hounds
13 Oct 22 – London – Corsica Studios
14 Oct 22 – Brighton – The Hope & Ruin
21 Oct 22 – Manchester – Night & Day
24 Oct 22 – Nottingham – The Bodega
