Anyone who lives in a big city knows how the fast pace and busy lifestyle can quickly take its toll.
It means taking the time to escape for a long weekend of rest in the countryside is essential.
That’s particularly true for creatives, who can use the more peaceful surroundings as a means to truly focus their minds. There’s a reason that iconic bands such as Queen were shipped off by record execs to the British countryside to work on new music, giving them time and space to cultivate fresh ideas and ultimately create groundbreaking material.
In partnership with cottages.com, GAY TIMES gave three different creatives the opportunity to retreat to a holiday home in the UK to reflect on ideas and plan their next creative projects.
For British pop duo Nimmo, escaping London allowed them to focus on creating new music, and also go over the final tracks of their debut album The Power.
“Getting some time away in Devon has been so helpful,” band member Reva Gauntlett told us. “It’s so nice to come along and set up, and just write loads of music. We took some time out last night to chill with a glass of wine and go over everything.”
The fact they are releasing their debut during a time when queer female musicians are finally being given the opportunity to thrive certainly isn’t lost on Nimmo, and they continue to remain open about who they in order to be visibile role models for a generation of LGBTQ youth.
“As queer women, our identity is in everything we do,” Reva says. “As pop artists, we kind of speak to a mainstream audience, but being queer women it goes through a marginalised community as well.”
The time away has also allowed the duo to think about their new series of curated shows they have coming up this summer, which is a response to the lack of female talent being booked at mainstream festivals in the UK when compared to their male counterparts.
“We think the best way to start tackling the lack of female exposure at festivals at the moment is a) to start booking them, which is what we’ve started doing with our own curated shows – we’re setting up a tour this summer which is about female-focussed artists in all different types of medium,” says Sarah Nimmo.
“But also booking artists that are of a lower tier to set them up for higher levels of exposure later on, which means they can get to that point of headlining festivals.”
While Nimmo have only just released their debut album, that doesn’t mean they’ve put a pause on the creative process. They took the time away in Devon to develop new song ideas that could make it onto their next collection.
“We’ve definitely found loads of inspiration since being here,” Sarah adds. “The space and the peace is enough to make us start thinking coherently and piecing together all of our ideas.”
Nimmo’s debut album The Power is available to stream and download now.
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