Sophie Simonds has been a musician all her life, playing seven instruments by the time she applied to senior school, she attended Latymer Upper School with a full music scholarship. While studying for GCSE’s, Sophie achieved Grade 8 Jazz Saxophone and Grade 8 Violin, within weeks of each other, and went on to start working as a session saxophonist at the age of 18. Since leaving school, Sophie went on to sign a development contract with The Foundry Studio, Sheffield, under Soundbytes Media. Here, she wrote her album, for which final edits are being recorded now. Sophie can now be found most weeks, performing across London and the UK, with her incredible backing band, playing her original songs, in such incredible venues as The Fiddlers Elbow, The Half Moon, Putney, and The Bedford.

A bit about us: Silent Self formed in 2016 with guitarist Tom Abbott & singer songwriter Steve Clarke wanting to make nonsense melodic indie rock. The band quickly came together with the addition of Andy McDonald on drums and David Galifi on bass providing the backbone of what has become a strong and dynamic team.

Sound: Sonically, the band are all about driving melodies and steady grooves infused with progressive beats and catchy hooks. All firmly in their mid 30's the band are children of the 90's Britpop and Grunge scenes which influences but crucially does not define them.

Live: Their Live performances are a considered balance of energetic showmanship and professional musicality with the ethos of ‘if we’re having fun the crowd will too’ being a core component. No complicated technical riders, the band turn up, plug in and rock out.

Releases: The band are working on their much anticipated first Studio EP with engineer and producer Dave Needham at Dark Horse Studios in Epsom, South London. The band have currently put out 2 singles; the which titular track and first release ‘Silent Self’ and the follow up 'Hide Away', and have released a 'Live and Unplugged' EP recorded live on Surrey Hills Radio.

Not so long ago, on an island on the edge of the Mediterranean (okay it’s a peninsular, but bear with me), Faith White was singing in musical theatre,“ fronting” local bands and winning Gibraltar’s got talent! Meanwhile 1300 miles away, Callum Granger was busking around Norwich or laying down “big riffs” with his rock and blues duo Dogfight. Twelve months later in 2017 the two found themselves in Guildford UK, having both enrolled on a contemporary music degree course. After playing in various bands they decided to form an acoustic duo and since then, they have gigged extensively in and around London and the south east of England. Encouraged by the positive feedback they were getting they released a four track EP, “Carolina Moon”, which has enjoyed wide spread radio play, including BBC Introducing.

At the beginning of 2018 Borders’ repertoire continued to grow (almost as fast as Callum’s guitar collection) and it felt the right time to work on a full album. “No One Else” is the result of a year’s writing, gigging, laughing, crying, moving house (and locking themselves out), broken promises and waiting on remote stations for late trains that didn’t arrive, but always finding enough support and encouragement along the way to keep going. Their music lies somewhere in the, Contemporary Folk meets Americana and Roots, with a twist of Blues genre, but they are happy to let the listener decide

https://soundcloud.com/bordersacoustic

https://www.facebook.com/BordersDuo/?ref=settings

https://twitter.com/Borders_Duo?lang=en-gb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMeQliWpz9A