LIVE AT THE BEDFORD

8pm Special Early Set with ERICA MANZOLI

Erica Manzoli is a 20-year-old half-Italian, half-English, Brit School alumna from Peckham. Having spent lockdown immersing herself in her thoughts and her music, Erica’s emerged on the other side with a collection of heartfelt songs – observations on modern society which resonate with her fast-growing legion of social media devotees.

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KITTY MONTAGUE

Emerging singer-songwriter Kitty Montague, fuses savvy pop sensibilities and a vocal drenched with soul influences. Her honest, open and provocative writing draws on an empathetic understanding of the human condition – universally relatable situations, emotions and complexities, poetically exposed.

The arresting talent of Kitty Montague has led her to recent accomplishments such as supporting Gabrielle Aplin for Banquet Records, as well as performing with Sofar Sounds and Secret Sessions. The London based artist is already turning heads in the music space, receiving tastemaker support from Notion, FMS Magazine, Music Crowns and BBC Music Introducing.

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TWINNERS

Twinners are an Indie/Pop band from Bristol consisting of identical twin vocalists Sophie & Chloe, their guitarist Joanna and drummer Lydia. The band has a passion for creating original music.

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FOUNDRY13

Based on the borders of Suffolk and Essex, consisting of Joshi Kyro on vocals and keys, James Alwyn on guitar and vocals, the band produce every aspect of Foundry13 themselves from the music to the art. With live performances put on a hold for the beginning part of 2021, it has given the brothers an opportunity to dive head-first into their creativity of self-writing and producing all of their work, with many of their singles often cruising the BBC Introducing airways and positions in Spotify editorial playlists. Foundry13 have also been featured in many respectable magazines such as CLASH, EarMilk, CLOUT, Mystic Sons Magazine and many more. Being featured in BBC Introducing Suffolk ‘Ones to watch in 2021’, and doing a full live set performance as a featured artist for BBC Introducing Suffolk, the band are setting up for a great year.

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LEXI BERG

In her life so far Swedish-American singer-songwriter Alexandra Berglof has shed many layers. At 5 she was the child prodigy training to be a classical pianist. By 11 she was performing in churches and concert venues to hundreds of people around her hometown of Stockholm. Just a year later she was a pop singer scouted by record companies and Swedish Eurovision producers. But after a family tragedy, she fled to America, then Edinburgh via London, and slowly began to work out who she was as an artist away from the input of others. In 2019, she self-released her debut single What If, as Berg, a haunting ballad produced with The Horrors’ Faris Badwan that’s since taken on a life of its own via the soundtrack to Oscar-tipped drama, Pieces of a Woman.

Having recently signed to Warner Music UK label, EastWest Records, Lexi Berg is finally ready to fully step into the spotlight, aided by an EP’s worth of emotionally devastating, 70s-tinged widescreen soul-pop that recalls the spirit of classic song-writing via the likes of Fleetwood Mac and ABBA. It’s all there in the warm embrace of one of her new singles, Helpless to Help You, a harmony-laden, gloriously uplifting anthem that reaches out a hand to help someone in need. Like the rest of the Empire of One EP, which was all recorded in lockdown, it’s loaded with a heady mix of sadness and hope; a reflection of the times we live in. “These five songs are about turning our individual experiences of loneliness and isolation into connection and strength. Even though we’re alone, we’re all feeling the same thing.”
Lexi Berg grew up on a houseboat on the sea in Stockholm. Her mum, a writer from America, met her Swedish lecturer dad at University and moved into their makeshift, shipyard-based abode before it had running water. In fact, all it had was a sauna– and a piano. At the age of five her mum put her in classical piano lessons with “a strict teacher from Romania who was obsessed with my becoming a concert pianist.” After six years of constant practise, she was performing concerts having enrolled at Stockholm’s prestigious Royal School of Music. A big fan of pop, she also had an afterschool band with Swedish DJ Alesso.

Exhausted by her schedule, she took a break. Understanding that music was her passion, her mum set her up with singing lessons at the age of 12. While the singing teacher was a stabilising influence for Lexi Berg during a period of constant upheaval, with the family moving to America for periods of time for her dad’s job, “within five lessons I was auditioning for producers. They were looking for a 12-year-old Britney Spears.” While on paper it seemed like her dream, she knew something wasn’t right and she turned it down. “I still felt like I was being pushed into things, be it classical or pop.”

That new sense of power was quickly overshadowed by a family tragedy two months later. Her beloved uncle took his own life at 43. “It was such a dark period and I walked about like a zombie, trying to be the strong person for my family.” In the end she quit school and her family relocated to America when she was 14. That was short-lived, however, and nine months later they were living in London. “I basically adapted and became a new version of myself, and that happened again when I went to Edinburgh University to study history.”

All this time her uncle’s name wasn’t mentioned. The trauma of his death finally erupted after her younger sister, a playwright, put on a play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival based on the family’s early years in Stockholm. “I walked out at the end and had a massive panic attack. It made me realise I hadn’t dealt with the grief and I was just piling up all these different versions of myself.” While she had started dabbling in music again, with song-writing sessions and open mic nights, she felt like she was treading water. “The moment I had that emotional breakthrough was the moment I started writing really honest songs.”

This was in 2018. A year later, she sent her songs to Faris Badwan. The pair did three tracks, What If, Take Off Your Disguise and Where Will We Be, all of which were released independently and essentially promoted solely by Lexi Berg herself. She laughs at one particular contact she utilised. “I met this random guy at a bar once years ago and I messaged him being like ‘I think you work at Apple, can you show this song to the editorial team?’ He did and they put What If in their top 100 songs of 2019.” Her determination resulted in a management deal last October, followed by a record deal with Warner in December. She’s since written over 100 songs alongside the likes of Jimmy Hogarth (Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini), singer-songwriter Benjamin Leftwich and pop songwriters Wayne Hector (Kylie, One Direction) and Jim Eliot (Foxes, Ellie Goulding). So many songs in fact that there will be a second EP before 2021 is over.

The five songs on Empire of One channel this combination of pop, soul and rock into a collection anchored by Lexi Berg’s yearning vocals and love of heart-swelling, sky-scraping melodies. They also showcase that very Swedish pop move of fusing sadness and joy. So the already classic-sounding Helpless to Help You glides along on a wave of sun-kissed harmonies while dealing with that frustration of not being able to save someone in pain. “But it’s also about acceptance and saying that it doesn’t matter that I can’t fix you, but I am here for you.” The piano-led, more textured Into The Sea, is about Lexi Berg’s love for nature and its healing properties, while the rockier Lonely World takes the sadness of our current global situation but offers more of that vital commodity – hope. The ABBA-esque Empire of One, which was written mere weeks ago from a dark flat waiting out lockdown two, shows, she says, “how our minds can turn an anxious and lonely room into a bright and infinite space: a celebration: an empire of one.”

That she’s able to transform the personal and the mundane into an immediately recognisable lost classic, is exactly the point. Lexi Berg writes songs that draw inspiration from the past but that are firmly rooted in the present and our current emotionally saturated times. These are also songs drawn from incredibly personal experiences but that feel instantly universal and, like all great pop, easily adaptable. “I just want as many people in the world to hear my songs,” she says. “Each song is a feeling or a mood and I want people to escape into the song, no matter what they’re feeling. They’re songs to transport the listener…we’re all connected in the world. There’s still magic.” Lexi Berg is needed now more than ever.

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BEN KIDSON

Born in South London to a west end dancer and a (then) 50 year old lawyer, Ben Kidson is a product of his upbringing. His songwriting, heavily influenced by the music of his parents, combines theatrical flair with the sound of 1970’s rock and roll groups. Add modern sampling, outstanding storytelling, and the occasional cynical outburst, and you’ve got a sound and an artist like no other.