Secrets I'll Never Tell

Bonus Episode

Hey friends, welcome to the bonus episode of my podcast miniseries. Over the past couple months, I've been so lucky to have listened to stories shared by some really inspiring and interesting guests. But for this final bonus episode, I wanted to turn the tables on you and hear what you have to say. Thank you so much to everybody who was willing to take part in this episode with their beautiful submissions. I was blown away by the generosity, vulnerability and creativity that was shared, and I'm so humbled that you felt a connection with the podcast enough to want to take part in it.

A little trigger warning, you will hear stories of mental health struggles, explorations of sexuality and identity, and lots of other topics that you may find a little upsetting or triggering. But I was left with such a sense of collective hope and joy after reading all these accounts, and I hope you will too. All that's left to say is, here is the final episode of my 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' podcast miniseries, featuring your stories!

This episode was recorded in London, July 2021

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough

Hey friends, welcome to the final episode of my podcast miniseries. The past seven weeks have flown by, and I hope you've enjoyed the conversations we've been having. Thanks for taking a chance on this podcast with me. For the last episode, I wanted to do something really special. Today’s guest is the amazing SuRie; she's a singer, songwriter, brilliant performer, wonderful human being, and she also happens to be my sister. I wanted to chat to someone I really trust about the themes of this EP, and the stories behind the lyrics.

So this week, SuRie is interviewing me! We cracked open a bottle of wine, sat down on the floor of my bedroom and talked through each track on ‘Secrets I’ll Never Tell’ in detail. There's also a little surprise at the end of the episode which I hope you'll enjoy. I’m a bit nervous for you to hear this one, but I’m also excited for you to have the full picture of where these songs came from. So I really hope you enjoy this chat and thanks again for joining me for this little mini series of podcasts. It’s been really fun to put together.

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough. 

This episode was recorded in London, May 2021

Hey friends, welcome to the penultimate episode of my podcast miniseries. I'm a massive fan of podcasts, even more so over the past year, and so I wanted to do something special for my new EP 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and create this series of conversations to go alongside it. A companion piece you could say. For the past five years, I've been chatting to different performers, creatives and inspiring people about stories in their lives, vulnerabilities, sexuality, identity, mental health and loads more. I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard so far.

This week's guest is Kyle Hanagami. Kyle started sharing dance videos online while he was in sophomore year of university, and since then has grown a huge online community of supporters and subscribers. His YouTube videos have been watched 800,000,000 and he's choreographed for some of the biggest names in pop music, like Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, N Sync, Nick Jonas and loads more. He recently won an iHeart Music Award for choreographing Blackpink’s ‘Kill This Love,’ and a movie he worked on, ‘Over The Moon,’ was just nominated for an Oscar. It’s an insanely impressive resume, but he also happens to be one of the nicest, most down to earth, approachable humans too. We spoke about how he’s turned social media into a really positive space and also his ‘Letters Of Love’ project, which was a beautiful charity project where he was sent thousands of letters and postcards from his community containing stories of their lives. I loved having this chat and I hope you enjoy listening to it.

This episode was recorded during lockdown between London and LA, April 2021

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough

Hey friends, welcome to my podcast miniseries. I'm a massive fan of podcasts, even more so over the past year, and so I wanted to do something special for my new EP 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and create this series of conversations to go alongside it. A companion piece you could say. Each week for the next seven weeks, I'll be chatting to different performers, creatives and inspiring people about stories in their lives, vulnerabilities, sexuality, identity, mental health and loads more. There'll be some live performances, some laughter, maybe a few tears, and hopefully some really valuable conversations for you to enjoy that focus on some of the themes of 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and beyond.

This week’s guest is the incredible Precious Adams, who's currently a junior soloist with the English National Ballet. She was born in Michigan, trained in Toronto, Monte Carlo, Moscow, and joined the English National Ballet in London in 2014. She became a first artist in 2017, a junior soloist in 2020, and in 2019 was named one of the BBC 100 Women - a list of one hundred inspirational and influential women from around the world. We spoke about the pressures of performing at such a high level, social media and its role in being a performer and creative in 2021, mental health in the world of dance and loads more. I loved this chat with Precious, and I hope you do too. 

This episode was recorded during lockdown in London, March 2021

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough

Hey friends, welcome to my podcast miniseries. I'm a massive fan of podcasts, even more so over the past year, and so I wanted to do something special for my new EP 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and create this series of conversations to go alongside it. A companion piece you could say. Each week for the next seven weeks, I'll be chatting to different performers, creatives and inspiring people about stories in their lives, vulnerabilities, sexuality, identity, mental health and loads more. There'll be some live performances, some laughter, maybe a few tears, and hopefully some really valuable conversations for you to enjoy that focus on some of the themes of 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and beyond.

This week’s guests are two incredible talents, MNEK and Leo Kalyan. MNEK is a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and producer who has written for some of the biggest names in pop, as well as releasing his own debut album ‘Language’ in 2018. Leo is also an incredible singer, songwriter and producer who co-wrote ‘Head & Heart’ with MNEK which went to number one last year, as well as releasing his own EPs ‘Outside In,’ and ‘The Edge’ which explore his identity as a gay Muslim musician. We spoke about how the pandemic has affected their work, being a queer musician in 2021, and loads more. I loved having this chat, and I hope you enjoy listening!

This episode was recorded during lockdown in London, April 2021

Leo Kalyan - Outside In & The Edge

https://open.spotify.com/album/1nqf27BW5Sxt6QCr6NttWL?si=grv5uxNbTcGAeI1je-PylA&dl_branch=1

https://open.spotify.com/album/3byA6p8V6wjD97v5xfgYGh?si=Cw0Q9Z-fSzGa6EIDPXsy4w&dl_branch=1

MNEK - Language

https://open.spotify.com/album/1Savte5xUnDV7zXpzpf4AR?si=p8syIJVgRHGwitDgJQLJ_w&dl_branch=1

Lil Nas X - (Montero) Call Me By Your Name

https://youtu.be/6swmTBVI83k

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough

Hey friends, welcome to my podcast miniseries. I'm a massive fan of podcasts, even more so over the past year, and so I wanted to do something special for my new EP 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and create this series of conversations to go alongside it. A companion piece you could say. Each week for the next seven weeks, I'll be chatting to different performers, creatives and inspiring people about stories in their lives, vulnerabilities, sexuality, identity, mental health and loads more. There'll be some live performances, some laughter, maybe a few tears, and hopefully some really valuable conversations for you to enjoy that focus on some of the themes of 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and beyond.

This week’s guest is one of my favourite humans Duncan Laurence. Duncan represented The Netherlands at Eurovision 2019 and became their first winner since 1975, in a final watched by 182 million people. Since then, he’s release his beautiful debut EP ‘Worlds On Fire’ and also his stunning debut album ‘Small Town Boy,’ plus his song ‘Arcade’ became the most streamed Eurovision song of all time. We spoke about mental health in the music industry, the pressures of high-level performance, and also what’s it like being a queer musician in 2021. I loved this chat, and I hope you do too! 

This episode was recorded in lockdown between London and The Netherlands, May 2021

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough

Hey friends, welcome to my podcast miniseries. I'm a massive fan of podcasts, even more so over the past year, and so I wanted to do something special for my new EP 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and create this series of conversations to go alongside it. A companion piece you could say. Each week for the next seven weeks, I'll be chatting to different performers, creatives and inspiring people about stories in their lives, vulnerabilities, sexuality, identity, mental health and loads more. There'll be some live performances, some laughter, maybe a few tears, and hopefully some really valuable conversations for you to enjoy that focus on some of the themes of 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and beyond.

This week's guest is the incredible Sophia Thakur. She is an award winning spoken word artist, songwriter, poet and author of a beautiful book of poetry called ‘Somebody Give This Heart A Pen.' We spoke about vulnerability in creativity, how important it is for her to be authentic in her work, and she also performed a brand new poem at the end of the episode! I loved everything Sophia had to say; it was so poignant for all of our experiences over the past year, and I'm so grateful she was willing to go deep on this one. I really hope you get something out of it too!

This episode was recorded during lockdown in London, April 2021

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough

Hey friends, welcome to my podcast miniseries. I'm a massive fan of podcasts, even more so over the past year, and so I wanted to do something special for my new EP 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and create this series of conversations to go alongside it. A companion piece you could say. Each week for the next seven weeks, I'll be chatting to different performers, creatives and inspiring people about stories in their lives, vulnerabilities, sexuality, identity, mental health and loads more. There'll be some live performances, some laughter, maybe a few tears, and hopefully some really valuable conversations for you to enjoy that focus on some of the themes of 'Secrets I'll Never Tell' and beyond.

I could think of no better way to kick off the series than with Adam Lambert. He shot to fame on American Idol in 2009, he became the first openly gay artist to top the US album charts, has since sold million of albums, and has been touring round the world with Queen since 2011 as well. We spoke about mental health during the pandemic, how he deals with the expectations of high-pressured performance, sexuality in the music industry and loads more. I hope you enjoy this episode and the first taste of what's to come over the next seven weeks. Thanks for taking a punt on this with me!

This episode was recorded during lockdown between London and LA, in March 2021.

Artwork by Katie Cairns, Mixed by Ruby Smith, Music by Benedict Cork & Paul Stanborough