Debut album from Birmingham singer-songwriter

Album launch set for Kitchen Garden Café.


Danielle Cawdell is a pianist and singer-songwriter based in Birmingham, UK. Her music is uncomfortably beautiful; piano ballads peppered with riot girl guitar noise all lead by her delicate voice, telling hard truths. She echoes both the classic writing of Joni Mitchell and the contemporary emotionally efficient arrangements of Perfume Genius.

2018 sees the release of her debut album, Silence Set Me Free, produced by singer songwriter Dan Whitehouse (Reveal Records) and Barcelona-based producer Jason Tarver (Kylie/Nerina Pallot/The Cooper Temple Clause).

“The album is an uncensored story, capturing moments and experiences, there is nothing that is held back or not shared,” says Danielle. “I have stood as myself for as long as I ever have through this process, and not apologised once for expressing who I truly am through the songs I’ve written, co-written and performed on this album.”

Silence Set Me Free is the culmination of two years of writing. After finishing work as a Speech and Language Therapist, Danielle would go to the studio of West Mids’ songwriter and musician Dan Whitehouse where they would work on the songs together, experimenting with arrangements, and make sure the true message was communicated. The final ten tracks were then recorded and mixed by Jason Tarver, who also added delicate electronic sounds.

“Writing songs is something I have always done, but I never saw a path to share my music,”
Danielle says. “I went to a song writing workshop run by Dan, and shared my work for first time, this eventually lead me to the realisation I had to make this album.”

Dan Whitehouse has been a mentor, collaborative musical partner and co-writer of many of the songs, working tirelessly and generously with Danielle to create the album. An example is the song Brother, originally a tangle of raw emotion; Dan coaxed this into the song it is now, adding in sensitive guitar, helping to tell the story more vividly.

Silence Set Me Free is out now via Heantun Records (CD and digital). Danielle is officially launching the album accompanied by her band (including Dan) at the Kitchen Garden Café, Kings Heath, on Friday 23rd March 2018. Details