Embracing a strong genre-bending ethos, London-based songwriter and visionary Silver Dawn stands out as a rare gem in a music landscape riddled with uniformity. When others are busy pursuing trends and proven formulas, Silver Dawn shatters them all, championing authenticity and uniqueness. ‘Beautifully Awkward’ is the perfect example of that, a whirlwind of diverse influences and futuristic arrangements, all tied together by a bold push for experimentation and the unconventional.
Mission accomplished: the EP collects eight tracks suspended between leftfield electronica, art pop, and nostalgic guitar-powered charisma, with the occasional jazz elegance adding a twist of retro flair to an already lively formula. A longtime in the making, ‘Beautifully Awkward’ was crafted by Silver Dawn as a result of deep introspection and self-love, as she decodes the reality around her in sonic and lyrical terms. Purposefully avoiding the classic ‘song structure’, the British songstress builds an artistic space that’s uniquely hers, one where listeners can enjoy a breath of fresh air, adventuring off the beaten path.
‘Beautifully Awkward’ is set for release on January 2nd 2026. Not long to go! Intrigued by the project, we caught up with Silver Dawn to learn more about her artistry and future goals… interview below!
Hey Silver, thanks for chatting with us! While preparing these questions, the pictures of your cat on your Instagram profile sent me down a rabbit hole concerning cats’ role in Ancient Egypt. Of course, that has nothing to do with our interview, but it all happened while I was listening to ‘Beautifully Awkward’, and I must say, the record made for quite a hypnotic, mystic vibe.
Cats are a very important part of my life. Often on my lap, inside my jumper, trying to walk across my laptop… But yeah… life is mysterious and mundane at the same time. You can see it if you zoom into the microcosm of the quantum world or out to the macrocosm, beyond the Big Bang, to the multiverses. The cats know this. The Egyptians venerated them for a reason.
Anyway, here we are. Before we dive into the EP, I’d love to know more about the human and the creative behind the project. Your biography mentions your father’s role in your music education. Is there a particular memory or event that has shaped your musical taste/outlook on music?
My dad was a great lover of BBC Radio 3; he had lots of records and reel-to-reels, but he wasn’t snobby – always interested in music from all genres and times and places. I’ve inherited that. I’ll happily go to a church to hear Renaissance music one day, then to Electric Brixton to see Napalm Death the next. But less broadly, he really liked Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and I have a feeling that’s unconsciously influenced my lyric writing. I also love Schubert in a way that feels deeply woven into my DNA.
Apart from being born into a musical family, you also grew up in London, a fertile city for anyone keen to make something of themselves in the art world. Tell us about the transition between your early childhood and your teenage years. Were you part of the London music scene? Or going to gigs in particular venues? Would you say that the British capital has helped you embrace your heightened sonic eclecticism?
The thing is, growing up in London, I think most people feel like tiny, insignificant little fish in an enormous ocean, so there isn’t the same confidence-building experience of being a big fish in a small pond that people get outside of the capital. I really noticed that at college: fellow Londoners had an anxious, wary look in their eye. But musically, there are lots of pubs and clubs and parties to get exposure to all sorts of overlapping scenes, and kind of take all the music around for granted. Smaller towns and cities have more of a chance of a specific ‘scene’ than this hodgepodge. I love venues the size of The Garage in Islington or The Dome in Camden – great vibes. I’d have to manipulate and coerce people to come with me to see something more ‘out there’, like a poetry open mic or a Georgian male voice choir, though. 🙂
Cue your academic training at London’s LCM. Do you currently work in music? Or did you embark on a different path?
I haven’t really enjoyed working in the indirect aspects of music that much, teaching, that kind of thing. I prefer the creative expression side of music, so I compose now.
It all takes us to ‘Beautifully Awkward’, your latest EP. Longtime in the making, the record is incredibly eclectic and diverse, so much so that I am not looking at it from a genre standpoint, but from the perspective of Silver Dawn’s personal expression. Simply, it’s the result of your own music journey and influences. What does the EP mean to you?
On one level, it is just a big f-you to anything that has tried to contain me and force me into a mould in my life. I’d been held back into a state of creative paralysis by the idea of genre because I’ve always had broad interests and fascinations. I hated that educational process of narrowing down subjects from GCSEs to A Levels to a degree, cutting off possibilities as you go – it sends my spirit into revolt.
But I get it. I get that you have to be marketable, useful, and you do that by specialising. I’ve tried, and I’ve failed. This EP is a big f-you to that pressure. I know it’s a bit unreasonable of me, but at least it is true.
Take us through your creative process; do you prefer starting with lyrics and an overall concept of a song, or do you dive into production?
Outside of the EP, I have all sorts of approaches: lyrics first, melody first, vibe, rhythm, collab conversation first, anything really. With this EP, though, it was all music first. The vibe of the sounds and the concept of the song fed into each other, then the lyrics came from that, or they might just have been what was going through my mind at the time.
With the track ‘Beautifully Awkward’, it was all based on an experiment where I sang some long notes into a sampler, then I re-sampled and re-pitched them, layered them and created all the instruments – bass, organs, etc, from those vocal samples, following my intuition. Unplanned, this kind of 1960s psychedelic R&B track came out. With ‘Tidal Wave’, that started with the guitar and some vocal layering, starting with a vocoder part saying in 1/8 notes “oo ee ah ah ah ah, oo ee ah ah ah ah” because I wanted to do a 3/ 4 track that goes into 4/4 time. I really love 3/4 time. The lyrics came after I laid down the initial vibe.
‘The Tune’ started out with just the helicopter synth sound – I could hear it needed some confrontational distorted guitar. The lyrics and melody for the first verse came to me together when I was walking in the Walthamstow Wetlands. They seemed profoundly true to me, extremely personal, but I didn’t think anyone else would hear them at the time of laying them down. I was working through some really painful stuff, trying to make sense of it all.
How do you know when you are done with a composition? Do you know where you are going, or do you rely on feelings and vibes?
I’ll be working towards a certain goal and think it has to sound a certain way for it to be ‘ready’. I might put more and more work into it to get it ‘finished’, but then I’ll realise that I actually needed to take stuff out to finish it. Going away and coming back to it with fresh ears is a great help. But the creative process itself is a lot of fun: hearing stuff in my mind and capturing it, layering it, mucking about with it, happy accidents, thinking “where next?” and either hearing the next thing or feeling I have reached a point where I need to leave and then come back to it.
In my own head, I think I have redefined what a piece of music needs to sound like in order to be finished. Mainstream music is all so perfect, but I have a taste for the raggedy chaos of improv and experimentation, so I don’t hold myself to those mainstream standards.
How should we approach ‘Beautifully Awkward’, as listeners? Are there specific elements we should look out for? What’s a possible listening guide for the record?
I suppose you could treat it like reading a novel, where you get to hear and see and know things through the imagination of one person, immerse yourself in their vibe, and sort of feel like you’ve found a friend, if you have an affinity with the writer. I am sharing my experience of the human condition through the language of music and words, and hoping others might get it. But it’s not an epic, it’s just a slice.
This is a question I often ask: given your extensive experience and personal history with music making, what’s the one piece of advice/nugget of wisdom that you would give to an up-and-coming artist?
Don’t wait for someone else to see your potential, don’t wait for someone else to tell you are ready, just go out, do the thing, be cringe and keep going.
Lastly, what’s next for Silver Dawn? Is there a chance of a live performance happening anytime soon?
New year, new plans… I am currently working on some new material and figuring out how to render things live. I’m ready to collaborate now that I’ve proved this thing to myself. Watch this space!
