In My Veins

The first single from Freyja Elsy’s upcoming EP ‘To Stop The World Turning’ is out today. Have a listen to ‘In My Veins’ while you ready my memories of collaborating on it.

I first worked on this song with Freyja preparing a live version for her first headline show back in April 2025. The chiming guitar riff came from a keyboard idea Freyja had written years before. Some electric pianos let you record and store ideas on them. Freyja rediscovered this motif and brought it to the song as a guitar part.

Later that year we headed to StudiOwz in West Wales to record the track along with the rest of the EP. You can read about the sessions from Freyja’s POV at her website

Going into the session I knew we would the main guitar part with a bright, chiming, chorus tone. It offers a counterpoint to the tension in the sparse piano and double-bass and fills the gaps of reflection when the vocal drops out. The great thing about being in the studio is people end up in ideas mode. Owain Jenkins (engineer and owner of StudOwz) suggested doubling the guitar part with a random guitar he had lying about. He had restrung it so of the strings covering 2 ascending octaves they all sat in a range of 1 octave. It made the notes and resonant frequencies cluster together and a added a lovely, vibrant harpsicord-esque shimmer which sits in the left headphone.

After that we added some driving acoustic guitar to reinforce the folk side of the folktronica aim. Freyja took the lead in guiding me about when the make the rhythm busier and when to just let the chords ring, creating contrast in the different verses and choruses. As an arranger this is one of my favourite, simple tricks in songs. Variation instead of straightforward repetition can add tension and release and also help reinforce the shift in lyrical mood as the song develops.

The lyrics evoke the way in which snatches of memory move in and out of focus as we age, grow and reflect on our lives; a fluid, dynamic arrangement made perfect sense. Freyja’s mix did an excellent job of drawing the ear to the shifting elements. In the ‘are you reaching out’ section my mind goes between the vocal, the guitar motif and the swirling snatches of glitchy voices that sound like flashbacks to a dream that catch you as you’re waking up.

I hope you enjoy listening to the song and stay tuned for the next release from the EP.