IT'S fair to describe Newcastle singer-songwriter Jemima Webber as spontaneous. In 2017 she decided on the spur of the moment to move to London and two weeks later she was walking through Heathrow Airport.
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Then after two years abroad she returned home in March only to then answer a Facebook post for volunteers at an animal sanctuary near Byron Bay. A week later the 23-year-old was feeding cows, pigs, lambs, goats and chickens.
What hasn't been spontaneous is Jemima's love of music and her drive to become a recording artist. After learning guitar at 14, the Blacksmiths local studied at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute while living in London. The experience was pivotal.
"I'd had a very casual approach to making music up until that point so studying helped me refine the process and take it a bit more seriously, and also realise what kind of music I wanted to create," Jemima said.
"I started learning piano and drums and managed to get some regular gigs in Camden, Soho, Hyde Park, Kensington. Most of all, it boosted my confidence which is something I'd struggled with for a long time."
Jemima also completed her first single, the folk-pop track, He'll Never Be You in London. It was later recorded at Newcastle's Sawtooth Studio and released in August.
"He'll Never Be You is about the process of moving on from someone who you know is wrong for you," she said. "It can be a lot of back-and-forth and fighting temptation.
"Even when you have somebody new in your life, part of you can't help but miss what you had. Ultimately, it's about acknowledging the need to let go."
Jemima plans to release a second single before Christmas, followed by her debut EP.
