Florence Lead Singer From The Bare Souls Band

[00:00:02] Welcome to Women Agenda. This is

[00:00:04] Rai. We have a very special guest

[00:00:06] today, Florence

[00:00:08] is a very talented

[00:00:10] front singer from

[00:00:12] is it the Bear Souls?

[00:00:14] Is that the Bear Souls?

[00:00:16] Bear Souls, yes

[00:00:18] Thank you for coming on

[00:00:20] and how are you today?

[00:00:22] Yeah, my pleasure. Yeah, I'm good. Thanks. How are you doing?

[00:00:24] Fantastic.

[00:00:26] Not too bad. Thank you.

[00:00:28] Yes, so

[00:00:30] obviously you've sent me

[00:00:32] information.

[00:00:34] The band itself

[00:00:36] is a band which you've got together

[00:00:38] is it

[00:00:40] true that you founded the

[00:00:42] members yourself, all of the members you got them together?

[00:00:44] I did, yeah, yeah

[00:00:46] I started the band

[00:00:48] about eight years ago

[00:00:50] now with

[00:00:52] people I found in my city of Bristol

[00:00:56] and there's been a bit of turn

[00:00:58] over in the band over the years

[00:01:00] but I still got some

[00:01:02] of the best musicians that Bristol's got to offer

[00:01:04] in the band. So yeah, I kind of put the whole thing together

[00:01:06] my

[00:01:08] songs and compositions and I managed

[00:01:10] the projects as well so it's my baby.

[00:01:14] Yeah, wow

[00:01:16] it's

[00:01:18] that must make it very special because

[00:01:20] you're the person

[00:01:22] who got everything together, I think that must

[00:01:24] make it extra special for you

[00:01:26] that you know

[00:01:28] it's your own creation, isn't it?

[00:01:30] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:01:32] Yeah, definitely

[00:01:34] and obviously you've obviously mentioned

[00:01:36] and we will talk about it in a moment as well

[00:01:38] obviously the kind of stuff

[00:01:40] you had to struggle through recently

[00:01:42] but

[00:01:44] we will mention that

[00:01:46] definitely so eight years

[00:01:48] we are looking back

[00:01:50] 2016 then when it was formed

[00:01:52] this band. Yeah, that's right actually, yeah

[00:01:54] 2016

[00:01:56] yeah well, 80 years. You guys

[00:01:58] have released a lot of singles

[00:02:02] and obviously you've got a single

[00:02:04] now obviously purple which

[00:02:06] just came out just now, was it

[00:02:08] recently? Yeah, that came

[00:02:10] out about a month ago

[00:02:12] so yeah we've released quite a lot over the years

[00:02:14] but it's been sort of

[00:02:16] dribs and drabs because I've

[00:02:18] sort of been managing the project alongside

[00:02:20] full-time career

[00:02:22] and working in

[00:02:24] other things other than music

[00:02:26] so it's sort of what time and

[00:02:28] money also has allowed us to do

[00:02:30] but we got some funding last year

[00:02:32] from this amazing charity

[00:02:34] called Help Musicians

[00:02:36] so they funded us to record and release

[00:02:38] five singles

[00:02:40] purple is the second of those singles

[00:02:42] and then

[00:02:44] we've got another one due out soon

[00:02:46] as well, I've just been editing the video

[00:02:48] for that just before our call

[00:02:50] and yes we've got another three

[00:02:52] due to come out later this year

[00:02:57] Wow, so how

[00:02:59] hard is it

[00:03:01] for a band obviously

[00:03:03] you know who wants

[00:03:05] to perform but

[00:03:07] there is a bit of a funding issue

[00:03:09] obviously

[00:03:11] how hard is it to generate the revenue

[00:03:13] so you can do this

[00:03:15] are you happy to give me

[00:03:17] it's kind of impossible

[00:03:19] I don't know

[00:03:21] really anyone out there

[00:03:23] amongst my peers

[00:03:25] who is making money

[00:03:27] as a full-time performing musician

[00:03:29] you know there are

[00:03:31] people who are

[00:03:33] I do have friends that have

[00:03:35] kind of got up to another level

[00:03:37] and are kind of able to

[00:03:39] make a living out of it but

[00:03:41] for most people they have to have another job

[00:03:43] they have to teach music

[00:03:45] actually making money

[00:03:47] as a recording artist

[00:03:49] is really difficult

[00:03:51] you know it's an expensive game

[00:03:53] you have to spend a lot of money

[00:03:55] you have to invest a lot of money into your career

[00:03:57] the

[00:03:59] fees for playing live are

[00:04:01] really not enough to live off

[00:04:03] so yeah a lot of people

[00:04:05] rely on other things

[00:04:07] merch is a big one

[00:04:09] people making

[00:04:11] it's an merchandise

[00:04:13] or

[00:04:15] like I say you might teach

[00:04:17] you can also find money

[00:04:19] in things like SYNC

[00:04:21] so selling your music

[00:04:23] to

[00:04:25] television and film and things like that

[00:04:27] but it is really hard

[00:04:29] to make a living

[00:04:31] as a performing musician

[00:04:33] unless you're in the big time

[00:04:35] and certainly

[00:04:37] with my band because our biggest

[00:04:39] we're a seven piece

[00:04:41] and yeah it's really hard

[00:04:43] to perform as a seven piece

[00:04:45] we don't do that very often just because

[00:04:47] the fees from the venues don't go far enough

[00:04:49] to paying seven people

[00:04:51] the guys in the band

[00:04:53] I don't mind playing occasionally for nothing

[00:04:55] because it's my baby

[00:04:57] it's my project and I want to get the word out there

[00:04:59] but for the other guys in the band

[00:05:01] for a lot of them

[00:05:03] it's their job, it's their income

[00:05:05] so they're not going to play for free

[00:05:07] for sure

[00:05:09] I try not to pay anyone

[00:05:11] less than 50 pounds a gig

[00:05:13] even that is not really

[00:05:15] enough

[00:05:17] it's tough basically

[00:05:19] so do you think

[00:05:21] is this everywhere

[00:05:23] or is it just the UK

[00:05:25] which is a struggle for musicians

[00:05:27] is it UK?

[00:05:29] I couldn't really speak for everywhere else

[00:05:31] I know

[00:05:33] that in

[00:05:35] I believe that in America you get paid better

[00:05:37] for live shows

[00:05:39] with more

[00:05:41] function type

[00:05:43] material when I was in the States many years ago

[00:05:45] and chatting to

[00:05:47] a musician there who performed in function bands

[00:05:49] and the pay was great

[00:05:51] you can get paid reasonably well

[00:05:53] for function gigs over here

[00:05:55] but yeah I think the

[00:05:57] paying the states is much better for that side of things

[00:05:59] I don't know about the kind of more

[00:06:01] original music

[00:06:03] independent artist type

[00:06:05] gigs

[00:06:07] and the rest of the world and the rest of Europe

[00:06:09] I don't know

[00:06:11] I know they generally treat you better

[00:06:13] in other countries as a musician

[00:06:15] I've done a bit of playing in Europe

[00:06:17] with a band that I was singing for

[00:06:19] a few years ago

[00:06:21] and you get put up with somewhere to stay

[00:06:23] you get fed well

[00:06:25] you get given lots of drinks

[00:06:27] and you get paid resin in the UK

[00:06:29] you get paid a pity

[00:06:31] maybe you get like a drinks token for the bar

[00:06:33] so

[00:06:35] probably we've got the best app in England

[00:06:37] yeah in the UK

[00:06:39] I think that's something which I've noticed

[00:06:41] as well because I've spoken to quite obviously

[00:06:43] on the woman agenda

[00:06:45] we speak often to many music artists

[00:06:47] and stuff and some like yourself

[00:06:49] who are

[00:06:51] working part time and they have another job

[00:06:53] many artists like that as well

[00:06:55] and they've said the same thing like yourself

[00:06:57] it's a struggle

[00:06:59] in the UK

[00:07:01] to do it full time

[00:07:03] but they can't do it

[00:07:05] but yeah absolutely

[00:07:07] I think this is something which needs to be raised

[00:07:09] I don't know how it would be raised

[00:07:11] but hopefully it's something

[00:07:13] which needs to get better definitely

[00:07:15] I think it's

[00:07:17] a symptom of the wider issue

[00:07:19] of the arts just not having the recognition

[00:07:21] that they deserve

[00:07:23] in the UK

[00:07:25] they're not a priority in our school system

[00:07:27] they're not a priority in public funding

[00:07:29] and there are some

[00:07:31] amazing bodies out there that are funding

[00:07:33] the arts and doing an amazing

[00:07:35] job you know we've received a lot of help

[00:07:37] from help musicians UK who are

[00:07:39] an amazing charity

[00:07:41] the arts council does some great funding

[00:07:43] and supports a lot of artists

[00:07:45] both in music and the wider arts

[00:07:47] so there is

[00:07:49] some bodies out there that are supporting it

[00:07:51] but I think yeah it just

[00:07:53] doesn't get the recognition

[00:07:55] in our society

[00:07:57] for you know

[00:07:59] the importance that it plays in our lives

[00:08:01] and the richness of our lives

[00:08:03] and therefore how important it is

[00:08:05] to

[00:08:07] ensure that musicians and also music venues

[00:08:09] because that's another massive issue we're having

[00:08:11] in the UK

[00:08:13] loads of small venues are being forced to shut

[00:08:15] because they just can't stay afloat

[00:08:17] so it's a really tough game

[00:08:19] because the small venues haven't got enough revenue

[00:08:21] they can't afford to pay their artists

[00:08:23] you know pay performers

[00:08:25] enough to come and perform

[00:08:27] so everyone's being squeezed really tight basically

[00:08:31] that's

[00:08:33] absolutely true

[00:08:35] I'll just put the website name

[00:08:37] address on here as well

[00:08:39] where people can check it out

[00:08:41] we'll put it on the link in the description as well

[00:08:43] so this is official website

[00:08:45] and you can purchase

[00:08:47] the music, all the latest videos

[00:08:49] music videos everything is on there

[00:08:51] on there and I can see on there

[00:08:53] people can hire

[00:08:55] your services as well

[00:08:57] is that true?

[00:08:59] I mean if you want to book us

[00:09:01] you can get in touch for sure

[00:09:03] we're a winning band

[00:09:05] if you've got the money we'll come and play with

[00:09:07] definitely

[00:09:09] there are some

[00:09:11] people who do book bands as well

[00:09:13] absolutely in the function

[00:09:15] weddings, parties definitely

[00:09:17] we do weddings as well

[00:09:19] we do a different set list

[00:09:21] when we do weddings obviously we do covers

[00:09:23] we do original material

[00:09:25] but we do occasionally get the odd wedding

[00:09:27] gig through friends and word of mouth

[00:09:29] we've all done plenty of that

[00:09:31] occasionally we call ourselves

[00:09:33] Florence and the Soul Bears

[00:09:35] instead when we do weddings

[00:09:37] just as a little tongue in cheek

[00:09:39] joke

[00:09:41] differentiate ourselves from the originals band

[00:09:43] yeah and

[00:09:45] I know obviously

[00:09:47] you're busy and obviously you'll be short for time

[00:09:49] so I do want to mention

[00:09:51] obviously and

[00:09:53] you did mention this and

[00:09:55] recently obviously you were struggling

[00:09:59] obviously like you said

[00:10:01] in the email as well

[00:10:03] so if you can briefly say

[00:10:05] how are you now? Are you 100% okay now?

[00:10:09] No, 100% so yeah

[00:10:11] it was something I wanted to sort of

[00:10:13] talk about because it's a journey that I've been through

[00:10:15] with my thyroid health

[00:10:17] and it is something that is very

[00:10:19] common amongst women

[00:10:21] and men but also amongst women

[00:10:23] of having issues with their thyroid

[00:10:25] so I've had an

[00:10:27] interactive thyroid for many years

[00:10:29] and that's been quite a struggle

[00:10:31] there's lots of sort of symptoms

[00:10:33] that I struggled with for a long time

[00:10:35] to do with myself

[00:10:37] hormonal cycle

[00:10:39] to do with my mood

[00:10:41] low mood was a big one, low energy

[00:10:43] having digestive

[00:10:45] issues and being cold

[00:10:47] all the time, lots of symptoms like that

[00:10:49] that I've been living with for a long time

[00:10:51] finally got diagnosed as having

[00:10:53] underactive thyroid

[00:10:55] a year or so ago

[00:10:57] and been treated for that which has been amazing

[00:10:59] so I think it's really important to flag

[00:11:01] that for women

[00:11:03] that like pay attention

[00:11:05] to those symptoms and go get yourself checked out

[00:11:07] I also was undiagnosed for about 10 years

[00:11:09] because the NHS

[00:11:11] said I was within the normal range

[00:11:13] but the normal range is far too wide

[00:11:15] what they consider normal

[00:11:17] so if you do think

[00:11:19] you have those symptoms pressure your doctor

[00:11:21] to

[00:11:23] really look closely and look at the results yourself

[00:11:25] but then it relates

[00:11:27] to my voice and my singing career because then

[00:11:29] in June last year I had

[00:11:31] to have my thyroid taken out because they actually found some cancer

[00:11:33] on my thyroid

[00:11:35] so I had to have thyroid surgery

[00:11:37] to remove my

[00:11:39] thyroid, you can see it's still got the scar there

[00:11:41] so as a singer that was terrifying

[00:11:43] because it was obviously right in front of the vocal cords

[00:11:45] so I was very nervous

[00:11:47] about how it might impact my

[00:11:49] my singing voice

[00:11:51] because if the surgery goes ever so

[00:11:53] slightly wrong you can lose your singing voice

[00:11:55] but

[00:11:57] it went well, surgery went well

[00:11:59] recovery has been quite a hard road

[00:12:01] to get my voice back and it's still not

[00:12:03] 100% there, it's actually been kind of croaky today in fact

[00:12:05] but yeah

[00:12:07] getting there, getting there

[00:12:09] still trying to get my medication right and everything like that after the surgery

[00:12:11] so it's an ongoing

[00:12:13] challenge

[00:12:15] but definitely one of those experiences

[00:12:17] where I feel like I've come out

[00:12:19] stronger on the other side

[00:12:21] of it than I went in

[00:12:23] there's a blessing in it too

[00:12:25] yeah, yeah that's fantastic

[00:12:27] it's great that you come

[00:12:29] through it, that's

[00:12:31] absolutely fantastic

[00:12:33] I know obviously with cancer

[00:12:35] I've got many close people

[00:12:37] who've had cancer, who've battled

[00:12:39] it so I know

[00:12:41] it's a really bad thing

[00:12:43] definitely to get

[00:12:45] the way they were

[00:12:47] battling through it so definitely

[00:12:49] yeah, well it's also

[00:12:51] worth mentioning that

[00:12:53] my kind of experience with cancer is quite different

[00:12:55] to a lot of people's

[00:12:57] you know I never

[00:12:59] really felt like I had cancer

[00:13:01] it was more like they found some cancerous cells

[00:13:03] in my thyroid, it was never like a big

[00:13:05] full blown diagnosis

[00:13:07] I had the

[00:13:09] cells, the cancer removed

[00:13:11] the thyroid removed and that's all

[00:13:13] I didn't need any

[00:13:15] chemotherapy, any chemotherapy

[00:13:17] anything like that so I think

[00:13:19] it was a scary word to hear

[00:13:21] but I think it's important to remember

[00:13:23] that not all cancer is created equal

[00:13:25] and my

[00:13:27] diagnosis was very different

[00:13:29] to people who are stage 3

[00:13:31] etc so

[00:13:33] if you ever do find yourself in that position

[00:13:35] just

[00:13:37] bear in mind that it might not be

[00:13:39] as scary as the word

[00:13:41] burst seems

[00:13:43] yeah definitely

[00:13:45] so if you do feel

[00:13:47] like Florence said

[00:13:49] check yourself out

[00:13:51] that's the best thing to do with check yourself out

[00:13:53] if you have any symptoms

[00:13:55] that's the best thing to do

[00:13:57] you don't want to avoid these things

[00:13:59] definitely not

[00:14:01] definitely

[00:14:03] absolutely

[00:14:05] and so you guys

[00:14:07] have released many singles now

[00:14:09] so how many singles

[00:14:11] have you guys released so far

[00:14:13] we've put out two EPs

[00:14:15] which both have five songs on them

[00:14:17] but going back to the first one

[00:14:19] we did back in I think 2016

[00:14:21] it's

[00:14:23] kind of old now

[00:14:25] we still play some other songs but they sound better live now

[00:14:27] than they do on the recordings

[00:14:29] we've all improved a lot since then

[00:14:31] we've had two songs that we don't play anymore

[00:14:33] because we refined our sound a little bit

[00:14:35] we used to have a lot more funk going on

[00:14:37] but we pulled back on the funk

[00:14:39] and we focus more on the rock and soul now

[00:14:41] and then we've had

[00:14:43] I think this is our fifth single that we've released

[00:14:45] over the last

[00:14:47] I guess

[00:14:49] five years

[00:14:51] and then like I said we've got three more

[00:14:53] to do for release this year

[00:14:55] but hopefully get in the studio and do a couple more before the year is out as well

[00:14:57] just want to keep it coming

[00:14:59] keep writing, keep creating

[00:15:01] that's what it's all about isn't it

[00:15:03] yeah definitely

[00:15:05] how hard is it for you to balance

[00:15:07] your working and your singing

[00:15:09] is it easy to balance this

[00:15:11] well I work for myself

[00:15:13] because I run my own business

[00:15:15] so that helps

[00:15:17] definitely

[00:15:19] I think the biggest challenge

[00:15:21] is getting people in a room

[00:15:23] together

[00:15:25] everyone's got their own lives

[00:15:27] and commitments going on

[00:15:29] sadly

[00:15:31] we've just had to make the decision to say goodbye

[00:15:33] to our bassist and our guitarist for now

[00:15:35] because they just haven't got the time available

[00:15:37] to commit outside of gigs

[00:15:39] I really need to be working

[00:15:41] with people that have got time to

[00:15:43] write and rehearse and grow

[00:15:45] I don't want to keep playing the same set

[00:15:47] in the same venues so

[00:15:49] we've had to make that sad decision because they're great guys

[00:15:51] great players

[00:15:53] I want to be getting in a room

[00:15:55] regularly and making music

[00:15:57] not just

[00:16:01] yeah like

[00:16:03] they're not just rehearsing songs

[00:16:09] you know

[00:16:32] hi

[00:16:34] lost you there for a moment

[00:16:36] yeah I'm not sure what happened

[00:16:38] it does happen with the recording

[00:16:40] sometimes from one of the

[00:16:42] internet connections

[00:16:44] but yeah

[00:16:46] absolutely said that right

[00:16:48] obviously I know you're in a rush for time as well

[00:16:50] so yeah absolutely

[00:16:52] so your new single

[00:16:54] is available on the website as well

[00:16:56] yeah it's on our website

[00:16:58] and then it's all platforms

[00:17:00] wherever you listen to music

[00:17:02] it'll be on pretty much every platform

[00:17:04] we haven't got a band camp but other than that

[00:17:06] we're on Amazon

[00:17:08] Spotify, Tidal

[00:17:10] these are all of those ones you'll find us there

[00:17:12] and yeah if you want to buy our music

[00:17:14] even better and you can do that through

[00:17:16] iTunes, Apple Music

[00:17:18] and you can do it through our website

[00:17:20] and we've got a lovely video that we shot

[00:17:22] as well so that's on YouTube so check

[00:17:24] that out we did it with this really great

[00:17:26] skater, roller skater

[00:17:28] and shot with this amazing

[00:17:30] videographer

[00:17:32] lady named Emma Holbrook

[00:17:34] based in Bristol she's awesome so

[00:17:36] definitely check that out as well we've got

[00:17:38] some more on the way that we worked

[00:17:40] on with her too

[00:17:42] wow exciting stuff

[00:17:44] so is it a rock band

[00:17:46] is it a rock?

[00:17:48] do you call it a classic song?

[00:17:50] rock and soul

[00:17:52] we do rock out pretty hard

[00:17:54] purple's definitely rock number

[00:17:56] but we've also got

[00:17:58] a lot of soul running through our music

[00:18:00] I've got quite a big soulful voice

[00:18:02] and we have a brass section

[00:18:04] so we're horns

[00:18:06] we have a sax and a trumpet

[00:18:08] so yeah we get very soulful

[00:18:10] as well so yeah

[00:18:12] it kind of sits between rock and soul

[00:18:14] so that's what we kind of go for

[00:18:16] okay fantastic

[00:18:18] yeah absolutely

[00:18:20] I'll

[00:18:22] definitely not go too short of it

[00:18:24] because I know you need to go

[00:18:26] yeah

[00:18:28] no that's absolutely fine

[00:18:30] I'm sure later on

[00:18:32] or down the line we will bring

[00:18:34] you back on anyway

[00:18:36] absolutely

[00:18:40] definitely first of all thank you for coming

[00:18:42] on and thank you very much for coming on Florence

[00:18:44] and I'm sure it's going to be

[00:18:46] a big success your new single

[00:18:48] purple do check it out

[00:18:50] on the official website you can get it from there

[00:18:52] and all the good places

[00:18:54] iTunes and everywhere

[00:18:56] Google music everywhere, Amazon

[00:18:58] music so you can

[00:19:00] get it in all the good places

[00:19:02] do check it out and the purple

[00:19:04] and also do check out the

[00:19:06] YouTube channel of theirs as well

[00:19:08] which you can find

[00:19:10] on the website as well

[00:19:12] it's a nice channel with all the latest music

[00:19:14] from there so do check in there

[00:19:16] Florence thank you very much

[00:19:18] coming on there, we've seen

[00:19:20] lots of success for this single and I'm sure it's going to be

[00:19:22] a really really great single there

[00:19:24] great thanks for your lovely to meet you

[00:19:26] thank you very much

[00:19:28] bye

[00:19:30] thank you bye