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gabrielleaplinbiography-blog · 3 years

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B I O G R A P H Y

Gabrielle Aplin is an independent singer-songwriter from Sutton Benger, Wiltshire, England where she spent most of her teenage years. She was born on October 10, 1992 and she is the elder of two children. Aplin’s tastes were shaped by her family’s music taste. Her music was influenced by listening Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Leonard Cohen and Karen Carpenter during her childhood. When she was 11 years old, her parents bought her first guitar. Gabrielle started writing poems and short stories then realise she could put music to those words. She wrote her first song called ‘Ghosts’ at the age 14. Her mother played classical piano so there always were a piano in her house and Aplin taught herself to play.

Gabrielle attended Sheldon school in Chippenham. After that, she did a music BTEC at the City of Bath College participating in the college’s in-house label BA1 Records. While she was in college, a friend of her, recorded and uploaded a video of her doing a cover of ‘My Heart’ by Paramore. In 2008, Gabrielle started uploading covers as well as original songs regularly on her YouTube channel which made her gained a large online following. In 2010, she founded an independent record label called Never Fade Records to release her first EP earning her an invitation to performed at her local BBC radio station. Gabrielle’s appearance on BBC Wiltshire was heard by Radio One, who invited her to perform at Maida Vale studios as part of BBC Introducing. The sessions gave Gabrielle yet more exposure and shortly after the release of her third EP, Home. At the age 17, she quit sixth form, left Bath and moved to London to pursue her dream.

In 2012, Aplin signed with Parlophone records and she began recording her debut album, English Rain. Gabrielle gained mainstream attention when she was selected to record the soundtrack for a John Lewis television commercial with a cover of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “The Power of Love”, which charted at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart in December 2012. Her debut album English Rain was released in May 2013 and peaked at number two on the UK album chart. English Rain has since been certified Gold in the UK, selling over 100,000 copies. On its release, English Rain charted at number two on both the UK album charts, selling over 35,000 copies. It reached number 11 in Ireland, number 10 in Australia and number 39 in New Zealand. English Rain went on to gain international success and gave Aplin two Australian number ones.

In 2013, Gabrielle announced that her record label, Never Fade Records is now open to represent other musicians since Parlophone didn’t allow her use her label’s royalties on her music. Her first signings were Welsh folk-jazz singer Hannah Grace and indie folk artist Saint Raymond. Never Fade Records’ first release since Home EP in 2012, was Saint Raymond’s Escapade EP, released on 22 April 2013. Between 2012-2013, Aplin has toured with Gotye, Ed Sheeran and John Mayer, performed at festivals including Glastonbury, T in the Park, and iTunes, among others, and headlined a sold out UK run. In 2014, Gabrielle released her English Rain EP in the United States. The EP features five songs from her Gold-selling debut album. In addition to “The Power of Love”, which was featured in promos for ABC’s new hit series “Resurrection”, the EP aslo features an exclusive new track- a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You”.

In May 2015, Aplin announced her second studio album, Light Up The Dark. The album announcement also featured the release of the title track’s music video. Written by Gabrielle with long time writing partner Luke Potashnich, ‘Light Up The Dark’ inmediately telegraphs Aplin’s fresh Feist-meets-Cat Power style. Her guitar and piano skills were heightened and spendind most of her time with other musicians added a new dimension to her songwriting. Also vital was her experimentations with different microphones, vintage equipment and old synths. Light Up The Dark sound was a inspired combination of Joni Mitchell and the production on Feist’s ‘The Reminder’.

Later in 2015, it was revealed Aplin had signed a modelling deal with Storm but four months later, she moved to Storm’s rival modelling agency, Select. In 2016, Gabrielle began to gain popularity in Brazil when her song Home was used in the popular soap opera Totalmente Demais. Aplin visited Brazil in May 2016 to make a cameo appearance in the final episode of the soap opera. Following her appearance and a live performance on Domingão do Faustão. Home reached number 1 on the Brazilian iTunes chart, marking Aplin’s fourth number 1 single worldwide.

On November 9th 2016, Aplin released Miss You. The song has been described as a departure from her previously guitar-driven sound on Light Up The Dark and the production as being much less ‘bare bones’ than her previous efforts. The song is the first single from Aplin’s Miss You EP. In February 2017, Aplin parted ways with Parlophone Records to focus on releasing material via her own independent record label, Never Fade Records. The following year, Aplin joined AWAL (Artists Without A Label) Recordings alongside her record label to help boost the artists she signed as well as her own projects. On October 6th 2017, Gabrielle releases another EP called Avalon. The first single from the EP, “Waking Up Slow,” is a track featuring more electronic sounds than her previous albums and EPs, which according to Gabrielle, is a song all about “appreciating life as it is and focusing on the positives and deciding to just be.”

On December 4th 2018, Aplin released a collaborative Christmas EP with her colleague and friend, Hannah Grace. The EP inniatially included three cover tracks and one original song called "December" but it was re-released almost a year later featuring two additional covers. On January 17 2020, Gabrielle released her third studio album after five years since her last one, called "Dear Happy". Since the pandemic started and the promotion for her album was suspended, she has been collaborating with different artists such as Kodaline, The Coronas and Anna Straker to name a few. In March 2020, Aplin joined LARKS, a songwriting and production collective created by Liz Horsman, where she works with Liz, Mike Spencer, Andrea Rocha and Anna Straker. Currently, Gabrielle is working on recording her fourth studio album at Lark's Tongue Studios and Real World Studios.

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