Evie Balfe

Singer-songwriter Evie Balfe is a busy woman - aside from being a solo artist she's in two bands, is a trained singing teacher and sells her minimalist line drawings. She takes time out of her schedule to talk to us about how she balances it all.

When did you get your start as a musician?

When I was about 19, 20, so quite late! I don't want to sound cliche, but I'd always liked singing, although I'd never played any instruments or anything. I auditioned for some musical theatre courses and eventually realised "No, this really isn't me!", so I looked at some other options and I found the British and Irish Modern Music Institute - I auditioned there and got in! I released by first single, Remember, in August 2019.

You're a solo artist and in two bands - how do you balance everything?

Saint Eve is a duo, we perform at functions, weddings, birthdays, etc, and Paint Factory is an electronic indie 3-piece. With the pandemic I haven't been doing much with Saint Eve recently, and Paint Factory are sort of on hiatus at the moment, so I'm able to focus on my solo stuff! Over the lockdowns I've been recording with my boyfriend, we've got about seven songs now, so nearly enough for an album! I'm a singer and a songwriter but I'm not good at the production side of things, whereas he is, so I've been recording some stuff and giving it to him to work on.

You also offer singing lessons - how long have you been teaching?

I finished my training literally just before the first lockdown! My first students were all over Zoom, which can be difficult with the lagging and connection sometimes cutting out, but there's still quite a lot you can work with. I'm back to teaching in-person now though.

You're an artist as well - is drawing something else you've always been into?

I started drawing as I've always enjoyed it and it was another way to keep busy during the lockdowns! I posted a few of my drawings on my main Instagram, and had people saying "This is really good, you should sell them!", so I set up an Etsy shop and have actually sold quite a few now!

What do you have planned for the rest of the year?

I have an exhibition of my art coming up, hopefully around October! A while ago I commented on an Instagram post by Florence Given, saying "Reply to this if you want to meet new people, make friends, etc", so I thought why not? I ended up in this massive WhatsApp group of about 250 women, which eventually became a smaller one, and a couple of the other girls in there were also artists, so we've decided to hold an exhibition - we're just looking for the right place!

Words: Scott Bates