Part 3: A rockstar retreats.
16.01.12
Life & Style
From Harlesden to the countryside, via Japan, South America, Singapore, Oz and NZ!
It was 2008, and constant touring had become a way of life. Our travelling circus would make it home for a couple of days a month, if at all, but we were loving it. Japan, South America, Singapore, Oz and NZ, adventures across the whole USA; I'd realised the most ambitious dream - of playing my music for people over the world. Luke and I had swapped our beautiful little one-bedroom eco flat in Harlesden for a 12-bunk tourbus, and set off to see what was possible on hundreds of stages around the planet. It's strange - time seems to stretch when you are on such a crazy schedule, and when you cram that much into a week, it can feel like a month.
What came with all the success was *gasp* an income (something that had eluded me for 20 years at this point!) and after 5 years of 100mph hard work and madness, my drummer and husband Luke and I found ourselves in a position to buy what I'd dreamed of since learning guitar at 15; a rural bolthole where we could hide away, write, spend time with friends and family, and also build our own recording studio. It was daunting at the same time; we were just married and loved the manic pace of our lives. It seemed such a grown up thing to do, and it came with responsibilities. However, we've never been too shy about flinging ourselves into the unknown...
Mark Aston, our close friend who had set up Mr Wolf Inc, an eco-friendly refurbishment and building business, offered to scout out places for us as we were never around for long enough to go and look. We'd been away for 3 months, and came back to a photo on our kitchen table of a tumbledown 18thC cottage where Mark had drawn us in as stick people, frolicking in the garden. It was stunning. Only just over an hour west of London, nestled in beautiful countryside and half a mile from the next house along, it had an outbuilding that had been joined to the main house that couldn't have been more perfect for a music studio. The water supply was via its own underwater spring, and the family before us had obviously had a lot of produce from the garden. A slice of self-sufficient heaven.
So, we made the leap and quickly set about getting the studio up and running - on solar! The house came with a large paddock and veggie patch. We decided to move the veggie patch and use this sunny spot as our PV Panel site. We would need quite a large array - enough for 4k of power, but as we were away from home regularly, this meant the panels would garner us credit by selling our unused solar power back while we were gone. It took 3 months - as long as our whole flat refurb had taken - but it was worth it. The studio building was now properly insulated, and ran effectively on an air source heat pump and solar power. It was and still is an amazing feeling to make music using the power of the sun.
We've since had the whole house gutted out and properly insulated (we discovered the roof had been 'insulated' with some seriously old paper bags and hay), put in underfloor heating wherever we could, increased our PV Panel array to feed the whole house, and done the same with the air source heat pump system. Local materials dominate, and one of our favourite features is a beautiful curving fence of handwoven hazel hurdles that stop deer straying into our PV array, an exquisite example of old-fashioned craftsmanship. We've also converted the grass paddock into a wild flower meadow to encourage bees and butterflies.
It's a huge source of pride that this old, energy-leaky property that used to run on oil is now as efficient as a brand new home. We feel we've made our place nestle deeper and sit even more harmoniously with the beautiful landscape that surrounds it. A photo of me in our solar powered studio even managed to make its way into the National Portrait Gallery. We just hope the birds don't mind the drums.
