I’ve called the ED “Tongue Tied” after a line in one of the songs – and four of the five were recorded recently in the studio. The EP is an up-to-date snapshot of my music with the tracks being: Chuck Norris, Captivated, Stumbling, I.L.Y. and Lovestruck.

I’m still planning on getting my new album out later in the year but needed something new to cover this busy summer…

Here’s the artwork, I’m really pleased with the photography too which was done by Scott Choucino. As with “The Other Girl” album, we’ve gone for the cool vinyl-look CD’s with fold-out packaging…

Its ONLY available as a physical CD and not as a download – and as I said it more of a promo EP – however if you would like a copy then you can grab one (or two) at one of my forthcoming gigs or else Paypal me (for CD and postage) sales@izzymariehill.com…

UK  = £5.80 for one or £9.00 for two
EU  =  €7.00 for one or €10.00 for two
USA = $8.50 for one or €12.00 for two
ROW = $8.50 for one or €12.00 for two (ie anywhere else)

Its a fairly short run just to last the summer…..

All the info is here on the Facebook events page
https://www.facebook.com/events/242488062551621/

We’ve only done a Lyric Video so far but I’m hopefully going to be able to do a “proper” video shoot for it soon.

As you will be able to tell from the lyrics it’s all about prom night (good timing as we’re in “Prom season” now! When writing it I couldn’t resist continuing with the story and giving it a Disneyesque happy ending!

Hope you like – please like and comment if you do!

Huge thanks to the lovely Dean Jackson (and cameraman Juls!) for the opportunity to perform a live acoustic version of “Chuck Norris” as well as a song I’ve just written called “Captivated”. For the set I was joined by the guys from “By the Rivers” who have been sessioning for me over the last couple of months – big thanks to them for their fantastic help  – Sam, Nile, Jordan (hidden!) and Matt.

If you get a chance please check the video out and leave a comment/like.

I had a brilliant day yesterday at the BBC Introducing Masterclass in Cardiff – thank you to everyone at the Beeb for the invite!

Throughout the sessions I think I learned a lot – it was a really useful day. The sessions were really cool and it was great to meet some great guests and some other musicians who are trying to start of in this business.

Jo Whiley was really lovely….

…and I got to meet the Manics too. Awesome!

I’ve also used the time to work on my live set. If you’ve seen me live before then its most likely its been an acoustic set – i.e. just me and my guitar! However I’ve always really wanted to work with a full band so I can reproduce the same sound live as I do in the studio. So I’ve been working with a fantastic local band called “By the Rivers” and were rehearsing hard in order to pull together a really great live set. As soon as I get some proper gigs scheduled I’ll reveal the dates and everything here, but in the meantime we’re just doing some off-the-cuff local bars and venues in order to ensure everything sounds really great.

I’ve also been doing some additional acoustic sets – including a support for Charlee Drew at the Cookie Jar in Leicester.  It gave me the chance to try out my new Ukulele which Rich and the guys at Intasound Music in Leicester kindly gave to me, with a wonderful customised paint job. Its VERY pretty – thank you guys!

Anyway, during the gig I did a cover of a great old song called  “Dream a little dream” – (you might have heard a version made famous in the 60′s by Mama Cass)…

Hope you like it – please Share, Like and Subscribe on Youtube if you do.

More info on upcoming gigs soon….
Love Izzy xx

For me this started around Sept 2010 when I’d finished my very first track in the studio. It was “Luckiest Girl” and I was VERY proud of it. Anyway I’d heard about BBC Introducing so I signed up and uploaded it to their website. A couple of weeks later I had a nice email back from BBC Nottingham to say that Dean Jackson liked it and would play it the following Saturday night. Since Dean’s show goes out across all of the East Midlands it was also played across Derbyshire,  Lincolnshire and my home turf Leicestershire. LOTS of listeners – bwwwwwaaaa! (evil laugh)!!

I remember getting a real buzz when I first heard my song playing out on the radio – very cool. So basically I got into a routine of completing tracks and uploading them to the BBC Introducing website, some were picked, some not (yaa boo!).

After a while Dean Jackson got used to hearing from me (OK I admit it – I stalked him!) and invited me to do a few shows for him at BBC Nottingham. First I did a live session on his Saturday evening show (accompanied on 2nd guitar by my producer Chris Lewis) – and then a couple of local BBC Introducing events like Children in Need.

At the end of 2011 when I finished my 1st album, Dean was kind enough to interview me and play a couple of the tracks on his show. Fast-forward to Sept 2012 and I get the word from Dean that a couple of my tracks have been sent to BBC Introducing HQ (sounds a bit like MI5 but with guitars instead of guns) – and then a couple of months later a lady called Lyndsey Boggis sent me an email with the immortal words “Chuck Norris will be played on Radio 1 for a whole week from 14th Jan“. I honestly cannot tell you how amazingly excited I felt when I read it.

So my advice? Well IMHO it’s a 100% no-brainer. If you’re a UK musician then you absolutely HAVE to send your music to BBC Introducing. Its completely FREE and at the very least they will listen to your music and give you an honest opinion on whether they think its Radio-worthy or not. Style or genre doesn’t matter. If they don’t think its right then you hear nothing, if they do then they’ll play it in your surrounding area – which certainly helped me grow my fan-base and get me more gigs . If you can show them that your capable of coming up with a string of decent tracks – then other opportunities may come your way.

Since getting the Radio 1 nod I’ve had a few of the major labels and publishers contact me. Now I know its early days and there’s still a long way to go – but I also know that I’m much further on than I would have been, had it not been for BBC Introducing – and people like Dean and Lyndsey.

I look at artists like Jake Bugg, Rizzle Kicks and Florence & the Machine and see REAL possibilities. It absolutely CAN be done!

…Click Here for the BBC Introducing Website and start uploading!

Love Izzy xxx

A couple of hours later and SteveP sent me this…..an Izzy Marie/Jason Mraz combo.

So – you think the hat works?

Yesterday it started off well with Sara Cox playing “Chuck Norris” and saying some nice things about it. Today Greg James went one step further and after playing the song he talked to Edith Bowman about it for what seemed like AGES – and said he thought the song was “very beautiful“.

How kind is that – thanks Greg (and Edith and Sara, BBCR1 and of course BBC Introducing!)

When I can work out how to post audio I’ll post some up or maybe add it to a video.

My next play is Dev’s early morning Breakfast show (4-6:30am) tomorrow and then Huw Stephen’s midnight show tomorrow night.