This past friday the Starbucks in the Union not only brought half price frappuccinos to round off the week quite nicely, but an acoustic performance from the lovely Florrie.
This is the last date of her two week Coffee House sessions tour and we were second of the three performances scheduled for that day. The Coffee House sessions is a whistle stop tour of Britain’s universities that has let new up-and-coming artists play in more intimate settings to connect with fans and new listeners alike.
The experience has been varied for Florence Arnold, as she says she’s dealt with every possible scenario. From packed dining halls, to more quiet gatherings, to fire alarms going off in the middle of the set. The tour itself has been crazy, she also recalls, having to get to some venues in a rush, driving at what she feels is 100 miles an hour just to get there on time.
Ironically, the same anecdote also applied here. The set starts later than planned, which is alright – Florrie was absolutely worth the wait. As soon as she was set up and surpassed some minor technical difficulties, you could tell she was all about the music. She takes her dance infused singles and tones them down, which takes the songs on to another level completely.
As the songs are stripped back, it highlights the talent that she clearly possesses in her voice and her guitar playing. The beat of each song she plays is infectious, which makes clear the fact that she’s a drummer by trade. Just touching on her growing catalogue, the song Little White Lies displays airy vocals that rise majestically in chorus, driven by the sudden surge of guitar.
On top of her own material, she also plays two covers. One of which is Budapest by George Ezra; topical, as he plays in Glasgow the next night. With that, and her cover Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, she takes these well loved, commercially successful songs and gives them substance and emotion.
Listening to her now, you’d think she’d be a token indie darling with her soft voice. Though, as her career roots lie in pop music – she was an in-session drummer for the likes of Girls Aloud and the Pet Shop Boys – her style evidently will lie within the same realms, sounding more like Ellie Goulding than Gabrielle Aplin.
Florrie has recently been signed to Sony records after years of working as an independent artist. 2015 looks to be an important year, with the release of her debut album planned for the beginning of the year. In fact, after this tour, she has plans to shoot a video for her new single.
Everything seems to be set in motion for Florrie at the moment and the young, pretty, modern day Karen Carpenter has absolutely everything going for her. Keep an eye on this one, she’s sure to go far.
