Watford songwriter on his career and working with Lewis Capaldi

Phil Plested, from Watford, said he never expected the single to hit the top of the charts when it was released last year.

Nearly a year on from its release, Phil has discussed his musical career path and how he made the switch from being a vocalist in the band Chasing Grace to a songwriter working with famous pop acts such as Little Mix.

His interest for music started as a child after being encouraged by his parents to play instruments such as violin and clarinet and after transitioning to secondary school he decided to learn to play the guitar.

Once he left school in 2012, he formed Chasing Grace with some school friends and also met record producer Naughty Boy. The band released their debut album Nowhere Near Old Enough back in 2015.

He eventually decided to take a break from the band the same year in order to focus on his own career and to write songs.

He added: "Chasing Grace was an amazing introduction to the music industry and I learned a lot like how music labels worked.

"But at that point I realised when it comes to music you have to love it. Every day you do it you have to give it you 100 per cent. But it got the point where I didn’t love it enough and I couldn’t give the band what it deserved."

Credit: Daniel Alexander Harris

He added: "I would just sit in a studio and learn how to write songs properly. I started to get songs out to pop acts and it was massive eye opener."

The first song he wrote that appeared on the radio was Touch by Little Mix which was released in 2016, which he called a "mind blowing" experience.

He added: "When writing a song there is never a right or wrong way with how to do it. It is just about learning the kind of things that sound good as well as learning how to write type of songs that will appear on radio."

After the success of the song he decided to release his own music on Spotify and Apple Music which he said helped him receive opportunities of working with other artists.

One of the most popular songs Phil wrote was Before You Go with Lewis Capaldi, which was the singer’s second chart topper.

When writing songs Phil said the process differs from day to day but said he often finds discussing with the artist what is going in their lives helps to create a concept for the song.

He added: "The best thing to do if you’re in the room with an artist is to sit down with them and have a lovely chat and see what’s going on in their life and see if there is anything substantial they want to talk about.

"So, for Before You Go, when I sat down with Lewis we came up with the concept about when you’re breaking up with someone what you could have said that would have made them say."

Phil said he didn’t expect the song, that wasn’t on the singer’s original album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, to "blow up" and reach the top of the charts.

He added: "We wrote the song before the album came out and it didn’t get onto the initial album and I thought okay that is just a song that is going to live on my hard drive and we had a good day writing.

Credit: Connie Jackson

"It wasn’t until the album came out and that I got an email about they were going to repackage the album and they wanted the song it."

Phil has said he has been writing new music since lockdown started and said it has offered him the chance to slow down and focus on what he wants to create.

He added: "When you’re writing songs every day you lose perspective. The start of lockdown I was living at my parents and it was lovely to hang out with them but I was going up to the attic every day because there was no where for me to be creative.

"I then went on Zoom calls with Lewis and have been writing the next batch of music."

When asked about what advice he has for aspiring musicians and song writers he said the best thing to do is to is practice every day.

He added: "If you want to play football for a living you have to practice every day – it is the same with anything.

"I was writing songs every day from when I was 18 until now. The practice has given me the skills to go into rooms and at least half know what I’m talking about."

Phil says he has a few songs lined up for next year as well as his artistic project called Plested.