Posted on April 24, 2021
So, on the 4th January, England went into another national lockdown and this list was once again revived. This one felt much more like the first lockdown than the second, where many schools, businesses, etc were still open. When schools and universities started to open, my course remained online (it was one of the courses that could function solely online and meant less people going back to the uni) so lockdown continued for me. My life has only just started to involve going out again – swimming, getting a haircut, (safely) seeing a few people – and that’s why I’ve kept this list going as long as I have…
As I said in the last part of this list, hopefully there won’t be reason to continue this post; hopefully there won’t be any more lockdowns. But I guess only time will tell. I’ve found it strangely comforting to keep this list; it’s kind of like a time capsule for these strange periods of time, if that makes sense.
I hope you’re all keeping safe and well and I’ll see you in the next post.
Category: adhd, autism, covid-19 pandemic, death, diagnosis, heds, medication, meltdowns, mental health, music, tips, trichotillomania, university, video, writing Tagged: a&e, about-face, absentia, acoustic ep, acoustic sessions, adhd, adhd diagnosis, adhd medication, ancestry, ancestrydna, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ava, betsy lane, birthday, blood & water, cat family, christmas present, chronic fatigue service, chyler leigh, collaboration, coronavirus, covid test, covid vaccination, covid vaccine, covid-19, cowriter, cowriting, cowriting session, creating the queen's gambit, criminal minds, dare me, dbt, dialectical behaviour therapy, ecg, escape from pretoria, evermore, family history, fawm, fawm 2021, fearless (taylor's version), february album writing month, film, films, folklore, friends, grammys 2021, grey's anatomy, grief, grief anniversary, haircut, halsey, heds, honest ep, honest ep (sunburst sessions), hospital, how it ends, how to train your dragon, hypermobile ehlers danlos syndrome, hypermobility, inattentive type, interview, kalie shorr, lexie grey, lockdown, lockdown 2021, lockdown 3.0, luce, masters, masters degree, masters degree in songwriting, masters degree year two, masters part time, medical trauma, medication, meltdown, migraine, movies, my cat, my cats, my dog, natalie hemby, new amsterdam, new music, new music release, new music uk, new single, nicola walker, occupational therapy, online concert, part time masters student, peppermint, politics, put it in a postcard, remote writing session, research conference, rheumatologist, rheumatology follow up, richard marc, social distancing, songwriter, songwriting, songwriting competition, sunburst sessions, taking lives, taylor swift, the bay, the dig, the one, the one netflix, the queen's gambit, the shires, the wilds, therapy, tim minchin, tiny pretty things, travis meadows, trich, trichotillomania, triggered, tv show, unforgotten, university, us politics, world autism awareness week, world autism awareness week 2021
Posted on April 23, 2021
Maybe this is a surprise or maybe it was completely predictable but now that the last of the videos for the Sunburst Sessions are out, I have released the audio of the sessions as an acoustic EP, now available on all major music platforms…
You can find the EP here! Please, please take a listen, add it to your playlists, or even buy it if you feel so inclined! All of these things help me to keep making music and that means the world to me. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do and now that I’ve started doing it, I never, ever want to stop. It’s the kind of magic that can’t be explained, only felt. I hope you know what I mean when I say that.
I hope you enjoy the EP. Please let me know what your favourite tracks are. And if you have any blog or music requests, please leave a comment or send me a message! As much as all of this is for me, it’s also for you as a reader and I’m always open to hearing your thoughts.
Category: mental health, music, writing Tagged: acoustic ep, acoustic sessions, alt pop, announcement, honest ep, honest ep (sunburst sessions), independent artist, indie pop, lauren alex hooper, laurenalexhooper, new music, new music friday, new music release, new music uk, sunburst sessions, unsigned artist
Posted on April 16, 2021
And here we are. The last video… The fifth and final in the Sunburst Sessions videos, ‘Honest,’ is now up on YouTube!
While this song was originally written on a keyboard, there’s something really joyous about singing it with a guitar. The guitar just gives it this effervescent energy, this sense of it coming to life. I love it. It’s one of my favourite songs to perform, not that I’ve had many opportunities to perform recently, of course. Anyway. This was the last song we recorded that day and it was a real high note, pun not intended. I was absolutely exhausted (so exhausted that the only way I could help pack up after was to sit on the floor with the cables – I was literally too tired to stand up, plus I thought I might faint if I didn’t sit down) but it was a great day and it was so much fun. I’m really grateful for the whole experience.
Thank you to Richard Marc for accompanying me and for his part in the filming (Sunburst Sessions), Olivia (Olivia B-S Photography) for her work as the primary videographer of this video, and Nicky Trill for engineering.
Category: autism, emotions, mental health, music, video Tagged: acoustic ep, acoustic session, acoustic sessions, honest, honest ep, honest ep (sunburst sessions), lauren alex hooper, laurenalexhooper, new music, new music friday, new music uk, new music video, olivia b-s photography, richard marc, richard marc music, richard sanderson photography, sunburst sessions
Hi! I’m Lauren Alex Hooper. Welcome to my little blog! I write about living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD (Inattentive Type), and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), as well as several mental health issues.
I’m a singer-songwriter (it’s my biggest special interest and I have both a BA and MA in songwriting) so I’ll probably write a bit about that too.
My first single, ‘Invisible,’ is on all platforms, with all proceeds going to Young Minds.
My debut EP, Honest, is available on all platforms, with a limited physical run at Resident Music in Brighton.
I’m currently working on an album about my experiences as an autistic woman.