Al Start

Al Start

Al Start is a singer-songwriter from Brighton. She has been writing and performing since the age of 12. Alongside music, she works in art and has also worked as a metal sculptor.

Career

In her twenties, ill health affected her work, and she does not begin a sustained music career until 2000, when she is given the all-clear following radiotherapy treatment. She then focuses on music and goes into the studio rather than returning to metalwork.

Her first album, Lammas, appears in 2000 with her sister and band Toucan. It receives positive reviews and leads to packed shows across the south of England.

Education and songwriting

In 2002, she returns to college and gains a distinction in the Advanced Songwriting HND at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, also known as BIMM. She is selected by BMG record executives for a residential songwriting week with Chris Difford of Squeeze, where she co-writes with a number of industry writers including Helen Boulding, Matt Deighton, John Hammond-Hagan and Jill Sobule. She is later invited back by Chris Difford on three further occasions.

Releases and touring

She releases the solo EP Sea of Stars in 2003, after which her sales and national following grow. In 2004, she supports Horse on a UK tour. After five UK tours, her first solo album GO receives positive reviews and leads to sold-out venues across the UK.

Later work

Her album I Heart History is built from true stories inspired by the collections of Brighton Museum. She writes it during a six-month research residency, and the songs are played in the museum exhibition On the Pull during 2008.