MORE often than not Roxanne De Bastion can be found on a train shuttling between cities across Europe.

The nomadic singer songwriter has been on the road on and off for the past 10 years after deciding to pack up her family life in Berlin.

Boarding a plane to London on a one-way ticket, with just her bag and her guitar, she pledged to forge a living as a musician.

“I was definitely nervous,” says Roxanne. “But I was very sure that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to make music and I felt England was the right place for my music.

“It was a total jump in the deep end, I did not know anyone in London, I moved from a comfortable home life and school to having rent to pay and that sort of thing.” 

The memories of moving away and striking out on her own are still vivid for Roxanne as she spent her last evening at home with her father listening to The Beatles.

“We sat and listened to a Beatles rarities record and it was the first time I heard the song Rain. I just thought it was such an amazing song and that was a very emotional moment.

“I now associate that song with the apprehensive feeling. It was a very early flight, so luckily I was very tired and tiredness can take over nerves sometimes.”

The first few years were characterised by open mic night after open mic night as Roxanne tried to get noticed – Googling places to go and just turning up with her guitar.

“I do not really know how musicians got started without the internet,” says Roxanne. “I guess they needed record labels back then and maybe now you don’t.

“I would travel around as much as I could and just play as many shows as I could. The more open mic nights you do, the more you get asked to do, and then you get longer sets and then you get booked for proper gigs. It was a slow climb.”

The long trek from nothing came to a noteworthy peak after she released her debut album The Real Thing in April 2013, a 10-track, delicate folk record with a tinge of the sixties. 

“The most recent thing you record hopefully feels like the thing you are most proud of,” says Roxanne. “It's very easy for that to feel outdated very quickly. I have been writing songs for a long time but since I started gigging I am a very different person so some of the songs I play and are still relevant, while others make me cringe.

“Songs are like little height markers against the wall, it is like looking at an old photograph of yourself.”

Much of her time now is spent travelling alone on trains and buses between shows which she writes about on her blog Tales From the Rails.

“It was just being on my own that inspired me to start the blog,” Roxanne says. “I love writing and I forgot I loved writing outside of songwriting."

“There was something very freeing about not having to write it down in the song format to get your thoughts out.”

She goes on: “I think it's really fascinating getting a train and travelling from the south of Italy up through Switzerland and into Germany as you really get a feel of how varied Europe is, all the different cultures in one train ride.

“I was sat on my own in a coach of this tiny little train which stopped everywhere through Switzerland. The mountain scenes were amazing so I just took out my little ukulele and started writing songs – that was a really nice moment.”

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