Apple Music Home Session: Rhys Lewis

Apple Music Home Session: Rhys Lewis

For this exclusive At Home With Session, Rhys Lewis jumped at the chance to record a cover he’d been playing during soundchecks throughout his 2019 tour—Noah Cyrus’ “July”. “I discovered it on a playlist randomly and loved how raw the recording was,” the singer-songwriter tells Apple Music. “The songwriting feels like it could have been an old Dolly Parton tune that never got recorded. There are so many powerful, heartfelt and quite tragic lyrics, I was really hit by how emotional and honest the song is when I came to record it properly.” If this version sounds free of birdsong, toilets flushing and all other ambient hazards that come with home recordings, there’s a good reason for that. “For the first few months of self-isolation, I was actually living in a studio working on my second album,” he says. “It was great to record this live with Aidan [Glover], who writes and produces a lot of my stuff with me. Given we were at the studio together with the space and equipment to set up a live session, we embraced that approach and kept the recording quite raw and in the moment.” Lockdown hasn’t just been about making music though. Lewis has also been reawakening some dormant culinary skills. “I used to work as a chef and have always loved cooking, but because I’ve spent so much of the last few years on tour or working late, I’d really fallen out of the habit of cooking a proper meal,” he says. “The last few months, I’ve loved getting back into cooking new recipes and more interesting dishes. It’s also been a great way for me to turn from ‘work/music’ mode to ‘chill out and switch the mind off’ mode. I hope I don’t slip back into old ways and end up eating pesto pasta every night when the world goes back to normal!”

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