A Chat with Tasmin Archer (07.07.25)

Interview with Karen Beishuizen (Guest contributor)

Tasmin Archer is an English singer-songwriter whose debut album, Great Expectations, spawned the hit ‘Sleeping Satellite’, which became a number one in the UK and Ireland and was a top-10 hit in numerous other European countries. We chat with Tasmin Archer about her childhood, writer’s block, her new album A Cauldron of Random Notes and more.

Did you always want to be a singer growing up? 

Tasmin Archer: I always really enjoyed singing and listening to music from an early age, it was my saviour. Sometimes life could be challenging and music helped me feel good about life. I can’t say I was certain about ever being able to make a career out of it though, I did day dream a lot about one day being a great singer and performer. Back then though that was all it was, just a dream that I had held on to. I’d often play make believe in my bedroom and pretend I was receiving an award for music. I was a little shy sometimes and so even at school I’d avoid singing in public, I didn’t want to stand out in that way until I kept on being asked to join in with the chorus line in school plays. I got more and more brave as time went on because almost everyone had to take part in those musical theatre performances back then. I didn’t feel as though the spotlight would be on me so it was okay and I started to come out of my shell a little bit.

I was always happiest practising alone in my room and I would hone in on my voice by listening carefully to myself and by singing along quietly to records to make sure I wasn’t off or anything. It was as though I was singing with my own band. I’d play my records on repeat and keep trying to figure out how to sing with control and tone and found I was able to improve all the time. I’d made up my own songs too and then I had to remember what I had made up because I had no way of recording them back then. I told myself that if it was good enough I would be able to remember it. Once I was able to get my hands on a tape recorder I wrote quite a few song ideas and recorded them and kept the tapes in a small briefcase under my bed so no one would find them. Whenever anyone did happen to hear me singing they would always tell me that I had a lovely voice and would ask me to continue because they liked to hear my voice. This gave me more confidence, and so later on when I left school I joined a band and sang backup vocals which helped me to conquer my fear of performing live, and things just developed on from there until I started to be the one singing lead vocals.

Who were your favourite singers as a teenager? 

Tasmin Archer: I didn’t really have any favourites as such. I listened to such a wide range of musical styles and singers that I never thought about it in terms of favourites. I just liked what I liked and used those singers to learn from. Too many to list.

Your debut album Great Expectations had the smash hit ‘Sleeping Satellite’ which you wrote. Did you expect this enormous worldwide success and how do you feel now looking back at that time? 

Tasmin Archer: I didn’t expect ’Sleeping Satellite’ or Great Expectations to have the enormous success that it did worldwide, but I’d always had a good feeling about all of the songs on that album right through the writing process, the recording of the demos and the final master recordings. ‘Sleeping Satellite’ in particular always felt like it had a good vibe and I hoped others would share that experience. I think my hope was exceeded.

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After you left your record label in 1997 you had writer’s block. That must have been the worst thing. How long did it last and what happened to your emotional self? 

Tasmin Archer: Leaving EMI was a bit of a relief at the time following disagreements about the release of our second album, Bloom, in the form we had intended it. After that experience I felt disillusioned with the whole business side of music and tired of being treated like a commodity. I felt it was a good time to take a total break and take stock of things before getting back to writing and thinking about releasing more music. Bizarrely, when I wanted to get back to work I struggled with a bout of writer’s block. Writer’s block wasn’t something I had experienced before so I had to look at ways to work through it. I focussed on non-musical creative pursuits and eventually the musical side of things opened up and we were able to write and record ON. The writer’s block probably lasted for a couple of years, I was just unable to finish anything satisfactorily during that period. It was a weird time, but it actually had its benefits as I learned a lot about diversifying my creative output in order to create overall space for inspiration to flow.

Are there any current artists out there you would love to collaborate with? 

Tasmin Archer: I collaborate on writing and recording all the time with John and have done since before we signed to EMI. I don’t think I’d be a good collaborator with any other artists as it’s just not the way I work. Because of that I haven’t really given it any thought, but I wouldn’t rule it out totally in the future. I think I’d find it difficult to work to any collaboration timescale/deadline as I’m used to things evolving in a totally different way.

You can make an album with 7 of your most favourite songs (not your own): what would you pick and why? 

Tasmin Archer: I find it difficult to categorise things as favourites but there are many songs I admire. I’ve chosen 7 here for their significance in the times we’re living in. So in no particular order:

Joseph Arthur’s ‘Gravity’ is never going to change and your past won’t change either but how you think about your past can change. I think that’s a good message for the world right now as we seem to be making the same mistakes over and over again.

Daniel Lanois’s ‘Slow Giving’ – My interpretation of this song, and something I hope never to forget, is that what you give usually equals what you receive.

Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring It On Home to Me’ – My spirit is deeply moved by this song for some reason. Rather than interpreting it as a purely romantic appeal I always think about it from a more humanity-based perspective of certain people being left behind in this world. It has a way of evoking love from the purest place, deep within and that’s inspiring. I’m happy that this song exists.

Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ – Probably doesn’t need an explanation in these times more than ever but it always leaves me with a sense of knowing we can all do better.

Nina Simone’s ‘Sinnerman’ – I don’t know of anyone who can express the human condition as well as Nina Simone so attempting this would be a challenge. Her tone and expressiveness is wholly authentic in every way. It’s like she’s urging us to reach deep down and face our own darkness with the aid of our spirit. There’s no hiding from the ‘system’ in this digital age and we’ll all be running and hiding if things continue in that vein.

Peter Gabriel’s ‘Games Without Frontiers’ – There’s a subtle message in this song that is relevant to how some ‘leaders’ seem to see war as a game. They need to be called out on this.

Blind Faith’s ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’ – A song reminding us all that we’re still struggling to find our collective way home. Described as “navigating the psychedelic labyrinth of the human psyche” it resonates with the timeless struggle of seeking direction and purpose.

Your new single, ‘Vibration of Life’, came out earlier this month. What is it about? 

Tasmin Archer: It’s about how everything is vibration and of how we share everything within the oneness of the Universe – the good, the bad and the ugly. Obviously not everybody would agree with this spiritual sentiment, and many may not have even contemplated it, but if we could all somehow come to this same conclusion I think we’d all be much more content within ourselves.

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Tell me about your new album coming out in September. How did the process go, what kind of songs are on there and why people should listen to it?  

Tasmin Archer: Around about 2010, with life priorities changing and trying to diversify a bit into other musical projects, we came to the conclusion that we were probably done releasing ‘Tasmin Archer’ records. We never stopped writing songs and recording demos though, mainly to satisfy our own muse. During the pandemic we had more time to take stock of all the demos and song ideas we’d put down over the years. It became apparent that we had hundreds of songs in various state of completion, that we liked a lot of them, and we couldn’t find a good reason to not start releasing records again.

So, we set about recording them properly and when we had about 30 fully produced we chose 11 of those that would fit together in an album context. These have become A Cauldron of Random Notes. The others, along with more tracks that are currently in production, are planned to be released on follow-up albums and EPs. We’re hopeful of a more consistent release schedule now that we’ve started again.

The album was mastered last summer and originally planned for release in November 2024, but as John and I do everything ourselves these days we had to get a few other things in place before starting to release again was possible. Then we had February 2025 in mind, but a delay in the vinyl production made that too tight. As we wanted to release two or three streaming only singles to raise the profile of the album release a little, if we’d done the first of those when everything was ready the album would have ended up as a summer release. We didn’t think was a good idea. Consequently we put the album release back to September 12th and worked back from that date to make the first single release on 20th June.

Our lyrical content tends to be general observations of humanity or things that have had a personal emotional impact on us, in some cases with a little added cryptic perspective. Musically, we aim to steer our productions towards fully supporting the song both emotionally and by taking its lyrical content into consideration. This means that sometimes we go through several completely different versions before we’re fully satisfied that the definitive version meets those conditions. We don’t aim for any specific style, just what works, so things can turn out to be quite diverse style-wise from track to track. We do make a big effort to ensure that groups of tracks like individual albums and EPs flow in a purposefully cohesive way so they feel like they belong together in the same group. A Cauldron of Random Notes is pretty typical in view of those things.

It’s been a long time since we released anything new so I’m probably not on the radar of music fans who may not be familiar with our earlier work. There’s a lot of music available these days so we’re not expecting any massive commercial success, not least because we only have a small marketing budget. Thanks to journalists like yourself I’m hopeful I can re-raise my profile a little and attract more music fans to listen. I hope people who do come across this album and the subsequent ones will listen without any prejudice or pre-conceived ideas.

I’m doing a shameless plug now: A Cauldron of Random Notes can be pre-ordered as vinyl or CD from the online store/shop on tasminarcher.com or by following the link website shop . Fans who pre-order will be entered into a competition to win 1 of 2 unique hand painted tambourines which I’ll sign for the winners. Spotify users can of course pre-save the album at Tasmin Archer on Spotify .

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Find out more about Tasmin Archer on her official website, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Spotify.