SE9 Part 1

Southeast London’s Skye Newman grew up listening to Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Miley Cyrus. “They didn’t change who they were in any room they walked into, and that’s always been my aim in life,” she tells Apple Music. “To always be myself and not feel bad for being loud, strong, or opinionated. That’s just who I am. If you don’t like it, then don’t take it.” As Newman releases her *SE9 Part 1* project, she’s as authentic as it gets with songs about bad relationships (“FU & UF”), good friends (“Hairdresser”), and her troubled teenage years (“Family Matters”). And although it might seem like she’s gone from obscurity to the next big thing, she’s put in a lot of work behind the scenes. “I’ve actually been on TikTok for years and I had a lot of viral videos,” she says. “I disappeared for a couple of years because I was dealing with my own issues and things at home. Then I got in the studio and I was trying to find my sound. And then it blew up. It’s funny when I see people say, ‘You’ve come out of nowhere.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I actually haven’t. You’ve only just found me now.’” Most of *SE9 Part 1*—named after the postcode she grew up in—was written two years before it was released, but it was important for Newman to build up the resilience she needed to put it out there. “I wanted my own time to find myself,” she says. “I don’t think I was stable enough or emotionally ready to come out into the limelight fully at that point. That’s why I held back—I wanted to be in my best headspace before I came into this world because it can be very damaging. But I think I’m ready now. I’ve done a lot of work on myself to be comfortable and stable and not let other people’s opinions affect me.” Read on as Newman takes you through *SE9 Part 1*, track by track. **“FU & UF”** “That song came about from many angry emotions. I’d had an argument with my partner, and it really bothered me. For a lot of our relationship, I’d been brushed off by him and his friends. I felt very distant from them and got pushed out from that group. I went into the studio not long after this had happened, and I was talking about it again with my producers, just gossiping really. I was like, ‘Fuck you and your friends,’ and they went, ‘Stop!’ and that was the song. We got straight into it, with me explaining how I was sick of what was going on. The person it’s written about has heard it and they’re actually fine with it now, but the first time I played it to him, it didn’t go well.” **“Hairdresser”** “I’d had a bit of an argument with one of my friends, and my sister was also going through issues with one of her mates. The song came out of a conversation in the studio. Not a lot of people write songs about your friends. With partners, you argue and you forgive and there’s a lot more leeway with it. But with friends, it’s different. Me and my friends are all very open and we discuss our issues. That’s why I wanted to make a song that says you’re going to argue with your friends and siblings, and I think every aspect needs to be talked about.” **“My Addiction”** “I wrote this song about the same person ‘FU & UF’ is about. It’s about being up and down. I constantly felt like I was being pulled in and pushed out and I couldn’t leave. Love, to me at that point, felt like an addiction. I’ll never judge anyone’s addiction or how they’re feeling because I understand how hard it is being with a person and being addicted. A lot of times I’ve met fans after my shows and people tell their stories and lay it all out on the line. That’s an incredible thing to experience. It can be quite heavy, but it’s something that I’m open to taking on because that’s what music’s about. That’s the person that I want to be for people.” **“Out Out”** “This is about a relationship where he would always want to go out with his friends, but it was never too much about us. I got left on the sidelines a lot. So I got to the point where we’d sat around for so long, and I was sick and tired of constantly watching everyone else go ‘out out.’ We’d plan something and then he’d argue with me and we’d end up canceling. I’d be left sitting waiting on my own and I was so sick of it. A lot of the time, I prefer writing on my own, but it’s nice when you do find people that inspire you because, when you’re sitting in a room and you’re talking about a situation, it’s good to hear another perspective. I’ll just be ranting about something and someone in the room will be like, ‘Stop, that’s a song.’” **“Family Matters”** “Music’s my therapy, and with this one I was sitting there going, ‘You’ve never worn these shoes, don’t mean my New Balance in blue,’ and I thought, ‘Great fucking first line,’ and then all those feelings flowed out of me. I’m the youngest in my family and we’re all adults now so when I wrote about them I did get a good response. My parents can understand their wrongdoings, and I hope it’s something they’ve listened to and they know I’m not writing from a place of trying to drag them down, but from my own experience. I love my family and obviously I would never want to hurt anyone, and I didn’t write it out of spite.” **“Smoke Rings”** “I wrote this song with my two producers \[Boo and Luis Navidad\], and one of their partners, Jo, who’s an incredible lady, came up with the concept. We were sitting outside and we were talking about memories as I was smoking, and she was like, ‘Oh, smoke rings. You can be lost in the smoke rings. That’s where you reminisce.’ And it grew from there. It’s about sitting in your feelings and having to replay so many things. I had a very, very strong, addictive, explosive first love, so a lot of music came out of that. I only really write about things that I love and am passionate about, so as much as there’s things that have hurt me in this music, it’s only because I had so much love there.”