Michele Stodart, the bassist and co-songwriter of the multi-platinum The Magic Numbers, has taken time out from the band’s ongoing endeavours to record a new single that abounds with emotion and heartfelt experience. That’s because ‘The Hug’ has really been in the family for years. Michele wrote it together with her daughter Maisie, who was just six years old at the time.
Michele shared the following:
On ‘The Hug’
I wrote this song one evening crossed-legged in bed playing my guitar, when my daughter, Maisie, came into the room to help me finish it. We started writing the words together… She was six years old at the time, and usually, she’d hold her hands across the strings of the guitar neck wanting me to “stop”. This time, however, realising the song was about her (and secretly liking the melody too, I think), she wanted to be a part of it. We have since debuted the song live. Every time we go to festivals together, she’d bravely get up on stage and start singing with me… now we’ve added more songs to the set list that she sings, and I get to stand back and be a proud mum.
This is a very special song for me as a woman and a mother, and also having to own both those roles within the music industry. It has been a journey of self-discovery, and in a small way, ‘The Hug’ captures the essence of both Maisie and my growing up, finding our independence together.
It took me a long time to record this song and share it with the wider world… But after the pandemic and everything we’ve all been through – individually, socially, and as a global community -, ‘The Hug’ suddenly took on a whole other, more universal meaning: a plea to reach out to each other and send a hug, a lifeline, a kind word or gesture to our loved ones, or to the people we meet. As one of my favourite songwriters, John Prine (who sadly passed away after being infected with the Coronavirus), so poignantly said, ‘Old people just grow lonesome waiting for someone to say – “Hello in there, Hello”’
‘The Hug’ was recorded & mixed at Echo Zoo Studio by the amazing Dave Izumi Lynch. Huge thanks to my other fellow musicians Joe Harvey-Whyte on Pedal Steel & Alice Phelps on Harp, and, of course, Maisie Skipper on vocals- this song wouldn’t have been the same without you all x
The Video
This charming video brings together Maisie’s original drawings to tell the story behind the song’s lyrics. She has skillfully created a series of expressive vignettes drawn especially for the making of this lyric video that are both playful and engaging.
Make sure to catch Michele Stodart playing live:
June 2022
Thurs 9th – Arthouse Crouch End
Thurs 16th – JW3 / Carole King Tribute
Sun 19th – Saint Mary’s Hall – Whitstable
Thurs 23rd – 26th – Glastonbury Festival
Ticket links on her website:
https://www.michelestodart.com/live