Rising artist Sophie Kilburn releases her new single ‘After the End’, an intimate and exposing track about her struggle to live life without her mother.

Taking sonic influence from Fleetwood Mac, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, ‘After the End’ tells the story of Sophie finding unseen video footage of her mum and hearing her voice for the first time. With warm acoustics and swirling reverb guitars fused with punchy percussion this track builds instrumental strength behind its tenderness, allowing the listener to ride the emotional waves with Sophie as the story unfolds.

Driven by Sophie’s fearlessly raw vocals, ‘After the End’ reinforces not only her ability as a songwriter but her bravery to talk about loss in such a personal way, encouraging others to not be afraid to do the same. As Sophie explains: “ ‘After the End’ is hands down the most exposing and personal track I have ever written. No hiding for me! I am still scared that I am releasing it because, well, losing my mum was and still is devastating.

“The song came about when my dad’s friend found some video footage of us on a seaside holiday in Whitby (near Scarborough) as kids. In the video, I saw my mum and I heard her voice for the first time, and it broke me. The song also starts with a VHS sound effect, so it is like you are watching the video with me. See, my mum became ill when I was very young so I can’t really remember her before she was ill, especially her voice. I couldn’t stop watching the video, it turned into an obsession as it felt like the only way for me to keep close to her was to rewatch the video. My friend Shakira came to the rescue when she took the video off my laptop because I was going down a rabbit hole.

“Losing my mum was/still is my biggest heartache. I had no choice but to write about it for my own sanity if anything. Any heartache is hard, and the song is wanting to freeze time to be able to tell the one you lost that you will always love them even when they are gone. I really hope sharing my story will encourage other people who are suffering from loss to speak out whether that is sharing how they feel or asking for help.”