When Rachael Dadd was in lockdown in 2020, the English songwriter was worried she would get lost in the day-to-day realities of looking after her two children, and just surviving the unprecedented time.

So, she "carved out the afternoons every day, to play music without an itinerary".

Nearly all the songs on her new LP, Kaleidoscope, grew out of those countless afternoon session. United by the feelings Dadd was processing in the pandemic, they formed the basis for her ninth album.

"It felt good," Dadd says. "It felt like it was saving me, to be honest. It propelled me, also, for the fact that it was connecting me with people.

"I knew I couldn't share the songs 'til we could all play music together again, but I knew I had something I could [eventually] share with my band and my audience. It was a way of staying afloat and staying connected."

In conversation with Anthony Carew on The International Pop Underground, Dadd talks about synaesthesia, the magic of collective improvising, solidarity in songwriting, and her childhood dreams of being the next Kylie Minogue.

Feature image: Tom Jacob