Bowel cancer journey chronicled on new album by Sussex singer

SussexWorld

St Leonards-based Abigail Hopkins tells a deeply personal story on her new album Stardust.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely

00:06this afternoon to speak to Abigail Hopkins in St Leonard's. Now, Abigail, you have a really

00:11important, really personal album coming out, Stardust. And this is an album which talks about

00:19your cancer journey, the fact that you have survived stage three bowel cancer and have

00:24somehow got yourself to a good place, which is the album. What made you write this album?

00:31What is it you're wanting to convey about what you've been through?

00:35Well, for me, you know, I also did a documentary as well as part of my MA. You know, I've always

00:41been a singer-songwriter. I think for me, the arts or creating something like music or a short

00:49documentary, those practices really helped me get through my cancer and also some of

00:56the trauma of, you know, when I'd recovered from cancer. And I really wanted to make an

01:03album to raise money for charity. So it's a charity album. The proceeds go to the Royal

01:08Master in Cancer charity. And I wanted to kind of put my pain into the songs, you know.

01:17So my voice is quite affected, but I haven't really edited that. So it's quite an unpolished

01:24set of songs, you know, that I recorded at home, because I'm quite geeky with recording.

01:31And presumably, you've never written anything as personal as this before, have you?

01:36Probably not. No, I think I probably avoided being personal by creating kind of slightly strange

01:43characters in my previous albums. But this one was very encouraging.

01:49So is that part of how cancer has changed you, that you can be much more personal, much more open

01:55now, some of the barriers are down?

01:57I think a lot of the barriers came down. And I'm not afraid of my own vulnerability.

02:01vulnerability. And I kind of embraced my vulnerability. You know, I think we're all

02:06vulnerable. And I think a lot of problems that happen in the world sometimes is that we don't

02:13acknowledge or embrace our vulnerability. So for me, cancers made me feel more in touch

02:19with my authenticity.

02:21I think it's fascinating the way that trauma changes people. Tell me more about how you feel

02:26it's changed you what you were going through a traumatic situation. I think in a strange

02:33way, it's actually made me less afraid, although obviously, I do get afraid because we we have

02:39to have some fear, I think, to survive. But it's taken the edges off my fear. And it's made

02:47me really appreciate the very small, kind of normal things in life. You know, I get great

02:54joy just going to the sea and seeing light bouncing off the water.

02:59I

02:59So different values, then different things matter.

03:03Yeah, I don't kind of overlook the small things. I appreciate the moments in life much

03:10more. And I think I feel less, I think it's kind of made me less anxious as a person because

03:18I used to be quite driven and kind of anxious and avoiding my vulnerability in a way, you

03:26know, so if I got afraid, I tended to avoid that by being super busy or kind of now I'm

03:34kind of more in tune with everything that I feel. And I have a great desire to help other

03:39people as well and really talk about cancer, my cancer experience and, you know, particularly

03:45bowel cancer, because it's probably not talked about enough. I know, Dame Deborah James talked

03:52a lot about bowel cancer and wanted to get rid of the poo taboo. But I kind of feel that

03:59that's really important to my own way.

04:04A remarkable album is out on April the 4th as a digital release and the actual CD is on

04:17the 6th of June on Bandcamp.

04:21Fantastic. Well, congratulations on its recording. And all good wishes to you as a survivor.

04:30Thank you very much. Good to speak to you.

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