Track: Bored At My Grandma’s House – ‘China Doll (demo)’: Leeds dreampopper drops lo-fi confession ahead of Come Play With Me’s new compilation

EN ROUTE to Come Play With Me’s new compilation album, Side By Side, which is out in a month, the grassroots Leeds organisation which is doing the good work in tending to the West Yorkshire music scene has dropped another teaser track, which you can come play right here.

It comes from Leeds’ own dream pop singer-songwriter and producer Bored At My Grandma’s House, and she’s shared a lovely and campfire-intimate demo of “China Doll”, blissed out harmonies combining with a catchy acoustic strum and a little sprinkle of electronica to make for a rather lovable lo-fi indie pop tune.

It’s the final song to be previewed from the album, which has been together in support of artists of marginalised genders and LGBTQ+ artists from across Yorkshire. A good cause as always from Come Play With Me. Would that more labels were so invested across the country.

Amber Strawbridge, the artist behind Bored At My Grandmas House, says: “‘China Doll’ is about a time when loads of cool things were happening to me like getting signed, my music doing well and achieving things I never thought I could’ve achieved if you’d asked me last year; yet I was feeling super low. It’s about feeling not very happy during a time when people would expect you to be happiest.

“The second verse touches on how I stayed super busy during lockdown as a form of distraction from how I was really feeling. Keeping busy means you don’t really get time to process emotions so it’s a method of avoidance.

“The track was written and recorded towards the end of lockdown one. I produced and mixed everything in my room and it features my dad on violin, it was super simple, super quick; but I think it’s best when it happens like that!”

It’s proving to be a busy time for Amber, who’s also announcing her debut headlining show at the legendary Brudenell Social Club on October 29th, tickets for which are on sale now; and a forthcoming appearance at Radio 1’s Big Weekend.

Amber cites influences including Slowdive, Wolf Alice and Alvvays, and says she named her musical project to reflect the manner in which her first songwriting ideas were born; writing songs as an exercise in passing time while quite literally bored at her grandma’s place.

We featured another track from Side By Side, the Orielles-esque breezy indie-funk of The Elephant Trees’ “Day 42” in April, and you can read (and hear) that here.

Come Play With Me’s various artists compilation Side By Side will be released digitally and on multicoloured ecomix vinyl on June 11th – you can pre-order your copy here.

Connect with Bored At My Grandma’s House on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; and Come Play With Me on those same socials here, here and here, respectively.