piglet

South London based Irish songwriter and producer piglet (AKA Charlie Loane) follows up last year’s Blue Flowers debut seven songs EP with new single “building site outside”. The song was produced by piglet & Harvey Grant (Puma Blue) and mixed by Marta Sologni (Björk) and released on the 23rd of March.
 
piglet's music details his experiences of the trans experience, affirmations of self-identity, mental health, substance abuse, and friendship. “building site outside” follows 2022’s seven songs EP which includes giant anthems "it isnt fair" (which protests the injustices of British healthcare provision for trans people) and “to you tonight” (which he told Paper Magazine is a “a fun song about bein' fuckin' gayyyyyy!")
 
“building site outside” offers another deeply personal exploration of the trans experience. It contrasts the prejudices present in a seemingly everyday exchange - Loane picking up a testosterone prescription from a pharmacy - with a beautiful, evocative acoustic-led backing.
 
“I wrote this song at the final hurdle of receiving a prescription for gender affirming hormones. I'd been through the bulk of the ridiculous assault course of nhs assessments, a process which took at least 3 years (which sounds like , and was , a long time , but by today's standards would be considered a mad stroke of luck). Some highlights of this absurd process include obtaining a diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria (being trans is not an illness lol , but here we are) and being asked extremely invasive and irrelevant questions along with a hundred other things that I have no interest in revisiting. I wrote this song after going to my gp for my first testosterone injection , only to find that they hadn't received the necessary documentation from the gender identity clinic , they told me to come back in 10 days in hopes that things would be sorted by then . This was by no means the biggest obstacle I had faced in accessing treatment , but for some reason it hit me particularly hard , so close yet so far or something like that.  Its quite a literal song which describes me walking to and from the GP surgery and how I was feeling throughout the verses , interspersed with the chorus which describes the interaction I had with the pharmacist a while later after receiving the prescription. We had always had a very nice relationship previously , I'd been in and out of the pharmacy every couple of weeks for the previous year and a half and we would always have a nice chat and a bit of a laugh. When I handed her the prescription for testosterone her attitude towards me changed completely , she no longer looked me in the eye or made small talk , instead staring straight through me as if I wasn't there . Again , this is on the very lowest end of the scale in terms of the hostility trans people face in every day life , but sometimes the small things stick with you . They're easier to address than the bigger things anyway , in my experience .  I'm very lucky to be able to say that I've been on hormones a good few years now and have been able to have surgery on my chest through the nhs too , for which I am eternally grateful . I can't describe the immensely positive impact that these things have had on every day of my life since then.”
 
seven songs EP saw the The Face select piglet as part of their One To Watch 23 series, whilst So Young and Loud & Quiet profiled him earlier on in the year. Both singles  "it isnt fair" and “to you tonight” were accompanied by hard-hitting videos from trans filmmaker Harv Frost and coordinated with fundraising activities for the We Exist charity.
 
The EP also included re-recordings of previously released solo singles “mill”, “dans note” “oan”, songs which lead to a deal with London label Blue Flowers (Puma Blue, Nilüfer Yanya, Westerman) in late 2021. These songs were captured in a live session of piglet's 9 piece band featuring members of Goat Girl and caroline. Previously, piglet released his debut EP alex’s birthday on DIY label Double Dare and two collaboration tracks with Porridge Radio through Secretly Canadian.
 
Following last year’s Shacklewell Arms headline and shows on mainland Europe, piglet will play a small headline tour in the UK and Ireland.