Jess Davey, 19, from Norton, near Bury St Edmunds, to release debut single Who You Were about experience of losing her father at 15

A Suffolk musician who grew up in a house ‘always full of music’ is releasing her debut single, which is about what it was like to lose her father.

Who You Were, by Jess Davey, 19, from Norton, near Bury St Edmunds, will be available on Spotify and other streaming platforms tomorrow (November 17) at 6pm.

She lost her dad Martin, who she says was her inspiration to become a musician, at 15, and recorded the song on his guitar.

Jess also paid tribute to her close-knit group of friends and her boyfriend for reigniting her passion for music after the passing of her father, a former Bury Free Press reporter.

She said: “As cliché as it sounds I have always wanted to pursue music; my dad was a musician so the house was always full of music, whether it was him playing guitar in the living room, my parents singing in the kitchen, the radio on or any of the stacks of CDs playing.

“I would sing duets every evening with my Dad in the dining room and it all just ended up meaning I absolutely loved music.

“When I was 15 I lost my dad to a completely out-of-the-blue heart attack – it was something neither myself or my Mum and brother could have ever imagined possibly happening, and it felt like the world was completely over.

“We sang together, played together and had crazy plans of writing songs together – something we never got to do – and touring the world.”

Who You Were is the first song Jess has written, which she says is about what it was like to lose her father, the chaos of looking back on her earlier teenage years and the four years that have elapsed since her father’s passing.

She hopes the song resonates with people that have experienced something similar and reassure them they are not alone in their feelings.

“I am feeling so many different emotions at the thought of it coming out for everyone to hear; in some ways it feels bittersweet at the thought that it’s the first song I have every written and he will never get to hear it, knowing that the guitar he played and loved for so many years is the guitar I played in the song.

“But most of all, I am excited for it to finally be a real song as it were, rather than just an idea in my head.

“I would say for a few years because of losing the person who first made me love music, I almost lost a bit of my passion for it for a while – I wasn’t bothered about ever being a musician anymore.

“As cringe-worthy as it sounds (and their egos will inflate now), the true people at credit for me re-discovering my passion of wanting to pursue music, are the boys who I have, for the last couple of years, called my best friends, one of them also being my wonderful boyfriend.”

Jess and her friends studied GCSE and A-Level music together at school, with the boys going on to form a band, Fuze, who play regular gigs locally at venues such as The Hunter Club, but have also performed overseas in France.

She says they encouraged and supported her to pursue her own music, starting with open mic nights at her former workplace, The Pakenham Fox, as well as joining Fuze on stage as a guest vocalist.

Jess continued: “With their support and encouragement my confidence has grown, and now here I am with my first single about to be released, funnily enough, recorded and produced by one of the boys themselves, Dec Cunningham.

“Dec has been absolutely incredible in bringing the song to life, we had so much fun recording it together and he has made it sound better than I ever could have imagined it with the production, something he also wants to pursue himself alongside his own music with Fuze.

“I genuinely couldn’t have done this without the wonderful boys; Tom, for being the most supportive best friend and boyfriend combined, and getting me through the process of writing by baking countless banana breads, and Dec, Oscar and Harvey for basically being my three other brothers and pushing me so much.

“And my lovely Mum and brother Tom, for being the most amazing family despite everything we have been through.”