Fiona Mackay Barclay Bevan is an English singer-songwriter from Suffolk, England. She co-wrote the song "Little Things" for One Direction along with Ed Sheeran, which became a number-one single in 13 countries and received a BMI award.
Bevan has co-written songs released by Kylie Minogue, LIGHTS, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Tom Walker, Steps, Mika, Shane Filan, Hey Violet, and Natalie Imbruglia. She has also written and been featured on Stefflon Don's debut release.
As an artist, Bevan's debut solo studio album Talk to Strangers (April 2014) was released on Navigator Records. She has toured as a supporting act for Nick Mulvey, Ryan Keen, Ed Sheeran, Hawksley Workman, Ingrid Michaelson, Gwyneth Herbert, Luke Friend, and Bill Bailey. In 2014, Bevan completed a tour of Australia supporting Busby Marou, and the following year she toured Canada, supporting Hawksley Workman.
Bevan runs a residency night at Servant Jazz Quarters in Dalston, London, called "Fiona Bevan Presents", featuring acts including Mercury Prize-nominated Sam Lee and Ed Harcourt, who also remixed her first single, "The Machine", in 2014.
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Early life and education
Bevan is of British and Canadian parentage. Her great-grandmother was the romantic novelist D. E. Stevenson, and Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson was her great-great-grandfather's cousin. She was born in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, brought up in Suffolk, and attended Colchester County High School for Girls. Bevan studied English literature at university.
Career
Fiona Bevan's debut extended play (EP), In The Swimming Pool, was released in 2007. Her debut studio album Plant Your Heart, was released in 2009 on the Fallen Idol label.
After graduating, Bevan briefly played guitar in the band Poussez Posse, fronted by Georgina Baillie, before deciding to start a solo project.
In 2011, she released an EP, Us and the Darkness, on Venus Climbing, co-produced with Robin Baynton. The EP featured Bevan on lead vocals and guitar, accompanied by Rosalie Bevan on bass and James Crichlow on violin. One of the songs on the EP, "Dial D for Denial", was a semi-finalist at the 2011 International Songwriting Competition. The song "Pirates and Diamonds" was included on the OneTaste Collective Album Vol. 2, released on 14 June 2010, while she also appeared on Winter Hunter Remixes by The Living Graham Bond released on 26 July 2010 on the Fat label.
Her song "Love in a Cold Climate" was included in the For Folk's Sake Christmas 2011 compilation album.
Bevan's second album, Talk To Strangers, was released in 2014 on Navigator Records in the UK, Planet Music in Australia, and P-Vine in Japan. In 2015, it was released on Convexe / Universal Music in Canada and Convexe in the USA. The album's twelve songs were written, arranged, and played by Fiona Bevan, produced and played by Shawn Lee, engineered by Pierre Duplan in Bloomsbury, London, and mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios, San Francisco. The Guardian wrote, "Bevan took us on startling odysseys that suggested Erykah Badu, Joanna Newsom, and Kate Bush spine-tinglingly joined". The Line of Best Fit called her work, "mesmerizingly beautiful".
The first single "The Machine" was remixed by Ed Harcourt and featured Fem Fel, which received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and BBC London. Clash Music commentated about the track: "Fiona Bevan contrasts pastoral, acoustic textures with her golden, golden voice".
The next single, "Rebel Without a Cause", was released in May 2014, with remixes by Anushka, who was signed to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings, and Mr. Hudson.
Collaborations
Ed Sheeran/One Direction
Bevan co-wrote the One Direction song "Little Things" with Ed Sheeran, which appeared on their second studio album Take Me Home (2012). In October 2012, Sheeran acknowledged her songwriting skills in an interview with the British radio network Capital FM, stating:"The great thing about it is I wrote that song with a girl called Fiona Bevan when I was 17 and we lost the song. I've kept in touch with Fiona, we've done gigs and stuff, and about two months ago she sent me the tune and was like, 'Oh, do you remember this?' I was like, 'Yeah, I do remember that', and I was in the studio with the One Direction boys at the time and I was playing it and they were like, 'We really like that'. It's got one of my favorite lines that I've ever written in a song."
Carl Ryden/Steps
In 2017, Fiona worked with the group Steps on their comeback album Tears on the Dancefloor. "Scared of the Dark", the single she and Carl Ryden co-wrote for Steps, reached number 37 on the UK Singles Chart.
Ben Haenow
Bevan co-wrote "One Night" for Ben Haenow with Ben and producer duo Red Triangle (production team) for his deluxe debut album. The album reached the top 10 in the UK, and his subsequent 'One Night Tour' was also named after the track.
Gwyneth Herbert
Bevan co-wrote, with Gwyneth Herbert, two songs on Herbert's 2013 album The Sea Cabinet – "I Still Hear the Bells" and "The King's Shilling"– and performed with Herbert on the album and at its London launch at Wilton's Music Hall in May 2013.
Laura Welsh
With Laura Welsh, Bevan co-wrote the singles 'Red' and 'Concrete' from the 'See Red EP' which The Line Of Best Fit called "stunning". Bevan also co-wrote Laura's previous single 'Sex and Violence' which was released as a 'Stream Only' premiere on Spin.com.
ARCO
Alongside Neil Luck, Bevan co-composed music for and performed alongside the avant-garde string ensemble ARCO on Last Wane Days (squib-box), a two-act monodrama for voice and ensemble, released on 12 March 2012. In a review, Tim Rutherford-Johnson wrote: "Bevan, in particular, can turn her voice on a dime. As co-composers, Luck and Bevan use sound and recurring motifs cleverly so that the rampant dislocations achieve an unexpected coherence and continuity. Serious artistry".
Music for advertisements and television
In the spring of 2015, Bevan's track "Slo Mo Tiger Glo" from her album Talk To Strangers was chosen as the theme music for the HSBC adverts aired in the UK and Ireland. Her song "Beginners Luck" was used as the E! 2015 winter red carpet season USA track.
Discography
Songwriting credits
indicates a background vocal contribution.