Introduction

jeanine are a three-piece indie band, originally from London and currently based in Leeds. Although the band members had come across each other in passing, they didn’t become close until their studied music performance together at East London Arts & Music (ELAM). The academy offered a specialist, industry focused education following in the footsteps of earlier standout students, such as: Sienna Spiro. It was created by a board of professionals within the creative industries and has remained “partnered with sector leading organisations” (ELAM 2025) that jeanine were able to learn from and showcase to. In 2024, the frontman: Louis Halsey, assembled 3 session players to accompany his songwriting under the artist name: Factory reset. It soon became apparent that there was a definite creative connection between him and two of the musicians: Oscar Groves & Will Fox, which became the lineup to this day. They despite their different genre expertise at the time, they bonded over their love of performing live and soon began gigging across the independent London circuit. 

Each band member has an individual background and affection for a genre that they incorporate into jeanine’s artistry. Beginning with Louis, he played his grandad’s acoustic guitar from a young age and found his musical ear had developed beyond his years. He credits his uncle as “the best musician I know” (Louis Halsey 2025). Additionally, his parents were fans of rock pop and folk artists from the 20th century, like James Taylor, Carole King and The Beatles, who made Louis want to actively pursue music further. His technical and songwriting skills developed simultaneously, which he showcased on TikTok with arrangements of classic americana covers and snippets of his original music. This platform attracts publishing opportunities for Louis in addition to serving as a gateway to jeanine’s artistry. Similarly, the drummer: Will, belongs to a musical family and was exposed to live performances and sophisticated music. He took drum lessons from an early age, alongside experimenting with other instruments, such as: guitar and bass. As a teenager, he began a YouTube channel where he uploaded drum covers of his favourite indie rock and fusion pieces that demonstrated his musicianship. Within this endeavour, he was also able to practise audio production, video editing and graphic design. Will has been a key contributor towards jeanine’s content creation and overall maintenance of their visual identity. Will and the final band member and bassist: Oscar, met in secondary school where they engaged in extra-curricular musical activities. Oscar began playing guitar and experimented with drums before learning bass guitar, inspired by Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, in preparation for GCSE music. Once they all enrolled at ELAM in 2023, they naturally bonded as friends, which formed a basis for them to work on an artist project together.

Demographic

Essentially, the majority of jeanine listeners are young adults from urban areas across the UK. However, above this, their fans appreciate musicianship, authenticity, and emotionality. The location and values of their fans become apparent through their affinity with the British live music landscape. They connect with young people who engage with the inter-personal community associated with live music, which is particularly prevalent in London. There are a selection of promoters and venues that serve as gatekeepers of indie music in the area, which include: Brixton Windmill, The Lexington, George Tavern, Seabright Arms, Old Blue Last and The Moth Club. These venues typically operate with in-house promotion in combination with independently promoted events from a handful of reputable promoters. Moreover, they regularly collaborate with small record labels and fanzines, such as: Big Richard Records, So Young and Pin Drop. Brixton Windmill’s booker: Tim Perry explains that “because of the programming that we do, it’s a lot of new bands, and it’s quite niche, so we’ve not really gone down the populist route” (Brixton Blog 2017). Perry, alongside other live music gatekeepers in London, have created platforms that serve indicate quality and the potential for artists to soon outgrow that circuit. For example: Keo performed at Brixton Windmill in 2024 and have since announced UK headline tour including a residency at Electric Ballroom, Camden (Keo 2025).

Musical Analysis

Baby Jean

‘Baby Jean’ was jeanine’s first single, released on May 2nd 2025. It served as a precursor to their debut EP titled: ‘Back Home’, which was released a month later. Beginning with ‘Baby Jean’, to date, it has amassed over 4,500 total streams on Spotify and was featured on Upcoming indie 2025 (The Next Generation); a playlist with over 14,500 saves. The song began to be written collaboratively as a part of Factory Reset in and was refined when the band was reduced to three musicians. It started with the opening guitar riff, composed by Fox, who was then able to layer percussive elements. The beginning is very subdued with delicate use of cymbals and bass harmonics, which continues into the verses. A simplistic rhyme scheme is used to house introspective, almost stream of consciousness lyricism, creating a sophisticated dichotomy between the digestible structure and complex messaging. The chorus contains a bass counter melody alongside a denser drum pattern to accompany the vocal hook. The song follows a popular verse/chorus structure, until the bridge, where they elongate the tempo and play with sparce instrumentation into a satisfying conclusion. Overall, ‘Baby Jean’ strikes a tasteful balance between pop traditions and elements of musical fusion and modernist lyrics. It was chosen for this reason as a single to target radio audiences who appreciate new music within the confines of radio broadcasting. Hit pop songs are becoming increasingly shorter in duration. Samsung predicts that “the average hit song by 2030 may be roughly two minutes, half the length of a hit from the 1990s” (Emma Ayers 2025). Commercial radio typically programming adheres to this trend in order to provide a source of entertainment to please the average listener. jeanine took this into account when selecting their single alongside considering the right track to best demonstrate their artistry as a first release. 

Back Home

‘Back Home’ is the title track of jeanine’s first EP, released on May 30th 2025. They chose to centre the project around this song as it best showcased their musicianship and prowess as composers and arrangers. Moreover, it reflected their artistic identity and creative direction, which was important to acknowledge in the release of their first body of work. For jeanine, “at the time, back home felt like ‘the’ song, the song that represented us exactly as we wanted’ (Will Fox 2025). The EP wad produced by Ewan Meadowcroft, who matched jeanine’s balance between pop sensibilities with experimental techniques in the production. In addition, the songs were recorded live and it was important for the character and charm of a single take to be retained to a degree. Meadowcroft achieved this by layering additional instrumentation to give the recording body without detracting from its live feel. At the beginning of the track, he uses panning to build a soundscape of acoustic guitars to sit below Halsey’s soft, melancholic vocals. The instrumentation slowly build as the song progresses through a structure that could be considered unusual. jeanine borrowed elements of through-composition, which serves as an example of experimental elements of their artistry. The EP has reached over 10,000 streams in its entirety and at its peak, achieved over 1000 monthly listeners on Spotify. jeanine’s first headline show celebrated its release, which took place on June 1st 2025 at Next Door Records 2 in Stoke Newington. The event was well attended by fans and industry personnel. During the making of the recordings and the live show, they formed relationships with two A&R scouts from Universal Music Group subsidiary labels, who have offered feedback and advice of how they would progress their career further. 

Crocodile Tears

‘Crocodile Tears’ is yet to become available on streaming services and will be one of the next songs to be released in 2026. It was written and arranged between in the pre-release marketing phase for the EP and it was teased on social media channels to promote their launch party show. Unlike ‘Baby Jean’ and ‘Back Home’, the song was composed to be performed first, because they had booked a string of live shows in the summer following the release of their EP. For this reason, the track features more elements of showmanship, such as: Fox’s use of intricate ghost notes and Groves’ countermelodies. In this song in particular, the bass and drums add frame Halsey’s lyrics with accented passages, fills and staccato hits to build anticipation and release to indicate the end of the choruses. jeanine embraced elements of jazz fusion by incorporating multiple solo sections where each instrument participated in call and response. This recording was created at Leeds Conservatoire, collaborating with students on the production pathway. jeanine are keen to work with many new creatives in Leeds to slowly build relationships with a team of people to contribute towards their project and a producer and engineer. This version will be used as a demo to be sent to promoters, managers and agents as a representation of their artistry, beyond what has been released already. This is an effective means to demonstrate their promise and potential to individuals with opportunities to perform. 

Development strategy

Touring

As the live element of jeanine’s output and its influence on their recorded music is essential to their artistry, their live show is a product within itself, alongside providing a way of sharing their music with new audiences. For jeanine, the three primary live performance opportunities include: headline shows, support tours and festival slots. To date, they have mainly played equal billing showcases in their hometowns, but over the summer of 2025, they also performed in Southampton and then in the Lake District at Kendal Calling. They held their own headline show last June to celebrate their EP release and was then asked to support Glossy Boy at their headliner at The Social in Oxford Circus.

The Social has slowly grown into a venue that gets attention from the industry, since they began their “beloved sister stage” (The Social 2025): The Stonebridge Bar at Glastonbury Festival. Over the years, they have hosted the likes of Wolf Alice, Bon Iver and Black County New Road, becoming synonymous with innovative artists championing indie subgenres. To become noticed by promising bands within that sonic and cultural niche, jeanine should prioritise featuring on equal billing shows at well regarded, gatekeeper venues to connect with these artists. Moreover, this will expose them to promoters and programmers who are involved in the industry in a wide range of capacities, such as: journalism or radio. As previously mentioned, the London network of music gatekeepers collaborate between mediums, most notably with magazines. For example: So Young is an independent music magazine who host regular showcases mainly at Elephant’s Head, among other venues in London. Through this, they have established connections to hold the So Young Weekender festival in Southampton. They have the control to propel artists through these three different platforms, giving artists attention from and direct contacts to industry to access more opportunities of a similar calibre, which solidifies their position within the independent music market. 

New Music Monday is a similar set of showcases taking place on a weekly basis at Brixton Windmill. Little Grandad is a band that have been featured heavily within its programming over the past six months, including: supporting The Glowworms EP launch. Private Regcords is an independent promoter and record label based in Leeds. They tend to offer artists within London’s live gatekeeper circuit, their first opportunity to play a showcase in the north of England with their gig series at Hyde Park Book Club smaller room. In November 2025, they booked Little Grandad and afforded them the chance to perform in a new area to new audiences who appreciate and support upcoming indie artists. They have since announced that they will be supporting both Man/Woman/Chainsaw and Thistle on their respective 2026 UK tours in addition to appearing at So Young Weekender alongside other independent festivals. Considering Little Grandad’s recent success and subsequent progression through Private Regcords, jeanine should prioritise arranging to perform at one of their showcases, in attempt to reverse engineer their relationship to Brixton Windmill and enter the network of promoters responsible for the championing break through indie artists.

jeanine should use their unique position, being equally based between London and Leeds, to observe artists who are booked repeatedly among gatekeeper venues in both cities. Networking among bands and their teams could bring them a closer to securing a chance to support another artist on tour. An opportunity like this would allow them to perform for an audience that are both fans of their style of music and belong to jeanine’s target age and culture demographic. The Glowworms would be an ideal band to connect with in the hope of supporting them for a headline show in future. They often return to perform at Brixton Windmill alongside performing locally in well regarded venues. Moreover, they have been supported by music magazines, such as: Pin Drop, through live showcases and reviews of their music. Additionally, they have connections to artists who have invited them to be their opening act on tour internationally. A combination of these two platforms has allowed their music to be shared digitally and within the live circuit across the UK and North America, which implicates that they have acquired the fanbase to organise a well-received headline tour by 2028. Some other bands within jeanine’s sonic niche that are equally widely recognised include: Tooth, pollyfromthedirt and Family Stereo. 

Artists like these can be identified within the programming for UK based independent music festivals. Although adjacent to jeanine’s style of music, they share festivals in common with The North that they could both be booked to play, based on the type of acts they program. They have recently announced that they will be playing at Kendal Calling and Truck Festival in 2026. Tracking where artists, such as: The North, will be performing this upcoming festival season will provide a basis for where jeanine should aim to secure a booking for in the coming years. For festivals, an artist’s location in relation to the regions in which they can sell tickets in is less important as programmers are concerned more so by the genre and scene of the entire line up to curate a cohesive experience for the consumer. Taking this into account, Focus Wales, Sound City, The Great Escape, Tramlines and Victorious Festival are where jeanine should try to perform over the summer of 2026 at introducing stages.

Releasing

Following the release of jeanine’s ‘Back Home’ EP, they should focus on releasing singles to match modern listening habits and demonstrate their progression. Their next release should be ‘Crocodile Tears’ as they have been performing it live for the past 6 months, so their fans are more easily able to connect with it, and they already have sufficient media of the song being performed to contribute towards a promotion campaign. 

A combination of algorithmic music streaming and audience attention spans have created a landscape where singles are more rewarding formats for artists to use when releasing their music. Digital streaming platforms “favour artists who release music consistently” (CD Baby 2025). The main reason for this stems from algorithmic playlisting, as with each new release, artists increase their odds of being featured and remaining routinely visible to listeners. The same dynamic between coverage and frequency applies to radio, because DJs are unlikely to play several new songs from one artist, releasing them gradually will result in more attention towards each individual single. In addition to this, the attention span of the average consumer has decreased in relation to all creative mediums. This applies to the duration of a track, while also relating to the amount of time listeners can keep track of an artist’s career without regular reminders in the form of incremental single releases. 

To ease jeanine into the routine of regular releases, they should first release a live version of ‘Back Home’ to celebrate a year since its release. The live arrangement of this song is quite different to the studio recording, especially compared to how their other tracks are translated over. They emphasize the push and pull of the tempo in between sections as an element of showmanship to manipulate the energy of the audience. A live rendition will remind fans to revisit their previously released music and encourage them to attend a show to be able to hear this arrangement recreated on stage. The release of this track will drive traffic towards their profile on streaming services and social media platforms, in preparation for viewers to receive content around their following releases. 

Visual identity

Currently jeanine’s main social platforms are Instagram & TikTok, with occasional uploads to their YouTube. This aligns the age group of their fan base, who gravitate towards ‘image-led social platforms’ (Target Internet 2025). jeanine’s visual aesthetic is important to their target demographic and the nature of services they prefer to use to consume media. Over the age of their followers, the subcultures and communities they belong to have predetermined visual characteristics. Fortunately, they jeanine are able to market themselves by aligning elements of their brand with that of the underground indie music scene. 

Westside Cowboy, Tooth and Uncle Junior share design and marketing practises that exemplify the way in which modern indie artists, within their sonic niche, use social media as a marketing tool. jeanine should analyse their accounts to identify common traits to understand how they have balanced showcasing their artistry with appealing to trends. Beginning with the basic features, they have used abstract profile pictures and short, vague bios that detail their upcoming live shows, latest release or contact information. Their posts are also sparce with each account hosting under 100 posts, which contrasts the number of followers they have amassed. This suggests that they regularly archive content to only display the most recent and high-quality media. In a similar way to how gatekeeper venues and promoters conserve indie music, artists themselves intentionally maintain a simple online presence to encourage dedicated fans to form a micro community who attend their live shows on a regular basis. As these individuals belong to a defined subculture, it is easier for members who are yet to discover their artistry to be included in their fan base. A combination of valuing live performances and the effect of word of mouth will allow their fans to steadily multiply without dedicated promotion. Eventually, this will bridge the gap between their level of public recognition and mainstream culture as they continue to grow. 

Westside Cowboy, Tooth and Uncle Junior tend to post a mixture of gig and record announcements, live photography, visualisers and magazine features. In particular, announcements and visualisers use mixed media as a pillar of their branding. In addition, their photography uses physical mediums, such as: film and Polaroids, which connects with the DIY attitudes of the music and events creators operating within their genre of music. Tooth use a distinctive, hand drawn typography logo across their posters and merchandising, which is digitally distressed to support the handcrafted aspect of their identity. Over the winter of 2025, they ran a campaign in which they sent a copy of their unreleased music on a CD to those who signed up to their mailing list. This proved an effective marketing method due to their consistent and appropriate branding alongside their deliberate decision not to share too much of their music online.

jeanine should replicate elements of Westside Cowboy, Tooth and Uncle Junior’s use of social media services. They should practise creating content, intended for image-based platforms, that consistently and cohesively utilises a combination of digital and physical elements in its design. They then can begin to be selective over the posts that remain on their profile, which will allow them to build a fanbase that will respond similarly to Tooth’s when presented with to incremental releases. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, jeanine should embrace the connections and impact on their identity that stem from their music taste, education and location. These factors have given them the vocabulary and knowledge to network among musicians and business creatives that are active within the emerging indie rock and folk fusion scene that has become particularly prevalent in London and Leeds recently. These relationships will provide jeanine with access to feedback and potential opportunities to develop their release strategy, touring and branding. Moreover, they should engage with the intersection of their age and culture demographic and followers of gatekept indie music in the UK. These individuals actively participate as consumers of live music in smaller, yet reputable venues, so jeanine should aim to connect with promoters of shows in these spaces, like Private Regcords. In addition, following on from their EP, they should aim to release a series of singles in line with equal billing showcases with gatekeeper venues and promoters, support tours and festivals. In addition, exploring live recordings will connect their records with their shows and help to build both markets symbiotically. Supporting more established artists at shows outside of their home cities will afford them to opportunity to play to audience who are yet to discover their music, but who are lively to enjoy their performance and become a listener as a result. Touring will serve as a secondary marketing method to social media promotion. jeanine can use media from their shows, in conjunction with insight into their recording process and upcoming announcements, to reach more young appreciators of innovative, live UK indie music online. However, they should restrict the media that is available to viewers at any given point to encourage them to seek out more material from alternative sources, such as: live shows, merchandise and streaming platforms. This will also train their fanbase more receptive to pre-release marketing, as demonstrated by Tooth. Overall, jeanine must strike a tasteful balance between intensive social media marketing and gatekeeping their product in order to prepare their fanbase to receive new releases and attend their live shows. 

Bibliography

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