For On The Record, rising London artist Dean Longden invites you to listen to his debut EP, Still, It Grows, which offers a touching and personal insight into a life-changing period of his life. Across four songs, this singer-songwriter navigates his personal experiences of grief, heartbreak, upheaval, growth and transformation. It’s emotionally raw and strikingly honest, yet by the end of the EP, you can’t help but feel quietly hopeful. Opening track ‘Holding On’ provides a warm welcome with those sweet melodies, after which it gradually builds up with searing guitars and thunderous drums into a feel-good catharsis. Sophomore listen ‘I’m Fine’ takes a note from 90s alt-rock crooners to delve into those deeper, more painful emotions. Although it’s a relatively short EP, Longden shows off his versatility again with the catchy indie-pop tune ‘He Loves’, the songwriting story for which you can explore in the interview below. Last but not least we have crowd favourite ‘Cleansed’, which is arguably this songwriter at his most vulnerable. With lines like, “it’s time to move on, without you here, and I’ll shed a tear,” this is an anthem for anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one; a place to find solidarity, comfort and community. Overall, this EP is a deeply human and self-assured release from an artist who has all the hallmarks of becoming London’s next breakthrough name. Now, let’s dive into our chat with Dean Longden, who discusses the making of Still, It Grows, songwriting as therapy and what comes next.
Welcome back to Unrecorded! For those who aren’t already familiar with Dean Longden, can you introduce yourself?
Hello!! I’m Dean Longden, an indie singer-songwriter from London who writes honest songs about life when it gets a bit messy. A lot of my music comes from personal experiences — grief, growth, relationships, overthinking, and generally trying to work out what’s going on. Music has always been the easiest way for me to say things I probably wouldn’t manage to say in a normal conversation. I’ve been building through live shows across London, and I’ve just released my debut EP, Still, It Grows, which I’m very proud to finally have out in the world.
Congratulations on the recent release of your new EP! For those discovering you through Still, It Grows, how would you describe this record in three words?
Thank you!
I’d describe it as honest, healing and growth.
All of the songs come from a really personal place. They were written at different points, but they’re all tied together by the same idea of trying to pull yourself out of a low place and make sense of things while you’re in it. It’s not a “everything is figured out” kind of record at all — it’s more about the process of getting through it, sometimes slowly, sometimes messily.
A lot of it is just me trying to turn things I was going through into something I could actually understand, and in a way, something that might help someone else going through something similar too.
Your mother’s cancer journey shaped much of the EP, so how did songwriting help you process something so difficult?
It wasn’t something I ever really sat down and tried to write about directly in a structured way — it was more that songwriting became the only way I could deal with everything at the time.
When something like that is happening, especially at a young age, you don’t always have the words for it in normal conversation. For me, music became the place where those thoughts ended up without me really overthinking them. It was less about trying to write “about” it, and more about just getting everything out of my head in some form.
Looking back, I can see how much it shaped the way I write now, but at the time it was just the most natural way to process things day to day.
The other aspect of this record is dealing with heartbreak. Would you say that grief and heartbreak overlap emotionally in these songs?
I would say so, yeah. A lot of the songs originally came from heartbreak and that feeling was kind of the starting point for them. But as I kept writing, something shifted a bit. Halfway through the process, it started to feel less like I was just writing about being in it, and more like the songs were actually helping me get out of it.
It naturally turned into something more healing without me really planning for that to happen. Especially on a track like “Cleansed”, which for me is about saying goodbye and letting go. That’s partly why I chose to put it last on the EP — it felt like the most natural way to close the record and leave it on that sense of release.
It’s definitely an intimate sounding release and with it being written largely late at night in your bedroom, do you think the setting made it even more personal?
100%, definitely. Most of the songs I’ve released so far were written in my bedroom to begin with — just me, a guitar, and whatever late-night thoughts I couldn’t shake off.
There’s something about that setting that naturally makes everything feel more honest. No pressure, no overthinking, just writing whatever comes out in the moment. And because all of my songs are based on personal experiences anyway, that environment kind of just amplifies it.
It ends up feeling very close to how it actually felt at the time, which I think is why the record carries that intimate energy.
How did writing with Fin Coffey and recording at The Roundhouse also shape this EP?
Working with Fin definitely brought a lot of the fun back into making music for me. It was very back and forth creatively — I’d bring in ideas or rough songs I’d started on my own, and then Fin would add things I probably wouldn’t have thought of, and vice versa. It felt very natural in that sense, like a proper collaboration should.
In the beginning we ended up making around 10 demos, some of which might come out at some point in the future, but we narrowed it down to the strongest ones and really focused on developing those properly. That process ended up taking most of 2025, but it honestly felt like a bit of a revival for me creatively.
I’d usually start every song myself and then bring it to Fin, and if we both felt it was worth exploring, we’d build on it together. I also played some of my earliest gigs with him, so it was really rewarding to see those songs slowly turn into something real on stage.
Recording at The Roundhouse added another layer to that as well. It’s such an iconic space, and being in that environment while finishing the music made the whole process feel even more special and inspiring.
You’ve had listeners tell you songs like ‘Cleansed’ helped them through dark times. What does that mean to hear?
It means the world to me, honestly. All I’ve ever wanted from music is to know that it can help people in some way. Giving that back is what it’s always been about for me, because music has done the exact same thing for me in my own life.
When someone reaches out and says a song like “Cleansed” has helped them through something difficult, it’s quite hard to fully put into words what that feels like. Especially because that song comes from such a personal place for me as well. But at the same time, that’s also the beauty of music — once it’s out there, it doesn’t just belong to you anymore. People take their own meaning from it and it becomes part of their own story too.
That’s something I never take for granted. If anything, it just reinforces why I make music in the first place.
Which is your favourite song on the EP? And why?
My favourite has to be “Cleansed”. Simply because of how much it means to me personally, but also because I think it’s probably the strongest song on the EP vocally, musically and emotionally. It was the song that made me feel hopeful that I could get out of a really difficult place, and in a way it helped pull me out of that low point. It feels like a turning point on the record for me.
“He Loves” is a close second though. That one started quite differently — it was originally built around some lyrics my best friend Daniel had written while he was going through a rough patch himself. We’d been at The Roundhouse together last summer and he showed me what he had written in his notes. I built a simple track around it, wrote the rest of the song from there, and then Fin and I finished it together. It felt really special being able to turn something that personal from a friend into a full song, and even more special to have made it together.
That said, all of the songs on the EP are very special to me in their own way. Each one comes from a different moment in time and a different headspace, so they all carry something important to me.
What else do you hope that listeners will take away from these songs?
I hope people listen to the EP and walk away feeling a bit less alone, even if it’s just for a moment. I know it sounds a bit cliché, but there really is light at the end of the tunnel — it doesn’t always mean everything suddenly gets better or sorted, but there’s always some form of hope there, even on the days where it feels hard to see it.
A lot of these songs came from times where I felt quite isolated in what I was going through, so if someone listens and feels a bit more understood or like what they’re feeling is shared by someone else, that honestly means a lot to me. That’s probably the main thing I’d want anyone to take from it.
And if it also helps people process things in their own way, or even just gives them a moment to switch off and awkwardly attempt a little dance during the solo in Holding On, then that’s more than enough for me as well.
Following the release of the EP, what will be next on the horizon for you?
I’ve already started writing and recording some new songs, and they definitely feel like they’re heading in a slightly different direction. A bit more acoustic in places, a bit more stripped back. It’s the first time I’ve really been writing outside of that “low point” headspace, so it’s more about life on the other side of it — still figuring things out, but from a different place.
I’ve also got a few gigs lined up outside of London, including my first ever shows in Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester, which I’m really excited for. It feels like a big step for me moving things out of just my home city and seeing how the music connects in different places.
I’m only just getting started really, and I can’t wait to keep releasing more music and seeing where it all goes next.
You can listen to lead single ‘Holding On’ in our Indie Rockers playlist.
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