It's just a few notes everyone knows. But if you strip them from their acid rave outfit and turn them into a piano riff, Alice DJ's hit single starts to breathe in a new space, a space of longing, of loneliness and desperation. "It was an accident really," says Jenny Plant, British singer songwriter who replanted "Better Off Alone" into a new soil with just her voice and a humble piano bed,"we were in the studio and wanted to do a video. I sat down on the piano, my friend filmed it and that's basically it. The audio you hear now is the live recording from that day. We debated whether to make another 'proper' recording, but this moment was special and I think you can hear that in this version."
When Jenny Plant recorded this track, she had no idea what she will have gone through by the time of its release. While pregnant with her first child, Jenny found out she had breast cancer early 2022. At only 32 years old she had a beautiful baby, had breast surgery and underwent gruelling chemo, all the while organising breast cancer awareness events and fundraisers. "People say that I have been brave and are admired by my strength, but in all honesty when you are faced with life challenges like this there is no other option but to put your head down and get through it."
Now, in Spring 2023, Jenny has fought cancer and won. While she's recovering, her songs connect with more and more listeners. "Better Off Alone" features in new BBC horror drama Red Rose. The series has just been released to Netflix, which made Jenny's version of "Better Off Alone" soar in the Shazam Charts. In the last weeks, streaming numbers increased by 4,500%, editorial playlists followed.
"Getting an upbeat track like that, it takes on a completely different meaning when you slow it down. That's the beauty. The lyrics are so emotional! The riff here - playing it slowly makes you realise how pretty it is, but you don't think about it when you listen to the original 90s banger," says Jenny. The music supervisors of the series agreed, as do the people who seek out Jenny's live performance of the song on youtube. The comment section is filled of gratitude and awe.
Classically trained on piano, harp and violin, Jenny Plant found her place in music in two worlds over the recent years: for one, she's a singer songwriter influenced by fellow piano-driven artists like birdy, Adele or Carole King, currently working on her debut album. And then she arrayed into the world of film and game soundtracks. "I got asked to sing on a big video game, which was a career highlight for me. I did a bit of writing for another game, I sung on a few soundtracks, I'm singing on a few Disney soundtracks that are coming soon!"
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