Optimist in Black, the debut album and first ever music project from Daphne Guinness, was released on May 27 2016. Produced by Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex, The Dandy Warhols), Optimist in Black was recorded at New York’s Avatar Studios (formerly the Power Station).

Optimist In Black—which shares its title with the album track referencing the bleak period following the suicides of her close friends McQueen and Blow—explores male vanity, the malleability of identity, and the effects of alienation and ennui. It’s deeply inspired by 60s psychedelia and 70s glam, reflecting Guinness’ own lifelong loves. Her formative listening habits, as a teen, were anachronistic: “I’ve always been stuck in the 60s. Jefferson Airplane, The Small Faces, as well as Robert Johnson and all the blues stuff, David Bowie and on the top, The Doors.”

The project began with a chance meeting with Irish producer Pat Donne, Guinness’ main co-writer on the album, at the renowned Grouse Lodge studios near her County Westmeath home. The duo’s original demos were then sent to Visconti, more in hope than expectation. “I was sick with nerves, emailing to him. He could have thought ‘Oh, it’s just this Guinness person.’ But he heard me through, and he loved it.”

Guinness and Donne decamped to join Visconti at Avatar Studios, where recording sessions took a deeply surreal turn when David Bowie appeared at the studio. His approval of the snippets he heard from Optimist In Black further mesmerised Daphne; “I feel so blessed that Tony believed in me,” Daphne says. “I thought I’d got an A* from the headmaster.”

Tracklisting:

1    Take Out What Didn't Happen
2    Fatal Flaw
3    Make Up
4    Hitch Hiking
5    Marionettes
6    Subtle Hand Of Fate
7    Optimist In Black
8    Magic Tea
9    Joke
10    The Long Now
11    Old School
12    Evening In Space
13    No Nirvana Of Cooldom
14    No Armageddon