Glaswegian singer/songwriter DM Arthur offers a warm, open-hearted meditation on imperfection and resilience with “Fire & Soap,” an instantly catchy, feel-good folk tune that pairs easy charm and gentle swing with a deeper clarity – finding grace not in fixing what’s broken, but in learning how to live with care and honesty.

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Stream: “Fire and Soap” – DM Arthur

Wash the damage off, burn it into smoke. Baby all you need’s a little fire and soap…

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Sometimes a song doesn’t ask anything of you – it just grins, reaches out a hand, and pulls you along.

Drifting in like a breath of fresh air, DM Arthur’s folksy, feel-good “Fire & Soap” is an instant earworm whose easy charm, gentle swing, and sing-along warmth make it as smile-inducing as it is comforting and quietly galvanizing. Light on its feet and tender at its core, the song moves with an easy, kinetic charm that invites sing-alongs without ever losing its emotional weight. It simmers as it soothes, pairing bright acoustic strums with a chorus that feels like a friend – simple, melodic, and deeply human.

Did you play too hard?
And the car won’t start
But it’s a brand new day
Another work of art

Wash the damage off
Burn it into smoke
Baby all you needs
A little fire and soap

“Fire & Soap” is the title track off DM Arthur’s recently released Fire & Soap, Pt. 2 EP, the second half of a companion release that caps a prolific and quietly defining year for the Glaswegian singer/songwriter. Recorded live to tape at Middle Farm Studios in rural Devon with producer Peter Miles, the Fire & Soap EPs find Arthur distilling years of movement, reflection, and self-reckoning into a warm, folk-forward sound shaped by intimacy and intention.

A longtime presence in the UK folk and indie circuit, Arthur has steadily carved out a space of his own – one rooted in rich melodies, lived-in storytelling, and an emotional openness that feels both timeless and urgently of the moment. Together, his latest EPs mark a period of consolidation and clarity, following years of steady growth – arriving as a confident bridge between his early releases and the debut album he’s now preparing to bring into the world.

Arthur’s songwriting has always thrived on emotional candor, and “Fire & Soap” is no exception.

His songs, he says, are a place where he can be “brutally honest” with himself – a refuge amid the noise and unease of the world. “With the state of the world we find ourselves currently living in and all the shithousery that goes with it, I hope my music is a space where people can come to feel less alone and find some peace in all my imperfections,” he shares. In that honesty, there’s an open-hearted generosity: A desire for the music to feel like a shared space, somewhere listeners can “feel less alone and find some peace” inside imperfection. That ethos hums through every line of “Fire & Soap,” whose central refrain – “wash the damage off / burn it into smoke” – lands like a small but powerful act of self-forgiveness.

Drag your restless heart
Lay it next to mine
Surgeon in the dark
Oh What did you find

Wash the damage off
Burn it into smoke
Baby all you needs
A little fire and soap

Arthur frames the Fire & Soap project as a balance between intensity and release: Fire as the force that shapes us, soap as the cleansing that follows. The title track sits squarely at that intersection, embracing resilience without denial and movement without erasure. It’s about accepting the mess, tending to the bruises, and continuing forward anyway – “coming to terms with life and the present moment for what it is,” as Arthur puts it, and learning to meet that reality without judgment. “It’s about all the imperfections we have, all the imperfections the world around us has, coming to terms with that and accepting it without judgement or discourse. It’s about despite not everything always going our way, we can still be resilient and rise up.”

Hold up it’s not that bad
To grow up and act your age
Sometimes you might get sad
But hold up it’s not that bad

That spirit of connection and acceptance extends beyond the song itself. “My hope is for people to find connection wherever they can,” Arthur shares. “With this most recent recording experience I’ve realised that the most joy comes from the actual creative process of creating something that never existed before and that perfection is a wasted endeavour.”

There’s a quiet wisdom in how “Fire & Soap” carries its message. Nothing is overexplained, nothing forced.

Instead, the song trusts melody, repetition, and warmth to do the work – a reminder that healing doesn’t always arrive with grand declarations. In a moment that often feels loud and unrelenting, its gentleness feels like a choice – and a gift. Sometimes, all you need is a little fire and soap.

DM Arthur recently sat down with Atwood Magazine to discuss the songs, stories, and hard-won clarity behind the song “Fire & Soap” and 2026’s two companion EPs – and what it’s meant to learn how to keep moving forward without burning out. Read our interview below, and spend some time with both Fire & Soap EPs wherever you stream music.

With your belly full
Are you a raging bull?
Now your cheeks are red
Why’s the world so cruel

Wash the damage off
Burn it into smoke
Baby all you needs
A little fire and soap

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‘Fire & Soap, Pt. 2’ – DM Arthur

A CONVERSATION WITH DM ARTHUR

DM Arthur: Aw thanks very much, it’s always nice to hear when people connect with the music you make. My songs are a place where I can be brutally honest with myself. With the state of the world we find ourselves currently living in and all the shithousery that goes with it, I hope my music is a space where people can come to feel less alone and find some peace in all my imperfections.

DM Arthur: Well I recorded a bunch of songs live to tape down at a rural studio in Devon called Middle Farm with my friend and producer Peter Miles (Orla Gartland, Dodie) who I also made my first EP with. I guess looking back at that moment, it was a collection of songs reflecting on where I’ve come from and the people and experiences that had shaped me as the person I am today. It was the perfect follow on from my debut EP Hopeless, Sometimes which was the very beginnings of me finding my own voice.

After that recording process, it felt like we had made two records instead of one and that’s why I decided to make it two EPs, or a mini album if you like, called Fire & Soap. I feel like we are all forged in fire and have that intensity inside of us which burns and sometimes has to be fed but also has to be tempered too in order to get through all the challenges life throws at us. Fire & Soap, Pt 1 EP is about traversing the depths of our innermost world and not being afraid to go to the darkness to find our way back to the light.

Fire & Soap, Pt. 2 EP is the cleansing process of the album aka the ‘Soap’ part. It’s about hope, forgiveness and being gentle on yourself. It’s not so much of a CTRL ALT DEL moment but more of a learning to make peace with the different parts inside of ourselves and embracing this imperfect human experience.

I’ve spent the last year finding my feet as an independent artist across three EPs and I’ve never felt more ready than now to bring my debut album out into the world which will hopefully be next year.

DM Arthur: I’m always evolving as an artist and this EP is a moment in time for me as all records are but it’s a collection of songs I’m very proud to have brought into the world, with a bunch of likeminded souls I hold very close to my heart. It’s almost the closing of one chapter for me in terms of everything up until now and the opening of a brand new exciting chapter for me where I feel stronger than ever in where I want to go and what I want to create as an artist.

DM Arthur: I had written the idea for this one originally with just me and my Gibson J45 called Bob but it needed finishing so I played it to the very talented singer songstress Gabriella Cilmi and we both set about making it into the finished version it is today.

It’s a song about shaking off our first world problems in our daily lives. Picking yourself up, washing the damage off and gliding forward into the great unknown. I recorded the acoustic guitar on it with the same rubber bridge guitar sound used on my first EP on a song called “I Want You,” a guitar which belonged to my friend and producer, Peter Miles.

DM Arthur: The name came out of absolutely nowhere, it just popped into my head one morning whilst I was playing about on my old 50s Hofner acoustic. It came from god knows where and it never left I suppose. During the recording everything kind of organically just fell into place and the story was clear for all to see, almost like it had written itself, as cliche as that may sound, but nothing on this record was fully intentional. I don’t like to overthink these things to the point of strangulation, being someone who suffers greatly with ADHD in any case. Looking back the whole ‘Fire & Soap’ thing is the perfect summary of my life up to this point, and with Fire there is always the cleansing process that inevitably follows and thankfully that is where I find myself now.

DM Arthur: “Fire & Soap” for me is the coming to terms with life and the present moment for what it is song. It’s about all the imperfections we have, all the imperfections the world around us has, coming to terms with that and accepting it without judgement or discourse. It’s about despite not everything always going our way, we can still be resilient and rise up and ‘wash the damage off.’

DM Arthur: My favourite track on both EPs is probably “House I Grew Up In.” It’s the last song on the album and it ends with me revisiting my childhood home in Glasgow and although life moves on, some habits and relationship dynamics die the hardest and that’s what I’m still learning to make peace with. I love the double bass on this one played by Mickey Smith (Ben Howard’s band) and I also love the backing vocals by my friend singer songwriter Eleanor Moss.

DM Arthur: My hope is for people to find connection wherever they can. With this most recent recording experience I’ve realised that the most joy comes from the actual creative process of creating something that never existed before and that perfection is a wasted endeavour.

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:: stream/purchase Fire & Soap, Pt. 2 here ::

:: connect with DM Arthur here ::

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Stream: “Fire and Soap” – DM Arthur

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