Interview by Miriam C.
Maybe once in a lifetime you encounter an artist with such a personal background so cumbersome [no pun intended] that in some ways it have had an important influence on her music. I want to make you reflect about this thesis : try to live without music for all your childhood and adolescence, how would you react?
Digging and researching some infos about your background I’ve discovered about your troubled childhood and the total prohibition to listen to music imposed by your stepfather. My intent is not get nosey about the whole situation, afar from that, did you can say that in some ways the school enviroment saved you and helped you? And how?
School was a place where I could re-connect with the culture I had been born into. A liberal culture of arts and music. It was a place where I could preserve my identity. My teachers were very supportive. I was able to play the piano in the school practice room during lunchtimes. And this was vital to my musical development. It also really helped being around other people my own age who had music in their lives and had opinions on music.
You state that your music “is inspired by fantasy and driven by imagination”. The following question can be maybe predictable but I don’t know why I found it sensed – how and when you have started to compose music or better when you have released that you have this urge to start composing music?I started to compose music as soon as I left the household I lived in for ten years, in which it was banned. I was given some music equipment, second-hand. And that started me off, creating music. I would create constantly, all day, all night, barely stopping to eat. And I did that until my first home demo was created. There was so much to learn about the equipment. About music in the world around me. It was time of revelation. But the sounds in my imagination, the worlds and the sounds personified as figures, or characters were what I started with. And what I came back to, and continue to come back to, when I create music. I can’t help but experience music as a visual world in my imagination. And when I create music, I’m influenced by that visual world in my mind.
The most amazing fact about your music is that your have released a masterpiece and what I find most thrilling is that you have done that without having a proper musical background or a specific musical reference. You are pure and pristine and it’s quite difficult to meet such an artist so “perfect”. What are your non musical inspirations? What inspire you the most?I am so inspired by emotional experience – that’s the core force that makes me compulsively go to the piano. To outlet emotion. Then I suppose, the subconscious, or the part of the mind that wants to communicate something that the intellectual or conscious mind isn’t aware of. That’s also a process I believe is taking place when I write. I suppose it’s quite psychological. In the arts – I’m very inspired by poetry, mainly because it inspires emotion in me – the kind of emotion that then leads me to want to express something musically.
Your debut album “The Disappereance of the Girl” is published on Decca Records UK. When was your first approach with your label ?I had my first label offer a few years ago, it was independent label called Volvox. I really loved the label and the team there. I spent some fantastic time with them, they were passionate and driven. But they were based in France and I was in London – so I ended up going with a label much closer to where I lived.
The album cover for me captures something strange, but still organic. Still of the earth. But the imagination in the image is clear. I think it represents how I feel about the album – it’s very much rooted in the raw emotion of the things I felt in reality, but the musical arrangements bring it into a different space. The arrangements in a way, transport the song content, into a new place, another world. So the battles of all those real-life emotions, can be fought in a safer space. And that’s what I feel music does for me. “The Disappearance of the Girl” refers to that disappearing from the real world, disappearing from what you know. Into another place…
Probably you gonna hate me right now [hahahahaha] but how would you define your music to someone who is going to listen to your music for the first time?Imaginative and diverse…I think the hardest thing, maybe, for people to understand is that the album isn’t genre specific. So many albums are, so people are quite accustomed to putting albums and artists into categories. For me, genre isn’t something I was ever even really aware of. Throughout my life, music has trickled through from all areas. I’ve never been a part of specific genre community. Or been a fan in general of limited genres. With each song on the album – I chose sounds that best served the spirit of the song. I didn’t really pay any regard to keeping sounds of the same genre together. If a dance-beat gave the power a song with choir and strings needed – I used it.
Also I go really curious about the dresses that you wear, that if I’m not wrong are tailor made by Henrietta Ludgate. How’s this nice collaboration?I love working with Henrietta – she is an incredibly creative and talented designer. Her designs are always structural, but have particular details that really stand out. I think her designs are beautifully balanced in that way. They’re also all ethical, so I love that too.
I’ve read also that on 25th May you’re playing a sold out show in London. Any plans for a full European tour?We have a sold out show on April 25th at St Pancras Old Church and another show on 15th May Bush Hall which is not sold out (yet). I desperately want to tour Europe, but we are in the process of finding a bookings agent to handle that side of things, which is very exciting.
Well, dear Phildel I really thank you for this interview, I hope you enjoy it, please greet freely our readers and your fans. Hugs xxThank you Miriam! It’s always a pleasure. Hello to all reading this interview – feel free to come and join me at: www.facebook.com/phildel.official
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