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Babeheaven interview: "It's nice to be on stage for other people, to represent something"
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Feb 9, 2025
We caught up with Babeheaven's Nancy and Jamie, ahead of the release of their debut album, 'Home For Now' to talk songwriting, cinematic field recordings and managing anxiety. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheForty_Five Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_forty_five/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefortyfive.co
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0:00
my brother threw up on morrissey's lap
0:02
in the car one
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and he was really not happy about that
0:17
um so me and nancy we've known each
0:18
other for like 10 years maybe 15.
0:21
um ice pickable with nancy's dad in the
0:23
in the park every weekend
0:24
and then we like so we play he'd play
0:27
football i would be
0:28
an onlooker to my to my dad
0:32
a cheerleader and then um when we about
0:34
for
0:35
15 16 we started hanging out as friends
0:38
then went separate ways again
0:40
and then when we're a bit older we're
0:41
both working on the same road and then
0:44
that's when we became really good
0:45
friends yeah yes and i was in a band
0:47
before but then that fell through
0:48
so i was looking for something to do
0:50
music with yeah and i was
0:52
bored so i had some spare time yeah
0:56
and then so afterward now we come back
0:57
to mine and just start making music
1:02
well apparently my brother threw up on
1:04
morrissey's lap in the car one
1:07
and he was really not happy about that
1:10
apparently
1:16
my dad has really crazy like big taste
1:19
music i remember listening to so much
1:20
different stuff like
1:21
he's really really into hip-hop for a
1:23
while i remember like levin listened to
1:25
the lot of the game and stuff like that
1:27
just me and him in the car but at least
1:31
i think that's quite what got me into
1:33
like a lot of the hip-hop
1:34
kind of and on the map production stuff
1:36
maybe a bit now
1:38
quite interesting a lot of yeah like
1:40
pete rock as well he wasn't doing stuff
1:41
for that that was cool
1:42
and then just he would sit every on the
1:44
weekends um
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in the living room and have like a big
1:47
bag of like cds and people just like
1:49
listen to them and write notes
1:51
sometimes i just sit down listen to them
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yeah that was cool
1:54
um i've literally been sat in a studio
1:57
with my dad for the whole of my life
2:00
and like even when i mean like now i
2:02
help him still do it like he writes so
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he writes like
2:05
music for adverts and stuff like that
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but was in bands that's
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those posters over there i just
2:09
literally have been listening to loops
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of like 30 second loops of music
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for such long time that then when we
2:16
started making music i was like i know
2:18
this
2:18
that's fine but um i mean i think i've
2:21
just been live grew up in a really
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musical household my dad like always
2:24
playing records i think there was
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there's turning point when i was 13
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where i could have become like a gear
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head
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and like learn loads about equipment and
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i honestly
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i remember really clearly being like
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this is not my path
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and be like because i go and help him
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because he also dj so i'd like go and
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help him set up a sound system on the
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weekends and like
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do the sound check with him and there's
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like a moment where i could have gotten
2:44
so
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into like that's like an sm57 and blah
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blah and i just was like no
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um that was my standout moment deciding
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not to get into that
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i think that when we started it was all
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like super naive like we didn't really
3:01
have like a huge aspiration of what we
3:03
wanted to make
3:04
we were just kind of making stuff for us
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and for our friends
3:07
and then as time went on and like we
3:09
realized that we could do it properly
3:10
we've just had to like we've like
3:11
committed to it
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so it's like i guess like your goals
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change like as you go along always
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i think that when you first start making
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things and like
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there's like you're not thinking about a
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bigger picture you're just thinking in a
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small way and then once you've like hit
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that first target then you just like
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keep on moving it up and up and you want
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more and more
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i'm greedy now so greedy
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that's like the main thing that's
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changed because it just started off like
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we'd literally play
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in a room like this to like 20 friends
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and that was like
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i didn't i couldn't think any bigger
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than that at the beginning
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and i guess access to more kind of
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studios and different kind of stuff that
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makes it sound better more as well
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because at the beginning it was just my
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laptop and like
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it was like jamie playing the drums like
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that yeah
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i felt really ready yet and it's kind of
4:00
weird because
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um we weren't planning on doing the
4:03
album so kind of the lockdown made that
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happen
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so it wasn't really it was funny that we
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kind of came in halfway through because
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we had loads of songs that we were
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thinking about releasing
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maybe in a smaller way so it was kind of
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it wasn't as like now we're doing album
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let's go write the whole thing it's like
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we've already written half
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the thing yeah now let's just finish off
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the rest of the songs yeah i was really
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scared about it i still am quite scared
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about it
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not scared but it just feels like quite
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a big deal i think it's not actually
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it kind of is like the idea of it like i
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think that once you've got the first
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album happen it'll feel like way easier
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to do the next one but the first one for
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some reason i've just been like
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ages i've been like i'm not doing that
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no way but now that we've done it
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i'm super excited to like even get
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started on the next one really which is
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pretty cool
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panic so normally it starts with um
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me i would start making like an
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instrumental basically like some chords
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on the piano or
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like your guitar thing and then as kind
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of well if
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simon's there he would start but do like
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a beat so and then we'll be working
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together
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and then nancy can be quiet lie on the
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floor hours they pass out
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like the snare's not right i'm like
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yeah and then after a while and then
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start singing it'll be kind of like
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all of us can be playing the same time
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yeah and they'll kind of just
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play in the room for a while normally so
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they'll be working on
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a little thing and i'll like think about
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something
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but normally it's like literally it's
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like
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before lunch i'll be like let's like
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start writing a verse and i'm like
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yeah and i'll try and then we'll go and
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have lunch and by the time i finish
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lunch i've probably written something
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and then it's good hopefully or it's bad
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but generally generally it's good
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luckily i've always felt comfortable
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with jamie writing i think the beginning
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i was always a bit shy i mean like write
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the songs that didn't mean much then
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those been the ones that like fell away
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but i do i honestly when when we're
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writing
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it's normally like jamie will play a
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chord like chord part
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and it will like make me think of
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something and
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i just not that embarrassing about it
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and then sometimes it gets me into
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trouble because i've like written songs
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about people that i probably shouldn't
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have
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but like it's just examples
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i mean the biggest example is your love
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which i wrote when i'd like broken up my
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boyfriend i was so angry
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but it would turn that very good song
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and i mean the first time performing it
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being i was like i hope he's here
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and we can hear this one but like you
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know just
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it's just it just kind of falls out i
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think it's better and
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i'd rather write about something that i
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understand i think sometimes it's also
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really interesting writing from a
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different point of view and like
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on the album there's one song called
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like how how deep love and that's
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actually just
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a greek myth turned into a song so it's
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like
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obviously it's like a love song but it's
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it's from this like a different point of
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view it's not my
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my experience but generally i do just
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find that
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like we'll start writing and then like
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oh god today was
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really tiring and i'm like let's write a
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song
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um and it just i don't know i find that
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i find it really really easy to do
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which sometimes yeah can be detrimental
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but it's also really nice to be able to
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like
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get my feelings out and if someone else
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can understand that and like
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want to connect with it that's amazing
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or if someone wants to create their own
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story around lyrics like i think
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generally lyrics
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sometimes you hear a song when you think
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they've said something they haven't said
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and then you
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like create your whole story for it and
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like that's amazing as well
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so either way it's kind of kind of great
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he's got like once like christmas party
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it's like people laughing in the room
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it's like he literally sits down with
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his phone and it's recording and you're
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like
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yeah it's nice i've got loads like um
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like uh
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field field recordings i've been doing
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like a couple years like all over the
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world where i've been stuff kind of just
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collecting a little noise and then i
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just putting them in now i feel like it
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really
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when you hear stuff that like kids
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laughing or like to see or something
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really
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it just kind of brings you makes you
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feel really real and like everyone can
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relate to that and everyone's like heard
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those noises and
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like something bad it makes me makes the
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music to me make you feel really like
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personal and
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kind of warm and like i think it's also
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like we make quite cinematic music and
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then having that extra layer of like
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human touch like makes it feel even more
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like you're in the scene of
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whatever it is like sets the scene even
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more
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when we when we first started playing i
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i used to get really
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stressed before going on stage but now i
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think i definitely like i've come a long
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way
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like our first shows which were to our
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friends i would get so
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nervous and like freak out for i still
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do actually explain this to you
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i get like if i get over excited i get
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like a migraine and then i
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like throw up and that's pretty weird
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and that still happens sometimes
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if it's a big show but i just i don't
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know i think now that i figured out
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it's just like i've got to go for like a
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walk around the block
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like not talk to anyone maybe for 20
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minutes try and not shout
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at anyone that can be really mean
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i just get really i get i'm so in my
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head about like performing
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i think but then at the end like the
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nice thing is like all the bands so
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we've got like obviously our live band
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who play with us
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and my really good friends and we all
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get on so well so i can be
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i'll like freak out but then when i'm on
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stage i'm like immediately comfortable
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because i can turn around there's like
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jamie luca and ned and hugo
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and they're all there so i have like a
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support unit all around me all the time
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which makes
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a huge difference because i'm yeah
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otherwise i don't think i can do it
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if it was just me by myself and i didn't
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have them that
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came over
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i thought filled there is really good i
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feel they were so no it wasn't filled
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with poinsettias
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all pointy was amazing i think that was
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actually the best special yeah that was
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really fun yeah
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we were playing quite a small stage and
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it was like one of those like kind of
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thoroughfares where everyone walked past
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i think we thought that no one's gonna
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watch us and then as we like played
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it's just the crowd kept on coming
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it was like we were we were calling them
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in and by the end of it there was like
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so many people
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it was really amazing it kind of blew
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our minds i think yeah it's like really
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epic yeah my last tour was really good
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as well
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and that was really nice on the glasgow
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glasgow
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in the yeah and normally people don't
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dance on music and there's these people
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like
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slinging themselves around
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um i think it's important for people as
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you know black women especially i think
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like there's like a not a stigma but you
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generally will look
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at me or whoever and you think like that
10:38
person makes r b
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that's like their niche and i think that
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when we first started releasing music
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there was like we put out heaven which
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has like one steel pan in it
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and like because i'm black and i'm the
10:47
front woman they're like caribbean
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infused
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babe heaven it's like not caribbean at
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all nothing we make is like that
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and it just like from that moment on i
10:56
was like okay like
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we're gonna be put into like a tiny bit
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of a corner just because of the way i
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look
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and like if i want to wear like a sexy
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dress or whatever
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which i don't all the time like you know
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i'm just but they just
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you just get cornered a little bit and
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so it's nice to be able to like
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make our music that we want to make and
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like it could be
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it's not i don't know if it's like it's
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not genreless we have our own like thing
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that we're trying to get to
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but it's nice to like try and be
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on stage for other people like other
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like i know like my cousins who all live
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in cardiff and are like black girls all
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that into like heavy metal
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and that you don't see many like gothy
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girls who are black
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now more definitely but like when i was
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younger there was none of that around
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like you couldn't find it
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so i think it's always been like
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interesting it's not something i didn't
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really think about it a lot when i was
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younger but as i've gotten older it's
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definitely been more of like
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something on my mind which is nice to be
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able to stand on stage and like
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represent something else which you don't
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see that much like
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especially making like indie indian
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music
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and being able to like go out and do
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that and not be
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like cornered or marginalized and like
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try and make what we want to make it's
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really nice
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i think it's really it's always been
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really exciting but
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i guess it was like as i got older i
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kind of realized that actually what
12:08
we're doing is
12:09
really interesting because we're not
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just making like normal music for like
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for like that margin where you don't see
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me and you're thinking oh yeah that's
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her obviously
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so it's been it's been interesting it's
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been good
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well i hope it goes number one
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i know i hope i heard people i just want
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as many people as possible to hear it
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really i think that's like
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the thing obviously i'd love to play
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i feel like putting out an album like
12:40
anything putting out any work not being
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able to tour it is pretty weird
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so hopefully be able to start touring
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again because i really miss it yeah it'd
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be great to go
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all over the world yeah place we've
12:50
never been playing
12:52
have a great and then just to allow us
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to make next record and do
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and keep growing do what you want to do
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next i want to go to festivals
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i miss i just miss playing i do miss it
13:01
now at like
13:02
the beginning i was like this is fine
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now i'm like really starting to miss it
13:06
they're glad to breathe definitely
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