GRETEL IN CONVERSATION WITH LO HARLEY
2023-09-16Gretel! How are you? Where are you in the world right now?
I’m well thanks! I’m actually at my parents home in west London, the living room to be specific. It’s been a while since I’ve been home for more than 5 days – between the touring and going up to wales to see my boyfriend i probably spend most my life on wheels!
Congratulations on being BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record! Tell me more about the track!
Oh cheers yeah I’m so pleased. This song is definitely the one I’ve put the most time and effort into and it’s my favourite I’ve ever released. It’s so exciting having it out there, it’s a track that winks at what’s to come for me. At the time I wrote it I’d been, and am, heavily inspired by the tragic lyrics behind most of the smiths cheeriest songs, and also the confidently upbeat guitar riffs in the cure’s music too. It’s about that feeling of imposter syndrome, when you want to make a good impression but you can’t help but think ‘what the hell am I doing here?’. It’s something I felt a lot on my recent and first ever trip to Los Angeles, where I stayed and wrote music for the album for 6 weeks. It’s a strange place, I felt very disconnected, but I always put on a smiley mask inbetween my emotional wobbles! That feeling inspired this song, it’s shrouded with surface level cheeriness.
What’s your song writing process like at the moment?
I like that you say ‘at the moment’ because it does change! For the last months I’ve been ‘collecting’ demos – so writing at home, or going out to meet with producers and fiddle with instruments til a musical idea sparks. It’s best when I have someone in the room, the act of taking up someone else’s time forces me to really focus and get shit done. Next week I’ll be taking the first few demos into the studio to start producing the album, which my band will be playing on! I’m really enjoying challenging myself lyrically too, being concise and very intentional.
What lyric are you most proud of?
while the boys all give it large, the girls have been told to starve, like the breakfast club but haunted.
Describe your sound in three words?
I’d describe my upcoming stuff and current sound (with my unreleased music) as ‘Joni Mitchell + distortion’ but of my released stuff I’d say ‘dark catchy grunge’.
HEAD OF THE LOVE CLUB is beautiful! Tell me more about putting that EP together?
That EP came together slowly and then very quickly. I had a bunch of demos that I’d recorded over the span of maybe 5 months which I took to my good friend and producer Mura Masa and he basically polished everything up for release! Time was of the essence so we just smashed through it in less than a week. He’s very good at that Rick Rubin- creative direction- beauty-is-in-my-mistakes style production. It’s very different to my current process where each song gets taken apart, replayed perfectly and we spend days agonising and perfecting each song. That’s what the process was like on War With America, produced by Charlie Andrews, and it was knackering but worth it for that song! 100 versions later we finally got it perfect!
You had a big festival season this year! How was it playing Coachella?
Playing coachella was incredible. It was bloody nerve wracking but I loved my time on stage. My favourite part was watching the acts after we played and taking notes from the best performers and shows in the world! I even had the honour of being ignored by Jai Paul himself backstage. Fair enough!
Who would be on your dream line up?
This is where I wish I’d been to more gigs- I’ve only recently started going, mainly for inspiration! I’d say… talking heads, wham!, Kate bush, Rosalia, fontaines DC, queen, wolf alice, sinead o Connor, the pogues, Jeff Buckley, take that, the white stripes, Frank ocean. Assuming this is dead or alive of course!
What’s a collaboration you’re manifesting?
Frank Ocean probably!
What’s inspiring you at the moment?
I’m getting a lot of inspiration from Irish folk stories right now, my mother is Irish and I’ve been spending more time with my grandfather who immigrated here from Ireland some years ago, as his memory faded away he still manages to sing along to the old Irish songs and they’re melodies that somehow feel timeless. It’s amazing how a good melody can surpass memory. It remembers itself.
What piece of music changed your life?
Tim Buckley- chase the blues away. When I was younger I tried learning this song on guitar but learnt it wrong and ended up writing my first ever finished song from that incorrect riff! That song was called ‘Too Dark’.
What can we expect from your upcoming US tour?
You can expect a lot more finesse, freshly released music, as well as some unreleased album! And of course the ‘classics’ ! Also you’ll expect better stage outfits, and belted super-vocals!
What are your hopes for the future?
To get the album sounding exactly how I want, to have enough money to fund my music better (or a fat record deal), and just to keep finding things around me inspiring! As long as I’m happy and excited about life, I don’t mind where my future takes me.
Photography and interview – Lo Harley
Stylist – Elle Fell
MUA – Tina Khatri
Hair – Hannah Godley
