Songwriting inspo, social aesthetics and lockdown. We chat with newcomer on the scene Viddy and dive into her exciting new EP ‘The Girlfriend Experience’
Alternative pop artist Viddy brings her seductive and distinctive vocal to the world of pop music. Working alongside producer Gingersnapps (BBC Radio 1, Fresh on the Net, XFM, Dork Mag). Viddy brings a sprinkling of electronica and tender vocals to create mellow pop songs that capture and encapsulate the audiences imagination and invite them to share in all their ‘feelz’.
Pulling on influences from fellow female vocalists; Lana Del Rey, Lilly Allen, Kate Bush and Amy Winehouse but with the alternative swag with references to Portishead and Massive Attack, Viddy is breaking down the barriers between female pop stars and being a traditional frontwoman of a band.
Writing about what is true to her and her relationship experiences, Viddy’s relatable matter contains all kinds of complexities involved in romance, heartbreak, frustration and desire. Having supported artists including Zuzu, Childcare, Sub Focus, Pigeon Detectives, Fickle Friends & Lily Moore.
We caught her earlier this year at her headline show at The Macbeth, London and have been hooked ever since! Join us as we dive in to chat writing, social aesthetics and dream festivals.
Felix: Let’s kick things off with the elephant in the room; your debut EP ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ which launched back at the beginning of March. How did you come about writing the new EP What was the inspiration for it?
Viddy: It all came about in lockdown and because I’ve always worked and I didn’t go to uni or anything, I’ve always worked and then done music on the side. I’ve kind of worked to fund it.
But I kind of went through a stage of ju…[I was quite young as well], not writing anything that I was really satisfied with. And we were putting it out under another name and it just wasn’t getting the reaction that I had put my whole life on hold for.
So I kind of had a sit down with the producer that I was working with, and I’m still working with him now. And he said, “Yeah, I think you should change your name”. And that was where it all started. And then because I had lockdown, I just had so much time to just write loads and so I just wrote the EP in the first Lockdown and had four songs on it, which is the first four songs in the track list with this idea of ‘The Girlfriend Experience’.
And then it going through the milestones of heartbreak. And then I stuck ‘Nameless’ on the end of it because it just worked really well because it kind of worked with the storyline. So yeah, it all came about in lockdown, and that’s because I just had the time to be a full time pop star.
Felix: And is there a story behind these tracks? Is this from your own experiences? Or is it more of an observation of other people’s experiences, relationships, etc.
Viddy: All my own experiences. I don’t think a song’s good unless I can relate to it and I don’t think any of my songs are good unless they have true meaning behind them because I don’t really think songs are good unless they have that honest, true meaning behind them.
Felix: Moving on from the EP I wanted to chat about this visual style you’ve adopted across your socials. You’ve got a very distinctive aesthetic. I’m guessing you use polaroids a lot? Is that right?
Viddy: So yeah, so I’m really bad with film. I actually am just cursed with technology and I blame it all on being born in the wrong era. I should have been born in the seventies. That’s where the aesthetic comes from because I just love that era so much, just the style and the music. But yeah, so I’m just really lucky that I have loads of friends that love film. The stylist that I work with on all the music videos, she kind of like costars and directs with me and she’s just a friend as well and she just uses film. So that’s kind of where it came from.
But yeah, me and film cameras are cursed, and now I’ve, I’ve converted to Polaroids. One time I took a film camera to Glastonbury and all of my film came out blank. And now I’m just too scared of doing it and then all the shots coming back blank.
Felix: And do you shoot VHS for videos?
Viddy: Yeah, I think it’s just me just playing around with different things, all stemming from lockdown or having too much money for my own for my own good from furlough and then just buying stuff and using it and then breaking it because I just break everything.
But my bassist has a VHS camera, which is a family heirloom. And now that’s what we’re filming everything on. And I’m like don’t, let me touch it.
Felix: Moving back to your EP how have you found the tracks translate in a live setting? Going from writing in lockdown to releasing this EP must have been a big leap.
Viddy: Yeah my favourite thing being a musician is playing gigs. That’s why I do it. I love writing because I see it as therapy. But it’s also hard because you get yourself into little loops and then you’re told that you have to change stuff and you don’t like that because you just want to go with your own.
So that’s what I find harder, but I still love it. But gigging is just why I do it. I think I’m really lucky that I’ve got really supportive friends, I mean I begged them to come to every gig and they can’t come to every gig, but when they do come, it’s literally just like a really fun night out for all of us because they all love the songs, which is really lovely. But the one thing is we write so many slow songs, slow sad songs in lockdown. And we kind of started playing the game and we were like, oh, yeah, we need to start writing some upbeat songs because it’s quite boring if you’re a new artist and you’ve never heard of someone before. Then they’re just playing loads of, like, sad ballads. So yeah, at the minute I’m only writing fast songs.
Felix: Amazing! In terms of next steps what have you got planned? Are you planning another EP or have you got your eyes on a potential album?
Viddy: I mean, that is the dream. It solves a lot of my issues, if I got the chance to do an album but I wouldn’t want to do it unless I had financial backing just because it’s just like if I’m going to do an album, I want it to be like incredible in every aspect and you need a lot of money for that. Not even a lot of money, but you need like more money than what I can put into it right now. Just some sort of grant or something like that would be lovely. I can’t see it happening unless that comes through.
Until that does come through, what I have of an album will just be split into EP’s and I’ve got two EP’s currently just waiting to go, not finished, but they’re all there.
Felix: Are you going to slowly trickle them out over the summer? Are you playing any shows over the summer?
Viddy: Oh, yeah, hopefully we’re getting them come through, but we can’t take everything because we all work full time, and we don’t live in London, my band live in Northampton and I live in Milton Keynes, so everyone has to book at least a half day off for a London gig.
So we kind of are being a bit more picky just because we can’t keep doing that. But, I think we’ll see really. We’ll see. Obviously we would love to do as much as possible.
Felix: Are there any festivals you’re eyeing up this year or, or even looking into next year?
Viddy: Well we’ve been long listed for Glastonbury which is exciting, but other than that I would honestly take any festival that I can get because I love festivals and the reason I’m in a band is so I can play festivals. It’s like the carrot on the end of the stick for me.
If I could choose one this year though based on the lineup it would 100% be Reading Festival but I’m too old to go now, when I was younger I always wanted to go but no one ever wanted to go with me because like when I was younger I just didn’t have friends that were into music.
Now I just feel too old and I would not want to camp anywhere other than family camping or artist camping . And I mean, I’ve seen the sights I think. Yeah, I think we’ve been asked to do that too this year. And it’s very much it’s, it’s it took a while to think about whether I want to go face that place again, but it is that, you know, you mean you have a line.
Felix: Looking ahead what’s your plans for 2023?
Viddy: I’m moving to London! Nothing’s set in stone but I am looking for jobs at the moment. And I guess be consistent with releasing. And just have fun, enjoy it and yeah, you never know.
Viddy’s debut EP ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ is out now and can be streamed below:
You must log in to post a comment.