In Conversation with Singer-Songwriter Beattie
Image Credits: Beattie
Sitting across from me in a café in Haggerston is singer-songwriter Beattie, talking to me about the release of her new single “London”.
“I think it has to come from yourself: I think for years I was like ‘Why is no one listening to me?’ And then people started paying attention. You have to be a bit delusional, but it’s working so far!”
She’s sweet and charming, effortlessly so. I came across her through (to my view) genius marketing: posters spread out on Tottenham Court Road, where I pass by every day on my way to Warren Street from campus. They were adorned with a QR code linking the song, and the lyric “Oh London/ you’re tearing me apart”. Coincidentally, in conversation with my personal tutor, he also told me he’d seen the posters and been intrigued - proof that traditional marketing still works.
Marketing the song through posters was something Beattie had been wanting to do for a long time: “I always wanted to put the lyrics London you’re tearing me apart all over the city, because it’s a cool way of making people think while seeing it in the context of the city too. I wanted people to see how they connect with it.”
Born in Bedford, the singer-songwriter is one to watch. While she followed the route to university, she always knew that really, she wanted to pursue music. “When I was twelve, I got really obsessed with it and wanted to learn how to play everything.” Her musical inspirations are all classic examples from the 90s – Elliott Smith, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley… More modern examples include Lana del Rey, and in particular Sam Fender’s 2019 debut album, Hypersonic Missiles. We both fangirl over “Leave Fast” and “Dead Boys”.
Her song “London” is about… well… London. The dichotomies and chaos of living in this megacity, whose push and pull can both draw people in and ostracise them: it can be a tough city to live in. I am sure that I speak for many students at UCL when I say that London polarises – it’s big, loud, busy, expensive, and stressful, but also a wonderful place to live. The song encapsulates this perfectly in the line “But oh London/ I’ll miss you if I leave”.
It feels urgent, and as she says “the lyrics literally just spilled out. I never went back and changed the lyrics from how I originally wrote them. Some parts are open to interpretation: that is what I felt in that moment, and I don’t want to take away from that.”
So far, the reception to the song has been good. “I was kind of nervous being unreleased for so long: with my writing being so personal it can be scary, but it’s been a really good response.”
With regards to getting into the music industry today, she admits “it is difficult but hopefully people make conscious decisions to engage with music in a different sense - keep going to gigs and buying vinyl because that’s what keeps the industry going.”
What’s next for her? A 5-track EP is set to be released in April, which she terms as a “body of work” project. “The other singles are a bit more anthemic, ‘London’ is much more mellow!” The release of a second EP is planned by the end of the year too.
“Leading up to this point, it was years and years of finding out what my sound was and getting rejected and rejected – I just had to get into the mentality of I’m just going to do it myself.” I think this is a good lesson to all of us who will be graduating this year and moving on to new chapters – at the risk of sounding cliché, if you want something in your career, make it happen yourself. As Beattie says, the meaning of “London” for her is that “it was a last shot for me, a pivotal moment in life: after that I got my band together and got my manager.”