Red Bulletin 0521_UK

Hannah Reid
Speaking truth
to power
British trio London Grammar’s ethereal pop songs have
been streamed more than a billion times, but it’s only
now that their lead singer has truly found her voice
Words STEPHANIE PHILLIPS
Photography WILL REID
was disappointing and made me feel
like, “Wow, the world has not moved
on in the way I thought it had.”
Do you think the #MeToo
movement has had a lasting effect
on the music industry?
It made people self-reflect in the
same way that Black Lives Matter
has. Even really good men I worked
with would be like, “I just didn’t
realise that women felt this way.”
It’s been the biggest step forward.
Hannah Reid, best known as the
vocalist of indie-pop trio London
Grammar, casually reveals a major
lockdown achievement as she chats
from her West London home. “One
positive is that instead of going
out on the road, we’ve carried our
creative process on,” says the
31-year-old singer, “so we’ve been
writing loads and working on
a fourth album.”
This is surprising news given that
the long-awaited third album by the
band – Reid, alongside guitarist Dan
Rothman and drummer/keyboard
player Dominic Major – only gets its
release this month. A collection of
deftly woven, Balearic-flavoured
pop tracks, Californian Soul tackles
toxic misogyny, the death of the
American Dream, and Reid’s own
personal growth. It demonstrates
a newfound confidence she says is
down to age, experience, and the
influence of a new generation of
inspirational female artists.
the red bulletin: You found
fame at quite a young age. How
has that affected you?
hannah reid: We were signed
when we were 21, and it’s definitely
changed me as a person. The music
industry is a very tough landscape.
It’s completely male-dominated, and
it was a little bit of a shock. Also,
when you experience success you’re
suddenly opened up to this world
of other people’s opinions. You can
lose your own sense of identity a bit.
But I feel like on this third album
I’ve managed to get that back. I’ve
changed a lot as a person, and there
was just a different energy in what
I was writing, and in the music. It’s
kind of upbeat for us, but the lyrics
are quite dark in places and a bit
more aggressive.
Has confidence come with age?
On the first record, I was actually
really lost and very vulnerable, like
a lot of young people are at that
age. As you get older, the things that
you experience change you, and,
yeah, I found a different kind of
confidence. Whereas on the second
record maybe I was hiding behind
a bit of a veil of poetry, [on this
record] I was just like, “I’m going
to say whatever I want to say.”
Have you consciously taken
on more of a leadership role
in the band?
In terms of dealing with the
industry, yes. If people don’t respect
me as a leader, they won’t respect
me at all. Because I’ve had such
difficulty sometimes being the only
female in the room, I was like, “If
you guys support me in that
way, I don’t think people can take
advantage of us.” It’s an industry
where you do have to have quite
strong boundaries and a thick skin.
It’s a constant battle.
You’ve mentioned that you see the
new album as a feminist record…
It’s definitely in the lyrics. I did have
quite profound experiences being
a woman in the music industry and
then realising that when I came
home from being on tour and spoke
to my girlfriends about it, they were
all having the same experiences. It
Do you find inspiration in other
female artists?
I love any art that’s made by women
and is about being empowered.
The younger generation of female
artists who are leading the way,
like Arlo Parks and Billie Eilish –
women who are quite a lot younger
than me – have helped me. You can
see it in them having control over
their careers and saying everything
they want to say.
What was it that you wanted
to say with this record that
you couldn’t before?
There are some songs where I’m
speaking about those sexual politics
or dynamics that go on between
men and women, with men still
holding that baton of power.
There’s more personal stuff that’s
just about me losing myself in that
environment and regaining a sense
of who I was. I think I just wanted
to say “Fuck you”, really.
Given your newfound
confidence, would you ever
be tempted to go solo?
There’s just a magic between us
three [in the band] that I really
cherish. No matter how the music
changes or evolves from record to
record, we’ve also evolved so much
as a trio. It’s so fascinating to be
a part of that. I do have a wish to
maybe write a really obscure,
tragic country record that probably
no one would listen to. But that’s
a long way off.
London Grammar’s album Californian
Soil is out on April 16 on Ministry Of
Sound; londongrammar.com
26 THE RED BULLETIN