Harleighblu Interview

Harleighblu’s music comes from a place deep inside. She uses her instrument to release a sound so raw and so real it makes you feel with her. Tales of late nights and early morning’s interwoven with subtle hints of struggle decorate her music. I sat with her and let her talk about everything she wanted to talk about.

On Growing Up

I was born in Grantham, which is a little sleepy town on the edge of Nottingham. But as I said, it’s a sleepy town on the edge of Nottingham so I went to Nottingham at every opportunity from very, very young. There were places that were really good for me. There is a community recording studio which is great. So I used to go there all the time, like every weekend and every given opportunity I would be there. Nottingham feels like home. Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham so it’s not a great place to brag about. The recording studio was in the St Anne’s area of Nottingham. It’s just a normal estate with stuff going on for kids. It was sick, just what I needed really. My mum would take me there and I would do my thing on school nights, on weekdays, it was just perfect for me to be honest. What they wanted was to get us estate kids off the street. St Ann’s is quite a deprived area of Nottingham so the main objective was to make it fun and because they made it musical and we had access to the recording studio, it attracted more and more people so it got all the shit off the street. It kind of catapulted everything for me because from there I’d play the Caribbean carnival and little stuff like that. Without that place I don’t know whether I’d be doing it. It’s still going now, so that’s sick. Nottingham is notoriously rough and we’ve got a lot of problems but we’ve got an amazing scene in Nottingham. Even Jake Bugg, he’s a Clifton boy, Clifton’s one of the worst estates in Europe and so people like that who are little superstars and stuck in Nottingham estates will be helped by programmes like the recording studio.

On Art Creation

I think the best art comes from struggle, look at the American jazz singers going through racism producing some of the best songs ever to be produced. So I think hardship does make you a bit tougher. I think I probably wouldn’t have anything to say if I didn’t come from struggle. I love that shit. I’m not saying people going through hard shit is good, but I love that something so beautiful can come out of all worst shit. So I’m touring at the moment with Hot 8 Bras Band, who are from New Orleans, and we were having a McDonalds with them after a gig, and we’re just chatting and they were so interesting. Obviously New Orleans is one of the roughest, the most beautiful and creative, cities and there is so much shit that goes down over there. They were saying ‘if we didn’t have music, quite honestly Harleigh, we’d be in jail or dead.’ I think that’s obviously an extreme version, I don’t think that’s the same case in Nottingham or everywhere but I do think it saves a lot of people. I fucking love Hot 8. They’re solid, they are so real. I could sit there, I’m fascinated by them, for hours. They’re amazing humans, if that doesn’t sound over the top. It’s incredible to get to tour with them. They love that shit because they’re Yanks that have come from serious deprivation and some serious ghetto’s.

On Her Sound

Lots of people think that anything slightly traditional sounding is lounge jazz. I’ve had this kind of conversation with lots and lots of people and they think anything that’s soulful and not mainstream, they think that is some form of Jazz. My idols are D’Angelo, Erykau Badu, Lauryn Hill, who are the greats in my eyes, and someone would have called them Lounge Jazz and it’s not. I get compared to Winehouse all the time. I think she’s amazing but I didn’t listen to her until she passed. That sounds really bad but I didn’t, I think it’s because I wasn’t really into new music. I always been into older music and maybe the music snob in me thought she’s really popular so I’m not gonna check her out. So I get a lot of comparisons to Amy, which is obviously an amazing thing because she is amazing but it’s weird because it’s like it cancels out all the other people who came before her. I personally think it’s because they try and link me to a British soul singer. But, to me, I think ‘who do you think Amy listened to?’ You can’t put her before everyone, she listened to all the greats and that’s who I listen to. So it does annoy me when you get the same name over and over and people saying you’ve taken or borrowed from someone when you actually haven’t. But saying that, she is a legend and so to be compared is great. I think the people who say it are lazy more than anything. I don’t want to start anything, but check out her influences, don’t be lazy.

On Futurespective

The reason I’ve dropped it as three EP’s is because it’s all basically one album. I’ve been exploring lots of different sounds and working with lots of different producers and finding my feet as an artist. I think we’ve had so many great artists die off recently with Prince and David Bowie and all these amazing people that didn’t give a shit about what anyone thought about them, they just did their thing. I think there is a big myth that if you’re a young artist and you try and just go with the flow and find your feet that your going to piss a lot of people off like your label and your fans. But I just thought, you know what, my heart is telling me to delve into different sounds. So when I went on tour at the end of 2014 and the start of 2015, we played Glastonbury and Isle of Wight, and I kept dropping really electronic bass lines. Just gradually evolving as you tour, dropping different sounds on and seeing how they go. It all went down a storm with the UK audiences, they just got it. The bigger, the deeper the baseline and the rawer it got, the crunchier it got, they got it. I think it’s because the British crowds are edgy as fuck. We like edgy sounds. So I thought I need to make a record that shows that side of me, which I haven’t done yet. I was testing the waters a bit with the new stuff, but the British lot got it and were feeling it. There were concerns from the label but I said I have to do this and if no one gets it then no one gets it, I have to be true to myself as an artist. I’m working with Mr Scruff at the moment and I was getting really prang about how the latest album would do and he just said ‘Harleigh, stop your whining, you just release what you release. It comes and it goes. If it goes down well then great, if it doesn’t then don’t worry about it.’ Some of the best advice I’ve been given is that your artistic output is like raising a child. You do your best but you’ve got to just let it go out into the world. Whatever happens happens but you know you’ve done the best you can.

On The Next Album

I’m dropping another album in Autumn. Basically I was a bit of a cocky little shit when I was 21 and I got obsessed with Adrian Younge and so I said to the Tru Thoughts office in the states ‘look, can you just get my music to him.’ By this point Adrian was working with Eminem, Wu Tang, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg and he had just blown up. But luckily I got in there just before this all kicked off and due to Younge’s constantly evolving schedule, he recommended the production duo of Starkiller, who have been members of his extended musical family, and touring band Venice Dawn for many years. And now that is all done. Sometimes it pays to be a cocky little shit and go for it. I don’t know how to describe it (the Album), it’s part Portishead, slightly Spaghetti Weston, it could be the soundtrack for Django 2. It’s the most mental stuff I’ve ever made.

Thanks so much for talking to me 

‘S’alright, anytime Duck’

It’s refreshing to hear someone talk honestly about things like label concerns and being so worried about leaving your trademark sound. I think Harleighblu has realised that no one listens to one genre of music anymore, listeners understand the threads that run between musical styles and the themes that tie them together. She moves effortlessly through typical Neo-soul sound to D’n’B tracks and beyond.

HarleighBlu is one the most charming and funny individuals going, her honesty makes for incredible conversation and her wit and charm are boundless. Her sound reflects her love for years and years of incredible music. From Ella to Erykah, her influences come from different directions to make one harmonious sound. She sounds like she’s been listening to Jill Scott since she was born. She matches Scott in her ability to talk tenderly about the pain of life and the trials of growing up underprivileged. It is her humour that separates her from most, she is infectiously funny. I don’t know if there is any compliment higher than to take real life experiences and reveal personal pain whilst being so funny. She manages it though, with extraordinary grace.

FutureSpective is available to buy now.

Join HarleighBlu for her Album Launch:
24th June 2016:Global Rhythms @ Stour Space, London, UK

Words by Tom Bacon