British indie-pop starlets BLOXX have had a funny old year. We caught up with frontperson (and primary songwriter) Fee Booth to chat about releasing their debut album, Lie Out Loud, in the middle of a global pandemics, signing publishing deals, and writing more songs over the last year than she’s ever managed to do before.
It feels weird to be asking this in the middle of a global pandemic, but – how are you?
Fee: ‘Yeah, I think everyone’s okay. It’s just a bit quiet and we’re not really used to not doing much. We’d usually be on tour at this point in the year, so it’s a bit strange being stuck at home instead, but we’re getting through it.’
Well, at least you’ve managed to get your album, Lie Out Loud, out in the midst of all this.
‘I feel like it couldn’t have come at a better time. We could have probably had a lot more fun with it, but we’re so excited and so proud to have it out. We just wish we could tour it and actually create a show.’
A lot of your songs stem from personal matters – has anyone ever taken offense at being the subject of one of your songs?
‘There have definitely been a few occasions where people assume a song is about them… It happens all the time, but it’s what you get for being true in your lyrics. It doesn’t bother me, though – I’ve always asked for permission with the people involved. If it’s so obviously about them then I’ll always ask if they’re comfortable with it being released.’
‘Usually, though, I write from my general experiences; so, they’re not necessarily particular experiences, just what I’ve been through. I think a lot of the time there’s probably more than one experience in every song. It’s never really awkward – with all of those songs, what’s discussed in the song isn’t usually the deepest stuff within that situation.
Have you ever decided not to release a song because you thought it was too personal?
‘Yes, I have. There was one that we were going to record for the record, but I couldn’t bring myself to really get into it. I tried, but it was still too real for me. There’ve been two of those occasions, but the one I remember most is the one we missed off the first record.’
How long was the gap between when you started writing the first song for the album to the moment you finished recording it?
‘Probably about 3 years. I think I started doing writing sessions for the record in February 2018. That would have been the last song on the record, Swimming, which I think is the closest to what our sound was back then. I’d say that there was a good 2 years in which we were in the process of putting it all together, but I started writing for it before we had put the Headspace EP out.’
Did you know how the album was going to sound – and how it was going to fit in to your body of work – before you put that EP out, then?
‘I can’t lie to you: I had absolutely no idea what the record was going to sound like before the record was put together. It was an entirely natural evolution.
‘I didn’t think that it would sound like a BLOXX record. I knew that everything we had done for it had that BLOXX fingerprint on it, but it was only towards the end of the process that we realised what kind of sound we wanted for it.‘
‘We twigged that we wanted it to have an indie-pop sound; that’s when we wrote 5000 Miles, which was the last track we did for Lie Out Loud. I had a good imprint of what I wanted the record to sound like, but it needed one more thing to tie it all together – I think that song really did it.’
How would you define that ‘BLOXX fingerprint’?
‘I think it’s just twangy, clunky guitar pop with a little bit of indie-rock influence. I don’t know… There’s a lot of depth to our music because we all have different influences, so I can never just sit here and put my own spin on it.’
‘I think that we’re ultimately an indie-pop band – or at least, that’s where we headed with the album we just put out. But, like how that album changed, our sound is always changing and evolving.’
How many songs have you written since you finished the album?
‘About 20. I don’t know if we will do another album or an EP next – we’re not sure about that yet. But yeah, I have been writing so much that I’ve actually done more than I thought I was capable of – which, ultimately, I think is a good thing.’
‘For the first record, I didn’t write that much specifically for it, and we just picked the best ones from what I had written. Whereas this time I was trying to write as much as I can, just to make sure that we’re not short on options.’
‘I also feel like this whole Covid thing has given me a lot of creativity, and also more anger, so that I’m now able to talk about political things and actual real-life problems in my songs instead of just break-ups.’
‘I think that’s what I wanted to do after the first record because I realised how young, and stupid, I sounded in that record. I’m 23 now; I’ve grown up a lot and I think that’s evident in the new stuff that I am writing.’
As a creative, time is the greatest gift you can get.
‘For real. I started writing again for the record when we first went into lockdown and it’s been a really productive time. Since March, I have just probably started and finished about 20 songs, but I’ve also started a load more than that… I’m just really bad at starting songs and not finishing them.’
‘It’s been really creative. Even when we were writing the record, I don’t think I wrote as many as I have written this year. In a way, Covid has taught me some lessons about how I work under pressure and how I work when I need to be put under pressure.
So, do you have a usual songwriting process?
‘It changes. Sometimes I’ll do a writing session with a producer or with another writer. That’s basically how record one worked: I would have ideas and then I’d work on them with other writers. With album number 2, I’m trying my best to just do it all myself.’
‘Well, not all of it; of course, I won’t do all of it myself. There will be sessions with the boys, and I will do sessions with other people, but I’m trying to do much more of it alone this time. I mean, I’ve just signed a publishing deal, so I need to work out how to write music for a living.’
‘The process changes every time, but I do usually start by writing the music first. So, I will get myself up on Logic and then start finding riffs and stuff. However, I do find it easier to write a song when you start with lyrics and melody. You can change the music afterward, but you won’t want to change the melody and lyrics. That’s the beautiful thing about writing music – it doesn’t matter whatever you’re feeling. Just do it.’
What’s next for BLOXX, then?
‘Well, we have all this new music that we’re working on. We’re recording some stuff in November. I don’t know if it will be for a new EP or the next record; probably an EP or a succession of singles, actually, because I don’t see the point in putting out another album while all of this is going on.’
‘I’ll probably start going into writing sessions with other people, and for other people, and doing all of that stuff. We’re just going to keep writing music and putting out whatever we can. I just want to play a live show again. I miss it.’
Has Covid-19 changed the advice you’d give to new bands who are hoping to get to where you are?
‘I don’t think Covid has affected the advice I would give. It’s still the same process – labels and artist management companies are still actively looking for artists during this time. I think the way we did it was that we just kept piling our music onto social media and then we just started emailing around. It’s definitely best to plant all your work into the online world and try and boost up as much of a buzz or share as you can.’
‘Keep writing your own original material, too. That’s how we did it: we weren’t putting up covers, we were doing original material, and stuff that I had produced in college.’
‘I put stuff on YouTube before we were even a band. Our old management company saw that, and then we formed a band and re-released that music under the band’s name. It’s just all about graft. I can’t count on my hand how many nights I and my bassist sat there sending out emails and starting crowd funders. We did a crowd funder for an EP so that we could record 2 more songs. It was just graft, and it paid off.’
‘I think it’s all about your workmanship and your ability to not have too high hopes. Don’t get ahead of yourself, because the more that you push people, the harder it is in this industry sometimes. I believe that you have to let them faze you.’
Describe BLOXX in three words?
‘Grungy, indie pop.’