aaamusic | On 23, May 2016

Who are you and where are you from?

Rebecca Whitbread (a.k.a. Lovelace). I grew up in Devon but lived in London for the last 12 years, with a few stints in San Francisco. I recently moved to Berlin, so living between the two now. I started off with a loop station, a tom and snare and myself on electric guitar, looping vocals. I was singing in a choir and picked up three singers to replace the loop station, got an awesome bassist and drummer and we’ve been playing together as this set up ever since. Needless to say, this has slightly changed the dynamic. Our set is still dreamy in places but it also has a lot of unusual rhythms, dissonance and powerful, dramatic, almost 70s Jefferson Airplane (this is what my bassist observed!) sounds.

What inspired you to get into music?

Someone said to me recently that my guitar playing is jazz influenced. I taught myself guitar four years ago and this is just the style that came naturally. I was singing in a 1940s duo before I started writing my own music and listened to a lot of jazz. However, I wouldn’t say that Lovelace is jazz at all. When I first went out to San Francisco, I moved into a warehouse for a month in the Mission district and lived with a musician who became a huge influence on my music. He basically taught me all of the basics of songwriting and recording and we collaborated a little. He encouraged me to make an EP and produced it with me within six months. He has always been a huge influence on me. His band is called Makeunder, you should check them out. I love strong female figures in music, particularly reading about them. Patti Smith’s ‘Just Kids’ and Kim Gorden’s ‘Girl in a Band’ are great books, along with The Rolling Stone interview of Susan Sontag. I have always read a lot of poetry too; Thom Gunn, Sylvia Plath, E E Cummings, Edwin Morgan, to name a few favourites.

What have you done?

I started out as an actress, moving to London at the age of 20 to train at drama school. I was dancing for a band at the festivals when discovered I liked making my own music, through on of those late night jams. From that moment, I made it happen. I’m not one of those musicians who have been doing it for years, when I discovered this was my passion, I worked really hard to make it happen. I made an EP within the first five months, it has beautiful horns sections in it by the mentor I mentioned. The single ‘Grizzly’ is a precursor to an 11 track album out in the next couple of months. ‘Grizzly’ has gotten some awesome attention on the Radio and blogs so far: John Kennedy’s Xfm, BBC Radio Devon Roundtable, Amazing Radio, to name a few… Thanks to Molly at Revelry PR! As well as everything else, I also make music videos for Lovelace and for other bands, with a film partner, Ben Parkin (of Dirty Films). There’s been a couple of these and hopefully more to come soon. I’m super proud of my band in London. They’re incredibly talented musicians with amazing musical intuition. Everything changed once we started playing together, for the better! I also have a few collaborations on the go with an EP under the band name, Meji, on the way out soon.

What are you like live?

It’s a whole new musical world within band – one of fractured vocal harmony, surprising rhythms, melodic low ends and sustained underscores. We started putting on our own nights in London, which I love. We host the night and always aim for a kind of house party feel. Collective music experiences should feel communal… Its a shared experience after all.

What makes you different?

People find it hard to describe Lovelace and put it in a genre. This I find to be a huge compliment. This what makes us different.

Physical vs Downloading vs Streaming…How do you listen to music?

I’m living between Berlin and London right now and in Berlin, CDs sales are still going strong. This fills me with great joy, because I really wanted the album to be something physical. The artwork is two huge canvases painted by artist, Christopher Savill. They’re amazing and I really can’t do the work justice unless I make the album into physical CD or vinyl. I always buy music from artists I love and avoid constantly streaming on Spotify. As well as wanting the artist to benefit more from my purchase (of course), I also am a little behind with technology, my i pod is 10 years old and still going strong. Its runs out of the tape deck in my car… Technology has allowed independent musicians, like myself, to be heard by so many more ears, which is amazing. However, my goal is to get to a point where the band and the music can sustain itself, this means we need make money! There seems to be a reluctance or misunderstanding about musicians being paid for their work. Everyone else gets paid, after all…

What have you been listening to?

At the moment, Timbre Timbre, La Femme, Vulfpack (check out ‘Back Pocket’), D’angelo (always), My Brightest Diamond, Douglas Dare, Jon Hopkins…. I’ve been indulging in the clubbing scene in Berlin too, so lots of Techno – I particularly like the more melodic stuff.

What are your aspirations for the future?

The Album. Then we’re recording a five track EP this summer and releasing that in the Autumn/Winter. We’re aiming to capture the live feel we have as a band. We’d love to get an independent label to represent us or at least a little team to lighten the admin and give us more time to make music. More ears reached, more beautiful gigs played, more songs written, discovery, growth, happiness…

Questions answered by: Rebecca Whitbread a.k.a. Lovelace…

Lovelace’s new single – ‘Grizzly’ is out now…