Talking to: Foxgluvv
Foxgluvv is an unapologetically gay DIY pop artist from Birmingham, now based in Queen’s Park in north London, who has created the perfect score for your late night party with her signature ‘hungover-pop’ sound. Blending the lyrics and aesthetics of modern left-field pop music with her love of the 80s, Foxgluvv's music is packed with dreamy synths, lo-fi beats, camp and extravagance.
She released her new single ‘Don’t Text Back’ (with friend and long-term collaborator Scott Colcombe) the day after we caught up with her over Zoom last month. Levelling up the ‘hungover-pop’ blend, ‘Don’t Text Back’ pushes Foxgluvv’s sound into a new and exciting era of disco pop fusion.
I will unapologetically gush now and say Foxgluvv is as amazing and exciting and switched on as she sounds. We talked heroines, lifelong friendship, open mic nights in Camden, the joys of DIY pop, being out and proud, the queer music scene, and what Foxgluvv wants to do next to make it more inclusive.
How have you been coping in lock-down? I know your latest single and it’s video was made in self isolation.
So I started writing the single in lock-down with my producer and friend Scott, who luckily I live with. So when lock-down started we decided it was a great time to get some music done. We had a couple of days working on a song and it kind of came together, so I thought ‘this seems to be a single, so if I release it, it could bring a bit of joy in these uncertain times’. We knew it would be really difficult to put a music video together with everything that was going on, so I bought a green screen out of my own funds, put a camera down on a tripod, and got on with it. I thought, ‘You know what? I could wait, put aside a budget for it and everything, but that kind of defeats the point of creating something under lock-down’.
That homemade aesthetic and 80’s graphics, kind of suits your music anyway, I don’t think you lost anything with that video. Tell me about Scott next; you live together, you are really good mates; is that how you ended up collaborating, or did you become friends because you started collaborating?
We have known each other since high school, since year 7, so since we were really young. We went on this musical adventure together through high school, through college, through university; all of it together. So as my sound was evolving his sound was as well, as a producer, as an artist, and it kind of all just fell into place. We had a few drinks together one night and wrote my first single Crush, and we thought ‘we should do this more often. How have we not ever done this before?’ And it birthed this collaborative duo I guess. It’s difficult for me to think about making music with other people. Obviously I will, but when I think about writing songs I think ‘I am going to write this with Scott’.
So, what does Scott bring to the music? Is he involved in the creative stuff as well as production?
He primarily does the production and mixing, the engineering side of things. But he does a bit of the songwriting too, we sit together and have fun with it and see where it goes. The creative side of things, the visuals, feel etc., is all down to me. If he puts down a synth sound or something I don’t like, I will just say that it’s not the right vibe, and we just change it, and bounce off each other; it’s really nice.
You have been performing some live streams during lock-down. Tell us more about those and how you have found them. And what do you see happening for the future of live music?
"Throughout lock-down, I have done numerous live gigs on social media and found the change from live gigs to online shows to be really positive. I’ve worked with Weareiconica and Trussell Trust to raise money for UK food banks, and I’ve also done a gig for LGBTQ+ small business Wearefemmeforte alongside the charity AKT to raise money for them.
I have also prerecorded a live performance for Birmingham Pride 's Digi Pride 2020, which was a huge moment for me as a gay Brummie. Doing gigs on social media platforms makes it super easy to reach a lot of people, and to donate money for a good cause.
I think that there is still hope for live gigs post-lock-down, nothing can or ever will replace the feeling of being at a show front row, sweating and singing along to your favourite music. But, I think live streamed gigs will be a great way to collaborate worldwide with artists and brands in the future. I’m looking forward to seeing this positive change.
How did you get into making music? Did you learn formally?
I grew up listening to a lot of the music my Mum and Dad were playing, it was a lot of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, classic rock music. But I also liked pop artists like Madonna and ABBA. I was interested in music because my Dad played guitar and he taught me the basic chords, and from there I wanted to start writing songs and I got into school choirs and musicals. I just followed my musical feet, through lots of different genres and ways of being creative.
I then took music GCSE and realised that this could potentially be a career one day. Then I went to university and did a BA in Songwriting and a Masters in Songwriting, and was like ‘right, this is definitely my career now.’ I went to the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in Kilburn, London. It’s a really good music school to go to to hone your music skills into a career.
So what’s the queer music scene like in London at the moment?
It’s really difficult actually, because a lot of the gigs I see put on are bigger artists. I want to push for more smaller queer artists to do gigs in London, and make it a bit more inclusive. I know a lot of drag queens that do music as well, and to kind of blend those two worlds would be really great. I don’t see a lot of people doing that. I think the queer community loves performing, and I think it’s great to showcase different aspects of that. I think more people should be doing that.
So, you think there should be a bit more working cohesion between the gay male and trans community and the queer women in music?
Yeah, definitely, I think everyone should be a lot more intersectional in putting on their gigs and stuff. Because a lot of the time I will just see a cis white lesbian with a guitar, and that will be the gig. And I think “yeah, that’s great for you, but get some more people on the line-up as well, let’s make it a lot more diverse”.
Going back to where you are at the moment in London, what venue/night gave you your first break to play live? Where are the good places to go if people want to immerse themselves in the queer music scene? Where is a good place to hang out if people want to come across queer music like yours?
When I was in university in Kilburn back before I found my sound, I was doing a lot of open mic nights in Camden but was going to see a lot of different music, a lot of genres, and what I was doing never felt quite right, because I wasn’t doing the music I enjoyed listening to. I was just doing singer-songwriter music because I thought that was what everyone else wanted, and because a lot of the lesbians I had seen making music, they just had acoustic guitars, but that wasn’t what I listened to and what I enjoyed. I am still trying to find a queer music scene specifically in London, so if anyone who is reading this knows of anything I really want to know! Please!
You have told me a little bit about your influences growing up, but how about your influences now, and when you were studying? Both musically and in your style and aesthetic as well.
I am massively, massively influenced by Madonna and Lady Gaga, that is really not a secret. Not only their music, songwriting, and sonically how their music sounds, but in their sense of who they are. They are both queer women, making a noise, speaking up about issues that are important to them, and dressing how they want, not really caring; everything is for them and their personal growth. That inspires me to just think outside of the box a bit when it comes to making music. They are really inspiring. And I really love Charlie XCX, how she makes pop music but still very experimental, very left-field. And people like Dorian Electra as well, I think they are really cool.
I am listening to Lady Gaga’s new album at the moment, obviously. I think that it’s an incredible pop album, with a lot of depth behind the music. I think that is what I love about Lady Gaga, she writes pop music and if you are just listening to it it is just a pop song, but then you see the story behind the lyrics and it opens up to a new depth, a new level of what she is saying. I am listening to Rina Sawayama’s new album as well. Those are the two things I am listening to the most.
So, how much do you draw on personal experiences when you are making music?
I do quite a lot. I wrote a whole EP called ‘I Never Felt Hollywood’ last year, which is basically about my journey as a gay woman. It goes from being in the closet and confused about who I am; not seeing myself represented on TV and thinking it was taboo, a thing I had to hide. Then all the way through to being in high school, and people whispering about me behind my back, to being out and proud, and making music and not caring what people think.
So I wrote that EP based on my own experiences and that was really different, because a lot of the stuff I was writing before was like story writing I guess. I quite liked coming up with a title and thinking ‘What can I write that goes with this title? What can this story be?’ Using my creativity to just have fun with songwriting. But I guess since writing that EP I am more inclined now to write about my own experiences.
So, your latest single Don’t Text Back comes out on June 5th. I really, really like it, I totally get what you are saying with it as well, I am sure lots do (in Foxgluvv’s own words it ‘expresses the nerve-racking anticipation of a reply to a risky text’).
There have been so many times I have sent a text and thought ‘God, I really shouldn’t have said that, I should have phrased that so differently’. So it’s just written from my frustrations of doing stuff like that and you just sit there for ages thinking ‘Oh god, should I text back? I don’t wanna. Like, I don’t wanna know’.
Artwork by Rocket 9 design
What’s coming up next? I know it’s hard to make plans at the moment, but what do you envisage for your near future?
I am just kind of enjoying writing for my own pleasure at the moment. Before I released my EP there was actually quite a lot of pressure to write that EP, and I have a body of work out at the moment, so it is nice to not have to worry and to just write music. I have a few demos under my belt right now that I am hopefully going to do some more work on and produce a new EP or album, but I have no firm plans at the moment.
And you are not signed to a record label at the moment?
No, I am completely DIY. My manager is a friend I met at a gig he was putting on and he is helping me out, and everything is just done out of my own pocket and done because I love doing it. It would be great to eventually have something behind me to help, because I have been doing this now for five years completely on my own, but I do enjoy it as well. There is a sense of freedom to being an unsigned artist that I am sure I will miss if I ever do get signed.
It’s that thing where you get complete control of the whole package…..
It is definitely loads more freeing. It’s like I can just shoot a video in lock-down with a green screen and a tripod and I don’t have to run it past anybody, I can just do that and put it out and say ‘I am happy with that, this is fun’. Whilst I know if I was signed to a major label there would be a lot more pressure for it to be this perfect HD masterpiece with a 10 minute long introduction. Something a bit more deep, which I eventually do want to do, but at the moment I just want to have fun with everything.
The single Don’t Text Back is out now on Bandcamp. It features the b-side Crush 2.0, a reworking of Foxgluvv’s debut single, and she is donating all of the proceeds to UK Black Pride, as she believes it is really important with everything going on at the moment to elevate Black voices. Check out the video here .
You can also follow Foxgluvv on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and listen on Spotify.