28 Déc INTERVIEW — Baby Queen gets real about female artists in the music industry
A few minutes after playing Rock en Seine 2022, we met with Baby Queen. And in real life, she’s just like she is in her music : real, honest, funny and sometimes raw.
SOB : I saw you a few months back, but it was only you onstage without your musicians, why did you change ?
Baby Queen : Yes. By myself, with just my guitar. And because I’m just out of the train and I just got there. Yeah, it was. It was pretty intense, actually. And I literally hate playing shows like that kind of stuff. I was like, I’m never doing that again. It’s tough. I also hate playing guitar the whole time. Yeah. Stresses me out onstage. I also have, like, such insecurity about my guitar playing. There’s something about playing your own shows unlike a support tour [to Olivia Rodrigo]. They’ll be like 20 people in a room that know the lyrics to your words. Your own shows are a lot more fulfilling because everyone knows the words.
SOB : Why did you start by releasing a “mixtape” instead of an LP ?
Baby Queen : So the reason that wasn’t an album is because I just had so much music when I signed to my record label,I had like two albums worth of music, but I’d never written any of those songs to be like a body of work. I’d written them as songs randomly to go out as singles or whatever. When I made that mixtape, it was like bringing together a bunch of stuff that was out there and just chaotically putting it all into one package that felt like it was kind of musically in a bunch of different places. So that definitely I was like, this is not an album for me. It’s like a completely different thing. It’s like something that you’re doing, something sonically cohesive. You’re making a piece of art, you know?
SOB : What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at a festival?
Baby Queen : Oh my God, what is the craziest thing? There’s different types of crazy that I’ve seen at festivals. But one crazy thing that happened but not like crazy in the sense of like wild crazy. But we went to this festival in Denmark. And they literally had fucking oysters for catering. They had… What is that stuff? Fish eggs. What is that called? Caviar. So it was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. It was the craziest catering I’ve ever seen in my life. Like Denmark really pulled out the bag for that one. So that was quite a crazy experience, I guess, as far as playing one of my own.I did throw up. But no, it was even worse. I was playing like a song and I knew, I knew before I went on stage I was going to throw up. I was like, This is it I’m going to throw up. And then I was like, okay, like run off the stage just before the last song vomited three times in a gutter and everyone could see me. It was very embarrassing. Then I had to like run back on and finish the set. So that was insane. I guess the UK ones at the moment are like the craziest, there’s a lot of mosh pits going on in the UK at the moment for Want Me, which is like the final song I play in the set.
SOB : Are there any musical discoveries you’d like to share with us ?
Baby Queen : The best at the moment right now in the UK is self-esteem. You know, self-esteem. I mean, honestly, I’ve never seen a show like that in my life. I’ve seen a lot. It’s amazing. She’s incredible. I mean, like, get your tits out ! I think that females artists are really breaking out of that trope now and they’re really making music that is innovative and expressive. And to be honest, way more interesting than anything men are doing right now.I swear to God, men are fucking boring. No offense, like there are a few good ones out there, but like woman are slaying the game and they’re coming out with true innovation and true personality and distinction. Men need to fucking buckle up and festivals need to stop only booking men as headliners because the girls are just better.
I think right now for all music in general, there’s a backlash against the Kardashianism of the world of like, “everyone is fucking perfect and we’re going to sing these songs about kissing someone in the club, going home”. It’s like, shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up. Like you’ve literally got all this reach and all these people to speak to. And that’s what you’re going to say. Like people are just fucking bored of it now, you know? I mean, so it’s super exciting to see that music is starting to mean something, say something, have messages, which it always had, but not in the pop sphere. It’s very cool to see Billie Eilish, for example, being the biggest pop star in the world. And that music is insane and it’s really intelligent and that’s very, very cool to see, you know. Um, that’s my speech about the music industry.
Lights On : Baby Queen – Raw Thoughts
[PHOTOS] Baby Queen et Lola Young @ Oberkampf Festival, le 20 mai 2022
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