Singer-songwriter Freya Ridings joins us on Love Lives this week to discuss why melancholic ballads will always be her natural style of songwriting.
Freya opens up about the pressure she’s faced to “pretzel” herself into a different type of artist, the importance of writing and performing one’s own music, and how this often poses a challenge to women in the music industry.
Watch full episodes of Love Lives on Independent TV and all major podcast platforms, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Freya opens up about the pressure she’s faced to “pretzel” herself into a different type of artist, the importance of writing and performing one’s own music, and how this often poses a challenge to women in the music industry.
Watch full episodes of Love Lives on Independent TV and all major podcast platforms, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 I think I'm a ballad girl at heart, that's just who I am.
00:02 Sitting down at the piano and just sort of shutting my eyes, that's how I write.
00:07 And I think there was a lot of pressure to be like,
00:09 "Let's make something more upbeat and a bit more current."
00:12 And it's just like, I don't know, I tried to pretzel myself
00:15 into a different kind of artist to make the powers that be happy.
00:19 And it didn't make anyone happy.
00:21 It didn't make me happy, it didn't make them happy.
00:23 And there are still a few songs on this album that are 100% written by me
00:26 and I love them so much.
00:28 There's almost like a sister song to Lost Without You called Facing the Crowd.
00:31 And I feel like that already, you can just see on Spotify
00:34 that people are really only resonating with the songs that
00:37 I really, really found enjoyable to make.
00:40 Not just cathartic, but like...
00:43 Yeah, when someone tells you what to be, that's never a good thing.
00:47 You've got to listen to your gut as an artist and champion that.
00:50 Your boundaries have to be strong, because people will push them and be like,
00:53 "What if you were just like that other person?"
00:55 And it's like, that's not what got you there.
00:57 What got you there was being unique, you know?
00:59 And whenever I look at like, Manu Del Rey or like, Florence or Taylor Swift,
01:04 these incredible, just female titans of pop.
01:06 But they are just indomitably themselves, lyrically, musically.
01:11 No one has had a say in that but them.
01:12 Writing your own songs, that's the only power you have.
01:15 And if you can't write the songs, then if I was waiting for someone
01:18 to write me a hit, I would still be waiting.
01:20 I would wait forever.
01:21 (upbeat music)
01:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]