A new series for Bell House in Your Home featuring Q&A interviews with young up and coming musicians from the local area. Learn about their work and enjoy a recorded performance!
Part 2: Georgie West
Georgie West
Meet Georgie West, an eighteen-year-old musician from London. She released her first album ‘Foreign Objects’ last year, and is currently working on a second.
What first got you interested in music?
I think I have always been interested in music! I come from a musical family, so I have always been surrounded by music in various different forms. When I was very young, one of the first songs I remember hearing and thinking, ‘Wow, I wish I could write something like that,’ is ‘She’s So Lovely’ by Scouting For Girls, which I still think is a brilliant song.
What is your creative process like?
My creative process is a bit all over the place. I have huge numbers of short audio recordings that I’ve made, mostly ten or fifteen second piano parts, which I store on my computer and dip into whenever I feel like it. It’s always interesting to try and make something out of a recording I made two years ago that I’d completely forgotten about. That’s only one way I compose, though – another thing I like to do is take a tiny half a second sample of a song I’ve finished and edit it until it’s completely unrecognisable, then use that as the basis for a new song.
What music is inspiring you right now?
The most inspiring thing for me right now is seeing all the incredible music people are creating while in lockdown. Watching people try to spread some joy through music, whether that’s on YouTube or out in the street while clapping for the NHS (socially distancing of course), is always uplifting.
What’s next for you?
I’m going to university next year, so hopefully I’ll be able to learn a lot more about all kinds of music and meet people to make music with. I’m sure my musical style and tastes will change a lot over the next few years, and I’m excited to see what happens.
Have you been making music during lockdown? If yes, what have you been doing?
Yes, I have. I’ve written most of the songs on my new album, so now I’m just trying to tweak it and make sure everything fits together coherently. I find the hardest part of writing music is right at the end when you’re nearly there but you just can’t quite figure out what you need to do to make a piece sound finished.
What’s been the best or most surprising thing about lockdown for you as a musician?
To be honest, the lockdown has been great for me as a musician! I like to work on my own when creating music, so it’s been nice to have an excuse to hole up in my room and get things done. Sometimes it’s hard to have the motivation to keep working, but I’ve found that dancing to Prince in my bedroom has helped to combat the lockdown blues.
About this performance This is a cover I did of Radiohead’s 'Paranoid Android’. I wanted to try and create a cover which was entirely different to the original - I always think it’s fascinating how a song can be transformed into something completely new through simple changes to instrumentation and rhythm. While the original uses electric guitars and sounds very heavy at times, I experimented with samba rhythms and shakers to try and add a Latin feel and really make it my own.