I draw a lot of inspiration from artists who can create an entirely new world from their music. Their art becomes more than the songs, almost like an alternate universe that acts as a physical manifestation of their art, extrapolating and illustrating it in different artistic mediums. I think that this is something that’s done in an incredible way by so many female artists. People like Florence and the Machine and Björk. It’s exciting, it transports you, and it pushes the boundaries of their art. These are also women whose age can never define them, which I think is such an amazing thing to see in the music industry. They don’t confine to the standards we are often told to expect from female musicians – there is so much more to their art than their appearance.
I would often think of my own music in a visual sense as well, especially in the studio deciding how to produce it, and this is one of the main reasons why I love making music videos. It adds a whole new dimension and allows you to convey how it feels in a totally different way. For example, when I was recording one of my songs called Not Myself, I imagined it in this vast, dark space underwater, with sounds echoing and different specks of light floating in every direction. A sense of stillness but also one of fear and unknown. It was amazing then to be able to film part of the music video underwater, as it totally captured how I saw it in my mind.
With these female artists, it’s always been more than just writing hooks that latch on to the listener, but rather the other way round, inviting the listener in to explore and delve through different layers of the music. I love music that you can really get your teeth into, that you can access on different levels, and I always try to weave that into my own music. On the one hand, there are strong melodies that you can instantly grasp and enjoy listening to, yet there is so much more in there that you can uncover. Motifs, themes and questions that intertwine throughout, riddles and phrases to decipher, hidden meanings… I think those are things that can often make music timeless. Rebekah Fitch
Photo by Ruth Kelly
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