Despite being just 21, Georgie has years of experience under her belt (with videos of her performing on YouTube four years ago under the name Georgie Rose). In the last year she has been signed to Jake Bugg’s management and Columbia Records before playing on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury this summer, all I can say is it’s been a long time coming. Now on tour with fellow Nottingham dweller Jake Bugg around the UK, I managed to grab a quick chat with the relaxed singer, who was surprisingly not wearing a leather jacket, at the O2 Academy as her band chilled around us.
Even though Georgie has been performing in Nottingham for years, she admits there is still an air of mystery around her with relatively few interviews online and only one single to her name. Growing up “in a house where records where always playing” her mother “introduced [her] to these amazing song writers from an early age” through an eclectic range of “great music like Fleetwood Mac, Al Green, Don Mclean and Aretha Franklin”. Song writing itself however, was something she just fell in to, as she explains “I used to play football but when I was 14. I just stopped and picked up the guitar and completely changed everything… As soon as I picked up the guitar I knew what I wanted to do.”
After a quick chat about whether guitars should be named with Georgie and her guitarist (which established that her guitarist does and Georgie doesn’t), we moved on to her music itself. Describing her debut single ‘Company of Thieves’ as “really direct, almost empowering and defiant as a song”, Georgie tells of how the six-month old song seemed like a “cool song to put out first for people who haven’t heard of me” as it “sums up my character”. Although, as she is quick to point out, “that’s not what I wrote the song about. It’s just what comes across in the music and the production and the lyrics”. This obviously begged the question what did she write the song about? “Well it’s quite a direct song, pointing the finger at somebody in particular. But, I think also the line “company of thieves” is quite general. Like we’ve all been surrounded by people who have lied or cheated or mugged us off. Sometimes you can be out and you don’t know that these people are around you. I think that can be like accustomed to anybody, you know we’ve all been there.”
When conversing about her muses in the industry, Georgie automatically goes to the “strong women from back in the day like Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin, Patty Smith and Carole King.” These kinds of artists are almost lost within today’s music industry with inspiration coming from small, sparse sources such as the alternative electronic music of “PJ Harvey, St. Vincent and stuff.” Yet, she complains that “even when I was growing up there wasn’t really a female musician that I could look up to and be like “that’s what I want to be”. There were only people like Britney Spears” a cry which I relate to far too much. Hoping to rectify the lack of inspirational female musicians Georgie says, “I want to be able to be that, hopefully. That’s one of my biggest things, to hopefully be that for young girls.” This desire should be easily satiated once Georgie releases more songs and her audience inevitably grows. Trust me, her forceful cover of Janis Joplin’s ‘One Night Stand’ later on in the night not only sounded better than the original, but also removed all doubt from my mind that one day Georgie will be a household name.
Georgie admits she is simply taking this tour “stride by stride”, whilst acknowledging that it’s “just to be playing venues like [the O2], it’s so different from what I’ve done before.” There is no doubt about her gratitude in supporting the “super inspiring” Jake Bugg as she gains the opportunity to share her music to a mass of new people. Exposure which will be heightened further as she supports Blossoms in November and December, remarking, “I couldn’t have got two better tours really, so I’m super privileged to be doing this and then going onto the road with Blossoms.” There’s admiration for these Stockport indie rockers as she admitted that “I love their album I think they’re great. I met them at one of Jake’s shows in London in March and they played as well. They’re just really friendly and you can tell they just love what they’re doing.” That means that there is twice the opportunity to catch a short Georgie set whilst waiting for her next single to be released.
Jenny Pudney