Interview: Lianne La Havas Talks To The 13th Floor

Lianne La Havas has just released her third album, and it’s a beauty. The self-titled collection of songs is getting rave reviews, so we thought we would have a word with her.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Lianne, who is based in London and is currently chilling at home, riding out the Covid Lockdown. So, here she is, giving us some insight into her creative process and explaining why she finally got around to covering her favourite Radiohead song.

Click here to listen to the interview:

Read a transcription of the interview here:

M: I assume you’re in England somewhere, is that correct?

L: Yes. I’m in London.

M: And how are things in London these days?

L: They’re slowly getting back to a new normal, if you’re talking about the lock down.

M: That’s pretty much what I’m talking about, yes.

L: Yeah and generally it’s pretty cool because it’s London. Its always cool.

M: That is true. Yes, despite my American accent, I actually was born just outside of London so I know a little bit about …..

L: Cool.

M: But here in New Zealand it’s amazing. We’re all free and clear and living normal lives again.

L: Wow. I’m very happy for you.

M: The only problem is we can’t have anybody coming into the country so we don’t have any live music from overseas, it’s all local stuff. Local stuff is good but…

L: You want a bit of variety as well.

M: Exactly. So congratulations on the new album.

L: Thank you very much.

M: It’s been a while in coming and it’s been out for a few weeks now so I’m just wondering how it feels to have it out there and what kind of reactions you’ve had and that kind of thing?

L: It feels great to have it finally out. It’s nice to know that it’s out for forever.

M: True, once it’s out it’s out.

L: It’s out yeah, so it’s very cool actually and the reactions been amazing honestly. I’ve never had this kind of reaction to an album before.

M: Really?

L: Yeah, I don’t know I’ve never had that any ticks from my friends before about stuff and I’ve never had this kind of response from my actual fans on Twitter and Instagram and everything. Just saying really nice things and there’s like a billboard and stuff in London.

M: Oh great.

L: Yeah, really, really amazing.

M: What do you think the reason for that is? Is it because it’s been so long between the last two albums or because of the content of this record is somewhat different and connecting with people differently?

L: I guess so, I don’t know. I don’t know, they’re saying it’s good and they’re saying things like, ‘I did what I had to do on this record’ and I agree with that. I did have to do this record I think so it’s amazing if anyone is feeling, just like understanding me. I feel like they get it and I’m really proud of this one as well so I feel like maybe they’re picking up on my pride about it.

M: Is it in the morning there? It is isn’t it?

L: Yup.

M: Night time here. That explains it.

L: I see, no it’s like nine a.m. but everything’s fine.

M: OK that’s cool. For me, the thing that I seemed to notice initially about the record that was kind of different from the other two was the way you approached the vocal. You seem much freer and willing to kind of just let it out there. Is that relevant do you think, or am I making it up?

L: No, no that is relevant I think. It’s a nice thing that you noticed because I don’t know, I’m going places vocally on this album that I have always wanted to go in my head but I haven’t written the material that would take me there. Do you know what I mean? And also I don’t know if I could physically do that stuff for…it’s like a mindset. Sorry, what am I trying to say? It’s a mindset, like you sort of convince yourself that you can’t sing that high or that loudly or do those melodies or whatever but I found that over the years, singing live more and then taking that kind of live singing ethos into the studio with me helped me to get to these different places with my vocals.

M: So when you’re pushing yourself vocally in the studio, do you have people around you who are pushing you as well or is this all kind of internalized?

L: I’ve got a couple of very trusted people that I mainly work with when I’m singing. But I also found that along the way I was finding my voice along the way and I was being positively encouraged by my collaborators which is really cool. It was a journey to kind of figuring out who I am musically and the people I was working with, some of them knew me and believed in me and others were just working with me for the first time but we’ve known each other a long time so yeah, a lot of discoveries were made.

M: Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that you’re four years older than you were since the previous album, if I’m not mistaken you’re thirty now, so does that added maturity enter into the mix as far as the way you approach your vocal sound?

L: I think so. A little bit. Yeah, I think maturity across the board maybe cause of my experiences as well as what I’ve learned. Like I said I was on tour singing live a lot over the years and just that definitely contributed to the sound.

M: So there are a couple of tracks I just wanted to touch on with you. The first one is Paper Thin which from what I understand is the first one you wrote for the album, and you have Homer Steinweiss on that record playing drums who I just spoke to a couple of days ago cause he has another record out under his band.

L: No way, so cool.

M: Yeah, he has a band called Holy Hive with a guy named Paul Spring.

L: Paul Spring is amazing.

M: Oh great ok so tell me about how you got…

L: Honestly it was through my friend of a friend, let’s say, and he was working with Homer doing some mixing and he was like, ‘you’ve gotta work with this guy Homer’ four years ago now. He’s like you’ve gotta work with Homer, I can give you his number he’s amazing and I was hearing all of these mixes, I was hearing what my friend was making and I was like, ‘that’s really cool’. It was just one of those meetings from a friend of a friend and I don’t usually…they don’t usually end up positive for me. You know, when someone like you should work with this guy, I don’t know, it’s not usually like usually they come in from a place where they maybe don’t understand what I’m trying to do. So in this instance, the recommendation came from a very dear person to me and I went along to the studio. I had some time in New York and I went along to the studio cause I was on tour, that’s why I was there and Homer had some time and we immediately hit it off and it was just a really beautiful day, beautiful two days actually, and I met now my good friend Joe Harrison also who played bass on Paper Thin that day but then I went on later to write more songs with Homer and Joe separately and together and it was just great. I’m a fan of Homer’s ethos. I love his style, I love his attitude to recording and he has the most beautiful studio that I’ve ever seen, it’s so amazing. So it was like a meeting that was recommended by my dear friend, out mutual friend and then it was, we hit it off like a house on fire.

M: Very good, it definitely sounds like it. A good way to start off making of the record anyway or writing the record.

L: Well thank you, I think so.

M: Now another track that I wanted to talk about was Please Don’t Make Me Cry because to me that seems among the very passionate vocals you have that one seems to stand out as possibly the most passionate of them and it has a kind of hip hop loop which is not something you use a lot I don’t think so maybe you can fill me in on what was behind the making of that one.

L: I feel like it’s a place that I like going musically but it just needs to be with the right producers, it needs to be the right version of that thing and I think it sort of reminds me a bit of more of the tone on the second album but with a kind of more melancholy edge. I think the second album was quite, I don’t know, it was a lot of happier songs on the second album.

M: But you went through some stuff between then and now right? So that’s gonna happen.

L: Exactly. But this song was me and my friend Nick Hakim. He produced it,or I guess we produced it together.

M:  And he co-wrote it with you as well right?

L: Yes. In New York City, I was visiting there about a year and a half ago I was visiting and I just sort of called him out of the blue and I was like…I don’t know I had found a new confidence in sorting out my own, doing what I want to do basically I was like I want to work with Nick and he seems to be available at these time so I’m gonna go to New York so I just took myself to New York. I didn’t tell my record company about it and then I just ended up having a really lovely time writing various bits of lovely things with Nick and other people as well and just had a really nice time musically exploring. But that song was one of the ones that kind of materialised and made itself at the kind of forefront of my mind.

M: Now I would be not doing my job if I didn’t ask you about your cover of Weird Fishes the Radiohead song. I know you’ve been performing it for quite a while but it still kind of boggles the mind and it’s very cool and I’m just wondering why you finally felt like you were ready to record it.

L: Well I felt like it was ready for a long time but everyone else wasn’t in town or whatever or just weren’t available…

M: Is that you beeping?

L: Yeah, I hate this new phone. It does weird stuff.

M: I can’t say I’m too fond of it right now either.

L: It’s ok now sorry about that.

M: That’s alright.

L: I was gonna say that I wanted to, over the years, I wanted to do something with that. I wanted to record it but there wasn’t a right moment and everyone was doing different things. My original band who came up with it, they were off living their lives and stuff was happening so I don’t know why though when I got, I was in a certain head space with the album and I was…I didn’t know the direction yet but I knew there were a few songs happening and then I decided to, I just really wanted to record it so I asked everyone to come record it with me and then that happened.

M: Beautiful. I love the way it just explodes at the end of that track, it goes off.

L: Thank you.

M: You’re welcome. Now, my understanding is that you did a live streaming show at the Round House.

L: Yes I did.

M: How did that work and how did that feel? I assume there was no audience

L: There was no audience. It worked, I think, pretty nicely. I was weird but it was really fun and it felt very much like live television I would say. So there was lots of camera people but no audience and it was all live, so yeah it’s very strange but it could work as a concept. It will never be the same.

M: Well I guess it kind of has to.

L: Exactly. I think you get a certain energy from the crowd which you might have to find that energy from somewhere else.

M: Were you thinking about that when you were doing that performance?

L: Yeah. I was just thinking I hope that some people are watching.

M: Yeah, that would be good. That would be terrible if nobody was.

L: Exactly, go to all that effort and then nobody saw it so no, thankfully there was people watching.

M: Because you were here in New Zealand a few years back in twenty sixteen I think, you opened for Coldplay.

L: Yes I was, I did.

M: And you did a little show at the Tuning Fork here in Auckland as well.

L: I did, that was such a nice show. I loved that evening.

M: It would be lovely to have you back here again, especially with this album ……

L: Well, let’s just talk to the government, see what they’re saying about international acts.

M: I think you have to spend like two weeks in isolation is the problem.

L: Oh, you’ve gotta do the isolation thing. I wouldn’t mind being in New Zealand for two weeks.

M: Most people wouldn’t, It’s not a bad deal. They put you up in pretty nice hotels and pay for it all so that’s the…

L: Wow…

M: Worse things could happen. I think I saw somewhere where you had a couple of shows booked in Moscow and Seoul? Is that still happening?

L: Yeah. I mean, as far as I know they haven’t been cancelled yet.

M: That’ll be interesting. Have you got a band together? Are you guys practising or are you getting ready for this or are you just sitting around on your own, still?

L: I am sitting around on my own still but that is because I just put my album out so I’m gonna relax and then probably rehearse closer to the show, if it’s still happening.

M: Are you doing anything creatively? Like writing songs during this time down as well?

L: I want to. I haven’t actually had much time to do that with the release but yeah that’s basically my next plan. It’s like, have a bit of a break for a few weeks or a month and then go to the studio because I can’t go on tour.

M: Right. I think we’re gonna have a lot of new music out in the next few months cause everybody’s in the same boat.

L: Exactly.

M: I find it…it’s just great because I have plenty of time to listen to music because there’s all the time stretching out in front so it’s fantastic.

L: I love that.

M: Hopefully you’ll get back down to New Zealand and visit us at least maybe in six months or so, who knows.

L: I do hope so, that sounds amazing I’d love to do that.

M: But in the meantime, enjoy your time off.

L: Thank you.

M: I hope the album will do what you want it to do, it sounds fantastic, I’m enjoying it immensely.

L: Thank you so much.

M: My pleasure.

L: Have a lovely day, or evening.

M: Evening yes, it’s about nine o’clock here now but that alright. Twenty three to be precise, according to my phone.

L: Oh my goodness, crazy time differences.

M: It is, could be worse. Alrighty, have a good day and good luck with everything.

L: Thank you so much, take care.