SOAK 18-year-old Northern Irish singer-songwriter Bridie Monds-Watson. Boyish and skate-scruffy, she’s got the sort of squeaky-husky voice and folky, jangly pop that could lull you into the false sense that everything is good and cheery in the world even when it’s just quite sad and depressing. Sort of.
We caught up with her as she gears up to release her new single, Sea Creatures.
Hi Bridie, tell us when everything started really picking up for you?
About last summer – everything’s s busy, I haven’t many days off, so I see my family and friends a lot less than usual. I’m so busy, I get kind of…I get into the pattern of doing a lot of shows and performances, so I’m kind of at my best when I’m performing all the time.
And you’ve toured for quite a few people, right?
When I was 17, I went on tour with Tegan and Sara and they were like my big heroes since I was 12, so that was really cool. I also played with Gary Lightbody and Snow Patrol and Churches
And how was that, opening for big massive bands?
Most of them were ok, but with Churches, we did two German ones. And in one there were 5,000 people – a really large audience – and as well as the awkward language barrier, the music is so different. Chruches are a massive heavy electronic band and I’m an acoustic laid back artist, just me and a guitar. It was quite hardcore – the crowd can be totally ignorant and loud and dismiss what you’re doing. But it happens and you can’t blame anyone for that.
You said on your Twitter that ‘you know you’re making it when Noel Gallagher is slagging you off’ why is that? Has he slagged you off?
No, he hasn’t! I just want him to slag me off because that would be good – he’s slagged a lot of people off, like he said ‘My heart broke when I found out Jake Bugg’s songs were co-written’ or something like that, and it was quite stupid. I just want him to say something really stupid about my music.
We don’t know any out women who’ve started a career in music while being out, are you aware you’re a pioneer in this respect?
Yeah, I know, I suppose I don’t really know 100% how I feel about that. I know that being that way and doing what I’m doing it’s a point of attention. And I see how young people could admire me for that, or see me as a role model, but in some interviews people want to put a big point on that and emphasise it more than it really means to me. It’s not a massive deal to me. When people ask, I’m like ‘Ummm, it’s alright!’ I’m not really a label person.
Having been in the music industry since you were 15, has it been weird?
I’ve had to grow up quite quickly, I’ve grown up around industry people in these surroundings and I’ve learned so much. At the moment it feels normal, but if I think about it, it was quite an odd way for someone to grow up – I had all that attention and random people wanting to talk to me all the time. Sorry! Has anything shocking happened? Oh, just the classic turn up for a meeting with an A&R guy and he’s a prick, or you’ll meet an act’s manager who’s taken loads of drugs, it’s the classic stuff people stereotype and take the piss out of.
So how do you decompress from all that?
I’m very grounded anyway, if I wasn’t, my friends and parents would just like take the piss out of me massively. I try to spend as much time with everyone as I can. On top of that, when we have little basement parties. My friends are a bit mental, they just run around with the mic in my basement singing along to Cha Cha Slide.
Cha Cha Slide?
Young people listen to music in all sorts of different ways these days, and have loads of different tastes, do you see that affecting your work? Is there, like, any grime in your work?
Ha, no, there’s no grime on my album. But I know people who limit themselves to listening to certain kinds of music, but at the moment I listen to completely separate types of music.
Like what?
I’m influenced by people like Leonard Cohen, Roger Waters, Joni Mitchell – just incredible songwriters – and more modern people like Damien Rice and Duke Special, who I just toured with. I’ve also been listening to Blue Nile and Ibeyi. Oh, and the other day in the recording studio I could NOT get that song out of my head. You know: ‘Doo bap ba do ba dop’?
Hanson?
I could not get it out of my head AT all
Will you do any covers of that song on the tour?
Not that song, definitely…
*Sea Creatures is out on March 16th 2015, Catch SOAK on her headline tour of the UK, too. *
*Follow SOAK on Twitter @Soakofficial
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.