R&B trip-hop ensemble Babeheaven gift listeners with a rare sensitivity. We speak to lead singer Nancy Andersen about the importance of slow-and-steady songwriting.
Babeheaven’s sound is often compared to hazy pop and trip-hop like the Cocteau Twins and Portishead. Please tell us a bit about the context you grew up in musically and how that influenced you.
My dad writes music for adverts. He was in a couple of bands, so I grew up in a household where music was constantly playing – he was really into soul and funk. I’d finish school, go to his office and listen to him making music for hours. When I got old enough, he said: ‘you get to sing on them now!’ So I started doing that, and I still do it occasionally.
When you started exploring and discovering music on your own, what did you look for and find?
I grew up in the Myspace era, so I’d find a lot of music there. I was super into indie bands as a teenager. I’d go to all the 16+ shows – there were so many of them in London, it was amazing – you could go to every gig for about four pounds. As I got older, Myspace disappeared, so I started looking for stuff on blogs more. I was a big-time music discoverer, and I still am, but things like Spotify have taken that away.
Babeheaven singer Nancy Andersen
Babeheaven have been making music together since 2016 and just released their debut album Suspended Animation – a title which refers to slowing down the biological processes of the body to preserve its functions. Was slowing down also a part of your creative process?
Slowing down to keep things alive is quite accurate to how we release music! There’s no rush in anything, and that’s probably why we make quite slow music, though it has its own groove. Everything is a one-hit-wonder nowadays, but it’s important to take the time with things and not force them out. We’re always making music, so the creative process is not a struggle – the issue arises with figuring out what we should release because there’s so much.
It’s a question of what’s worthy of being put out, sifting through everything and trying to fit it into a body of work. And I think with Suspended Animation we’ve managed to do that – it has a beginning, middle and end. Though everyone keeps calling it a debut album, it’s more of a long EP than an album.
As Babeheaven has grown, did you feel ready for that spotlight, or did you have to learn to take yourself more seriously – like “ok, I’m really a musician now”?
I take my music very seriously, but as I think you can tell, I don’t take myself very seriously. When I’m on stage, I still find it hilarious and fabulous that everyone is there and holding on to my words, and I’m just this idiot on stage. It’s quite an odd feeling. I’ve always loved music, but I never really thought I’d make music like this, that I’d be a musician, and now I am.
Like many artists – particularly young artists – you have other part-time work. In your dream world, do you make music full-time?
I’d love to make music full-time, but there’s also an element of my brain that’s maybe not suited to it. Writing music is a relief, but it’s also quite intense, so I also need to have menial tasks that don’t take up any of my emotions or brain. You’re just doing it to do it. I love cooking, and it serves that function for me – it clears my mind. I do many catering jobs for people, cooking for dinner parties, that kind of thing. Or I get home, and I’m a bit stressed. I open the fridge and make something. I live with three boys, so they’re thrilled when I make a feast.
I can imagine writing music asks a lot of you, as many of your tracks feel quite personal – like ‘Heaven’, which is about your mum who passed away.
Most of our songs are very personal. For instance, ‘It’s Not Easy’ is a song Jamie and I wrote for his mum when she passed away. I like writing about how I feel because it helps me get things, and then I have a mental note of how I was feeling at that time. It’s also quite difficult for me because someone wants to release it into the world, and suddenly it’s not just your song or your experience anymore.
And how do you preserve that personal aspect while performing?
People are timid, am I’m timid too, so I always say to my crowd: do whatever you feel, sing along or don’t, do what you feel. I look at everyone and try to see how they feel and respond to that.
Pretending that all audiences are one beast is quite odd. When like us, you’ve been a support band. You’re on tour, and the first night you see the headliner, you’re like, wow, that was incredible, what a performance, everything they said was so genuine – and then you see them the second night, and they do it all over again. It really threw me off, actually, and it’s something I fight against quite heavily. I don’t want to prepare things to say between songs because you lose the realness of being there.
Babeheaven is on tour in the UK at the moment – do you have any rituals to preserve your well-being when you’re on the road?
When Luca [Mantero, guitarist], Jamie, and I were on tour in Europe, we had to drive for like 7 hours between every town or city, and then as soon as we arrived somewhere, we’d park and go into town, and we’d all go look for a magnet to buy for our fridge. It’s a good way to see a city centre because you find yourself walking around the busiest areas and normally the venues are a bit more secluded. We’ve learned that the best thing to do is not to go straight to the venue and sit in the venue. It’s good to have a walk!
How do you understand the role of art in society?
When you listen to music and feel like it’s speaking to you because you can relate to it, it elevates you in a special way. It’s essential to make things that make people feel good. Right now, England is a difficult place. Still, it’s also an exciting moment for people creating stuff because everyone is reacting to what’s touching them. I think that’s when the most exciting stuff happens.
