Self Esteem joins Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1 today to premiere her new track ‘You Forever’ from her forthcoming album, “Prioritise Pleasure”, out this Friday 22nd October. She tells Matt about confronting difficult topics in her writing and feeling confident in being ‘vulnerable’, what it means to her to create feminist music, and explains how she’s learned to manage negative comments on social media.
Self Esteem Tells Apple Music About Being ‘Vulnerable’ On Her New Album…
I'm much more comfortable being vulnerable and honest than I am not being, I realised. So, yeah, it was a really quick write. That's how I make my art, I guess. I have to turn the bad stuff into triumphant defiance or I just implode. It's complicated and some of it is sort of difficult for people to listen to, but it's where I'm at. And it's where I think a lot of women are at now. And the moment that realisation that it's not really been fair, the way that life has been normalised for us to be terrified all the time or feel indebted to people or people please, or shapeshift. I've always been sort of stepping in those themes, but yeah, now I'm really... Hang on. I was like, "I'm really lathering myself in them." And that's a really weird metaphor. I'll go with it.
Self Esteem Tells Apple Music About Creating Feminist Music And Dealing With Trolls On Social Media…
Obviously, my work is feminist I guess, if you want to call it that, it's me. And I'm saying things that I don't think are radical, but unfortunately quite a large part of the population find it a bit difficult. They feel like me asking for equality is attacking them. And I'm just trying to foster this, like that's not your fault. You're the product of your lived experience. And if you need to pop off in my comments and say horrible things about me to not feel so threatened, I'm happy for you to do that, because I do want the best for everyone. And I will say, it just illustrates why I'm doing what I'm doing or why it's important to me to fight for equality, because it's a free demo of why I'm doing it sometimes down there in the comments… We’ll see how it goes. I like social media. I like having a laugh on it. I like interacting with people that like what I do, but I can just delete it.
Self Esteem Tells Apple Music About Her Path To Success…
I've been making music my whole adult life, and I tried to commit to making the art, but I can't help it, often when I release stuff, there's this air of like, "Aw," when it doesn't sort of ignite a bit. And so there's a general, I just assume that's the way for me. I didn't really care. But at this point I was like, "I'm going to make exactly what I want," and felt very comfortable with where I'm at. And then of course, as soon as you stop wanting something, it happens. So, yeah.
Self Esteem Tells Apple Music About New Track ‘You Forever’…
It's completely how I feel. It's what I'm passionate about. And I suppose it's like, what happens if you don't do what society asks of you? Essentially. And I'm just at a point where I'm wondering, what if those expectations were gone? And that's what this album sounds like.
