Was it important to have the lyrics be pretty plain-speaking and direct?
Also, then nearly getting dropped and dealing with constant tweets from people going: “You’re so underrated why does no one know who you are?” I was so sick of it. Not being Mercury-nominated for the first album really hurt. How Can I Help You is pretty ferocious – what inspired it? I had to just sit and think about it longer than usual. Then I wrote a lot of it at the start of 2020 and spent the whole pandemic listening to the demos just ready to make it. I did How Can I Help You at the end of 2019. I was prepped and ready to do anyway, but then I didn’t get dropped.
Are you kidding? All this work hasn’t been enough? That feeling of “maybe I’ll get dropped” was horrible but it managed to thicken my skin and I realised I wanted to do this regardless. Then I was hearing “Hmm, but it didn’t really sell and no money was made” from the label. It had been a risk to do, and I felt so accomplished, actually, on that first record.
I think a lot of people are realising that as well, and maybe I’m vaguely eloquent enough to make sense of it all.Ī few months after your debut Compliments Please came out, you were worried about whether or not you even could make a second album. On this album I’m starting to feel like, certainly for women, or for people who struggle not to live the perfect 2.4 children dream, it’s society that’s caused it to be shit for us. I used to feel very alone and I couldn’t understand why I found everything so difficult. I keep doing this joke that everyone’s as depressed as me now because of the pandemic, so maybe it’s that. Why do you think the album connected in the way it did?
But I get my own Travelodge room now and – I’m not joking – that’s bliss to me. But I also don’t feel like things have massively changed – I still feel like I will be fighting for ever. I’d absolutely made my peace with being told I’m underrated. Amazing.ĭid you expect the album to break through in the way it has? Also, I’ve done the double as well, with the single of the year. My PR told me at my gig in Manchester and then just walked off, like the ultimate mic drop. Prioritise Pleasure is the Guardian’s album of the year.