PHOEBE GREEN: “I DON’T THINK I’D BE THE SAME PERSON IF I’D GROWN UP ANYWHERE ELSE”
Each month at VOCAL GIRLS, we’re spotlighting the loudest-and-proudest female* artists from different UK cities. This week, we caught up with Manchester artist Phoebe Green, chatting lockdown introspection, the shaping of her identity and the challenges of navigating the industry as a young woman.
There’s no question about it: the name Phoebe Green has become synonymous with a vibrant, neon-tinged aesthetic. Radiating creativity, since the release of her 2016 full-length album ‘2:00AM’, Phoebe has signed to Chess Club Records, released a stream of singles, dropped an EP, and hit the road with Swim Deep. Along the way, Phoebe has established herself as a one-to-watch, first in Manchester, and now well beyond.
In some ways, her bright outward appearance feels miles away from the quiet subtlety and detailed perceptiveness of her lyrics, often focussing on everyday relationships. Zooming from her parents’ home near Manchester, instantly, I can’t help but notice that Phoebe is sporting a seemingly uncharacteristic plain black outfit. Any hint of panic is quickly cast aside, however, as soon as I notice that she’s coordinated her signature orange locks with bright orange headphones. Phoebe’s loud-and-proud wardrobe choices have become something of a trademark for the rising star. “As women, we are so pigeonholed for what we look like… I don’t try and act up or do anything to change myself”, she tells me, “I just try to really exaggerate things that aren’t what I look like, even like clothes and stuff - but look at me now wearing all black, that doesn’t count…”
Phoebe’s outward presentation appears to be much like her inner self. Over the course of our hour-long interview, I’m struck by Phoebe’s magnetism, openness and empowering sense of self. For a singer who quite literally exuberates colour, it’s difficult to imagine a time when this playful confidence was absent. Phoebe tells me how it’s been a long, and at times challenging, journey to get to where she’s at now. As has been the case for many of us, the past year has offered uninvited and unexpected quantities of time for self-reflection. Lockdown introspection hasn’t been all doom and gloom, however, having enabled Phoebe the time and headspace to write as much as possible. This process proved a cathartic experience - “I’ve never changed so much in such a short period of time”, she tells me. “I think writing is such a personal thing, for me, anyway. It [lockdown] just gave me a lot of mental ammunition, so I ended up just writing so much about my perspective on things… instead of writing about relationships, it was all about me reevaluating my own actions and behaviours.” As valuable as this process has been, Phoebe also admits it has made her feel a great degree of vulnerability. “Because I have so much time on my hands, I had to spend time with myself… I’ve always really, really struggled being on my own and just sitting with things”.
“I would use my guitar lessons to chat. I was the worst person… I’d literally just use it as a therapy session”
Growing up an hour outside of Manchester, Phoebe describes herself as a “really extroverted, theatrical child”. “I just always wanted to be the center of attention. So, music was the best way to do that. I always wanted to be really self-sufficient and be able to play my own instrument if I ever need to perform. So, I learned how to play guitar when I was at primary school and carried on playing in high school. But, I would use my guitar lessons to chat. I was the worst person… I’d literally just use it as a therapy session”. Nowadays, she confesses, she does the “bare minimum” of guitar practice - “which is fine, because whatever. I’ve got a guitarist, he can do his thing!”, she jokes. With guitar-lesson-therapy-session hybrids safely in the past, nowadays Phoebe almost always begins her songwriting process by writing lyrics. “The lyrics always come first, because they come so quickly [...] I always write notes on my phone, just like a running commentary. I’ll just keep going over them and refining them, making them more concise… but yeah, it always starts with some form of words”.
“ I was listening to a load of indie boy bands I was just trying to do what they were doing - and then you realise, no, stop!”
With a musical output straddling electro-pop, understated ballads and alt-rock (to name just a few genres), I’m curious to hear more about her creative influences. “God, I don’t even know. I always say I listened to everything, because I don’t ever want to imitate people. I think that’s something I slipped into pretty early on. When you’re younger, you’re just starting out and you think the key to success is to imitate the people you enjoy listening to. Because I was listening to a load of indie boy bands I was just trying to do what they were doing - and then you realise, no, stop!” As a female guitarist, Phoebe cites Taylor Swift as an early source of inspiration (with both of us taking a moment to fangirl in equal measure over Taylor’s pending album re-recordings). In more recent times, Phoebe draws inspiration from lush, cinematic soundscapes, citing artists such as Radiohead. “St Vincent is obviously a queen”, we agree. ‘I think her energy is an inspiration’. St Vincent’s musical malleability and ever-changing sound is appealing to Phoebe, feeling that she is only ever influenced subtly, rather than obviously, by her.
More unusually, however, Phoebe explains her self-described “black and white” approach to sourcing creative influences. “When I’m writing music, I either try and listen to a really, really, really broad spread of music and artists - or, nothing at all.” During lockdown, Phoebe found herself on a music-listening hiatus, and in the absence of music, creative inspiration was sourced from lived experiences. For Phoebe, creative agency is a crucial component of the songwriting process. “I won’t change my lyrics if someone else tells me to change them!”, she semi-jokingly remarks, noting how her lyrics centre on delving into deeply personal subjects.
Making a very self-conscious effort to avoid imitating other artists’ sounds, it has sometimes been a struggle to grapple with the genre-driven marketing and packaging process coming from the music industry. I ask how she finds the industry’s tendency to pigeonhole music into the confines of specific genres, and how this has affected her creative autonomy. “I always do find it really strange. But I think I find it quite funny, because people [music critics] will reference artists [that she sounds like], and I’ll be like I’ve literally never heard of them. I don’t know who that is...it’s just funny, because obviously I’m not referencing people very, very obviously [...] I think I’m lucky with the reviews I get because people comment on the things I want them to comment on - when people talk about the lyrics, or the kind of personality that comes across and stuff like that, I find that well interesting, because I know I’m obviously doing something right”.
This sense of creative autonomy is complicatedly intertwined with navigating the industry as a young woman. For Phoebe, this sense of artistic power manifests both through her music, and her on (and off) stage vibrancy. “I find it really, really daunting just existing in this industry where it is so heavily male dominated, and it is so male gaze heavy, where everything seems to be through a misogynistic lens. So I have kind of started to, obviously unintentionally, view myself through that. So in a paranoid sort of sense, when I’m performing or doing a photoshoot or a video, I almost try to desexualise myself so that I’m taken seriously, which in itself is fucked. I shouldn’t have to do that. But I think I’m so scared of people’s perception of me being something that that isn’t solely based on what I’m doing. And I’m creating that. I try to almost take all the other factors that people could judge me for out of the equation, and just leave them with what I’m doing. And men don’t have to do that - I think that’s the biggest frustration.”
“I know that if I’m perceived in a way I don’t want to be perceived, it’s not my fault.”
Finding the balance between feeling empowered on her own terms as a young female artist whilst not censoring herself has also been something of a challenge. “I find it so empowering when I see other young women just owning their sexuality and just doing what they want, because that is so powerful, but I’m not there yet. And I hate that because I wish I could be that person for other people, but I’m just still so scared of it”. Now, Phoebe tells me, “I know that if I’m perceived in a way I don’t want to be perceived, it’s not my fault. I’ve done everything I can, but it’s still hard not to take it personally and think ‘Oh, what could I have done differently to avoid this kind of reaction?’”.
Through her humour, stage presence and aesthetical choices, externalizing herself from the male gaze has been a lifeline of a coping mechanism. “If you act like a comedian on stage, no one will sexualise you!”, she jokes. Looking ahead, Phoebe is keen to take the pressure off herself. As 2020 has gone to show; “You can be so particular about what you’re gonna do and what’s gonna happen and how you’re gonna get through everything, but anything can change at any point. What’s the point in acting like you have your shit together when no one does?” In the coming months, establishing herself as a live artist will be her next challenge. “Obviously because of lockdown and everything, so much of my presence has been online, which is cool, but it’s not real. So I really want to become more of a touring artist as well - play loads of gigs, release an album, all that good shit”.
Having grown up an hour outside of Manchester, Phoebe made the big move to the city five years ago and never looked back. Listing her sisters, Mum and Nan as her female icons, Phoebe tells me how her Manchester upbringing has played a huge role in the shaping of her identity as an artist, but also as a woman. “We [Manchester] have such a specific mentality and such a strong identity. I don’t think I’d be the same person if I’d grown up anywhere else”. On what makes the Manchester music scene so diverse, she tells me: “Even though it’s not huge, it’s so varied - the styles of music, the aesthetics, the branding, the everything… there aren’t many bands where you think they literally sound the same. There’s not enough room for people to copy each other”.
Manchester is a city much like Phoebe; individual, bold, and vibrant. In lots of ways, it makes complete sense that Phoebe is Mancunian. With a genre-bending sound, immense songwriting talent, and buckets of charisma, at the age of just 23 Phoebe has an EP, a string of singles and an album already under her belt. Throughout our interview, I’m touched by Phoebe’s perceptiveness and honesty, but also, her strong sense of self, as both an artist and an individual. The future is sparkling bright for Phoebe Green, with what is sure to be a long and colourful road ahead.
Image Credits: Megan Graye
