London-based singer-songwriter and performer Louise Havell has had a life well-travelled, full of rich experiences and observations which inform her creativity and fuel her songwriting.
She is also a versatile and accomplished multi-instrumentalist. Drawing inspiration from Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell, her music is very beat-driven but with a strong sense of melody and arrangement. She now releases the emotionally fine-tuned single “Everything’s Gone” which follows the gentle and poetic “Running”, - and features on her debut E.P. “Shooting With Lives” which will be released on 1st July 2022.
We caught up with Louise to find out more...
Hi Louise – would you describe yourself as a singer songwriter or a musician (Or both?!)?
I would definitely describe myself as both. I guess I see the songwriting as the story-teller side of me, and the arrangement and harmony as my musician side. - I’ll sing along to instrumental solos on other people’s tracks as much as I sing along to the songs themselves.
Who were your musical influences growing up and who are your favourite artists right now?
Growing up it was a lot of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake. Also my parent’s records - Steeleye Span, Joan Armatrading - they made it into the mix. The first time I heard the remix of Missing by Everything But the Girl on some random mix, it was a bit of a portal moment for me, it opened some doors inside me.
Right now I’m really enjoying listening to Sohn, and I can never get enough of Washed Out.
You have travelled extensively and lived all over the world. What did you learn from these experiences? How did they inform your music?
Living in warmer climates meant a lot more time outdoors - more connection with nature. And also a more gentle speed to life. Growing up in London, it’s all too easy to never slow down. Living in different places, I really learnt what it was to walk at a slower pace - literally! So yes, connecting with nature and slowing down are two ways that enable my creative ideas to surface, to be felt.
You have a new single out 'Everything's Gone' - tell us more about it
I saw a homeless man on the streets in London and there was something about him that caught my attention. I just felt there was a story to tell, it was a look in his eyes. So I got to wondering what his story may have been. That’s where it started, and once I was arranging and producing it, I found a parallel in my mind with the history of the American Deep South - the oppression, the poverty, exploitation - railroad building. So the song has a gospel-influenced opening, and a kind of Blues harmony to it. Throughout there’s a steam-pump sound, referencing the industrial era there. Ultimately it’s not a comment on any one person, rather it’s the idea that we are all fallable, we are all capable of losing that which we hold dear - life can be so precarious.
We hear you have an EP coming out soon “Shooting With Lives” - written mostly on your London Narrowboat? Tell us more about it!
When I was writing this EP I really wasn’t thinking about the endgame - the release side of things. I was just writing for myself. Had I been focusing on the release aspect, I may have been more precious about the recordings - recording in a sound-proofed recording studio. But the way I recorded on the boat, it captured all the extraneous sounds - the birds on the water, the rumble of engines from boats going by, it’s all in there in the lower ebbs. It’s a retrospective project in some ways too - I’m such a fan of 80s synths and drum sounds, so I was exploring that throughout.
