INTERVIEW: Natalie Shay releases new single 'Figure Of 8': "To connect to the listener is what I'm going for. I just want somebody to be like, ‘I've been through that, and I heard that in the song’"
Interview: Jett Tattersall
The UK’s Natalie Shay has been releasing music since 2014 but in the last few years has really come into her own, with nothing short of major buzz around her music and performances, from being played on BBC Radio 1 to performing at major festivals such as The Great Escape, Latitude, Victorious and SXSW.
Today she releases her brand new single ‘Figure Of 8’, backed with the B-side ‘Play’. Her first music since January, both songs were written at 4am in her bedroom and are an exploration of toxic relationships and how addictive and difficult it can be to break out of them.
‘Figure Of 8’ is a glorious upbeat, indie-pop-rock track that looks at how addicted Shay is to a partner that she knows is bad for her. Her lyrics veer between strength and vulnerability, with the ‘figure of 8’ representing being unable to break out of a cycle. The determination of “No point starting over / When I know that you’ll do it again” wavers into indecision “You look so good…Maybe if I just sit back a little I’ll see what you are and be done with it / Maybe that’s the only way to stop me coming to your place” before Shay acknowledges she is “stuck in a figure of 8”.
‘Play’ is sonically the complete opposite of ‘Figure Of 8’, but is just as beguiling. A beautifully stripped back ballad, Shay’s vocal is emotive and heartbreaking as she sings about both the emotional impact the toxic relationship had on her and why she was compelled to enter it in the first place. “I needed a man to smother me and pity me this way / Together we could ruin me.”
With ‘Figure Of 8’ and ‘Play’ Shay has released two incredible slices of pop music. Incredibly moving, at times confronting, with beautiful soundscapes that you will never want to leave. It is easy to understand why there is such a buzz around Shay, and with the release of her new EP Champagne next year, you can expect her popularity to continue to rise. We recently caught up with Shay to chat all about her new single, career and upcoming plans.
Natalie, lovely to catch up with you at such an exciting time. How are things?
I'm very excited. I haven't put a song out since January. So I feel really out of release practice and I'm excited to do that again!
When you released your last single ‘The Edge’, we were just all in love with it here at Women In Pop. And now we've got ‘Figure Of Eight’ and it just beautiful. What I love about it is the fact that you've got these gorgeous melody loops that really go hand in hand with the song.
Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, I really liked this one. We wrote it quite a while ago, about a year ago, me and two other girls. And then it kind of sat. I knew I wanted to put it out, but I knew that I wanted ‘The Edge’ to come first, so that's why it's took so long.
What was it about ‘The Edge’, why did you want me to come out first?
To be honest, just because I’d just fallen out with my friend it was a bit more fresh! Because I still was quite passionate about the topic, I wanted it to come out while I still feel the way the song was written.
That's incredibly savvy. It also probably made you really good to interview and talk about it!
Oh, yeah! It gave a lot more passion to the release in a different way that I've never had before. I think I said at the time, it’s the first time I've ever released a song about something while I was still in the middle of it. It's very different when you do that,
On that, with ‘Figure Of Eight’, an we still like pick the scab on those feels, to get visceral?
I think so. It was never really totally from my point of view anyway, it was about my friend's ex, who I'm still quite angry about. So I still feel the emotion.
And because it wasn't yours personally, you’re like I can drive this thing for eternity!
Exactly! That's what I was going for.
Beautiful. Talk to me about the creation because as I said before, I love the way that melody does these little figure of eights loops. I know that melodies do repeat, but I feel like it's quite a standout in this track, which is what I love about it.
Oh, thank you. I wrote it with an artist called Evelina and Sophie Ackroyd, who is a writer producer. We all got invited to this Women Make Music Spotify event, and when we were there, we were just kind of like ‘we should do a session’. We all knew each other, but we'd never worked together. We put the session in and this was the first thing that we did. It's interesting because Evelina is more of a R&B writer, and I think there's elements of that in the melody that I perhaps wouldn't have written myself. It's got elements from different genres and I don't normally write with people that don't just do indiepop. So it was interesting to write with somebody from a different genre, which is the first time I’ve done that.
You’ve got singles going back to 2014 as a solo artist, you obviously collaborate with people, but what do you think makes a great collaboration, particularly as a solo artist?
If you can take two influences that are not the same and make it work together, that's when collaborations hit the sweet spot. It's exciting to have somebody come along and help you do the thing that you were doing anyway. But the most exciting part of collaboration is when everyone's ideas come together, and then it fits and makes this thing where you can hear everybody's influence. You can hear everyone's different input and take on it but it all works together rather than all trying to write in the style of one person. Which we weren't trying to do it, we were just putting our influence into the song.
With regards to your sound I have read that you describe your music as ‘guitar breakup pop’. What are some of your go to greatest guitar breakup songs that aren't yours?
Oh, my god, how many of them can be Taylor Swift songs?! The Miley Cyrus album Breakout was one of my first albums of my life, so that's always a huge influence. I always come back to this album, like all of the time, I love the sound. I think Olivia Rodrigo is trying to create that sound now too. And then probably Taylor Swift, the Fearless album. CanI just go with albums?!
Yeah, breakups come in albums really don’t they.
Also Made of Bricks by Kate Nash. I'd never heard somebody tell stories so conversationally in a song. And I always try and hold on to that, because it's so special when you can have a song with a catchy melody, but then the lyrics are as if you're reading a paragraph. Kate Nash completely nails that with every song. And it's always something I try and recreate. I get it a bit more with my acoustic ones, like the B-side of ‘Figure Of 8’, ‘Play’, is a bit more of a storytelling song. I always try and write songs in the way that she expresses her emotions about stuff. It’s really cool if you can do that.
Agreed, and we don't hear enough praise for Kate Nash. I need to hear more shouts out to Kate Nash. I'm so glad you brought up ‘Play’ because I had to go back to the lyricism because I got a bit sidetracked by your beautiful vocalising. With regards to your music, was it telling a story first, was it singing first? Or was it trying to create your own song on guitar? What did you want to do with it when you were younger?
The initial idea came from the fact that I wanted to be a singer songwriter. I was like, I don't know if I'm any good at it, but I'm going to become good at it, I want to do that. I'd seen Taylor Swift at the O2, and I was like, that's so cool that she could stand here, singing about things that happened and we're all connected to it. That's really powerful. So I knew I wanted to do that. Before I even really tried it, I wanted to do that. I guess for me now it's lyrics. I try not to write unless I have something to write about. I know it's difficult sometimes when you just get put in a session and they're like, ‘write a song’ and I'm like, ‘Ah, I've got nothing to say!’ But I have to have something I want to say because that when you get those specific little references and things in the lyrics that show that it's about something. I know sometimes people make them up , but when you've got flavours of things, that kind of show that it's true. And when you perform it, it means more when it's about something that really exists as well. So for now it's definitely about lyrics and getting people to relate and trying to tell stories that I think everyone's been through, but in my own way.
You do definitely have personable music, does it still surprise you when you write a song that's so personable that you get your fans and people messaging you going ‘Oh my god, me too!’ And you're like, ‘oh shit, really?’
Yeah. Especially with ‘The Edge’ the last one. I kept saying it was about my ex-friend and obviously a few of my friends and my fans kind of knew who the ex-friend was, I'm sure they could have figured it out. And they were quite a fan of the friendship as well, so it was quite dramatic in that way. I'm also on this massive UK school tour at the moment, I've been going around all of these schools for the last four months, and playing ‘The Edge’ and talking about friendships and being an artist myself. I've had hundreds of messages from people about the lyrics of ‘The Edge’ like, ‘I've never really heard a song that's about falling out with a friend.’ For me, it's the best thing, that's literally what I'm going for. That means more to me than any sort of music industry achievement. To connect to the listener, that is what I'm actually really going for. I just want somebody to be like, ‘I've been through that, and I heard that in the song’.
That’s brilliant, I love that. You’ve obviously toured all over the place and you've also done some really kickass festivals. Tell me, if you got one, what's the pinnacle of your live shows? What do you love most about it?
I love playing to be honest, I love playing live more than anything else as well. I didn't record a song for like five years, [but] I started gigging when I was 13. I put one song out, because somebody did it for me for free, and that was all I did. I was gigging three or four times a week from the age of 13 to 18, 19. It kind of stopped with the pandemic or slowed and then that circuit that I used to play on kind of never really recovered, which is quite sad. There's not much of a London gigging circuit as they used to be. The goal was one day to be playing festivals and stuff, this was the whole dream, but it means more because live is the thing that I enjoy the most. It's the thing that I feel most comfortable with. I'm comfortable with everything but live, I know what I'm doing, especially when it's me and just the guitar, I've done this a billion times. It's nice when you're comfortable, because then it just becomes fun and you're present in the moment. I'm very aware of looking at people's faces in the audience and people watching from the stage. It's a whole different experience when there's no worry about how it's going to go attached. I don't really worry when it's just me anymore, because I've done it so many times.
That's a really nice way of saying it. Natalie, you've got another EP on its way Champagne, and that's exciting. Tell me what else is coming up for you.
I want to do a show for that, so at some point the big project of my life will be planning the release show for that EP. I've just done all these festivals, had a really good year with everything. It's been really, really fun. So I'm hoping to add on to all of that stuff. I’m still on the school tour, I’m probably going to be on it forever because I really enjoy it, going into schools and just trying to get everyone to like what I'm doing. It's fun, it's very rewarding as well. I hope more shows, I've just got a new booking agent which I'm really excited about. So I'm hoping that is the new thing for the new year and what that could do for me and where it will take things.
‘Figure Of 8’ is out now. You can buy and stream now.
To keep up with all things Natalie Shay, you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
