Edie Bens

Hailing from Wales, educated in Brighton and now based in London, singer-songwriter Edie Bens has just released her first two singles - Had You Never Gone Away and Therapist. She talks to us about going to music school, being a female musician today and her first few weeks living in the capital.

When did you realise that you wanted to pursue a career as a musician?

I was a bit of a brat, I think, because I discovered I could sing at age 5 and forced everyone to listen from that point on! I didn’t take it that seriously until I was 12 and got a guitar for Christmas - but I was terrible at it, so to get around having to learn other people’s songs I just started making up my own. After that I figured “Well, I’m crap at everything else so I’m gonna have to make this work!”.

When did you start putting your music out into the world?

When I was about 16 I was daring enough to put it on the internet, before then it was just basically handing people CDs! I was quite lucky in that there was a youth charity in my area that had a studio in it, and they were super kind and let me use it, which is how I recorded my first tracks.

What’s your writing process like? Are you involved much in the production side of your music?

The lyrics often come to me first and I’ll go from there, then I’ll play the guitar and put them together. I’m actually best mates with my two producers, so we all just sit in a room and do it until we go crazy!

Are there any musicians you look up to - not just for inspiration, but as people you admire?

Billie Marten, who I actually met fairly recently! I remember dragging my mum to see her in concert in Cardiff years ago, and getting to meet her now I was like “Ah, you’re this person I’ve looked up and been a big fan of!”. It’s been really nice to see that a lot of female musicians have done really well in the last five, ten years, that wasn’t there when I was a kid. There’s the Australian indie musicians like Julia Jacklin and Courtney Barnett who I’m also a massive fan of - they’ve made me feel I should make music like that.

When did you write these songs you have coming out at the moment?

I wrote all the songs in this current set, bar one, in my second year of university. I went to BIMM in Brighton, which is basically like a real-life Glee, and in my second year I had a relationship with somebody I’d lived with in first year, which was a terrible idea, super bad for both of us, and I wrote most of my first EP about that person. Not the first single though! Hopefully they’ll forgive me.

Are you from Brighton originally?

I’m from Swansea, in Wales, and grew up there until I was 18. I just went to Brighton for uni, and have now recently moved to London. The music scene in Swansea is quite small and territorial, but it definitely character-built me.

Do you feel your sound has changed since you begun making music?

I think I’m now at a place with my music where I can say “This is what I was striving for”. I think I was very scared, I was in a school with a lot of indie bands that were all male and I felt very uncool! I sort of felt like I had to take the acoustic route that females are - or were - expected to, and I felt I had to be pretty and quiet, and it’s only in the last few years that I’ve felt empowered enough to go “No, I can play this if I want to”.

Do you play any instruments aside from the guitar?

I play a lot of instruments badly! I’ll have a go though. I want to be good at drums.

How are you finding London so far?

About a week after moving - I live on a high street in west London, and I’m still very country, very unaware of my surroundings - I was hit by a moped at a zebra crossing, and broke my leg and my knee! I was on crutches for a few weeks, even had to play shows on them. I’m off them now thankfully. Having to go about on crutches made me realise just how inaccessible a lot of smaller, grassroots music venues are - I know they might not have the money or the space to be able to make the changes though, it’s a shame. Everywhere has loads of stairs!

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Words: Scott Bates