Self Esteem moves from cult indie fave, to proper pop star: "I have this joke where I'm the people's pop star" | Dork
Self Esteem moves from cult indie fave, to proper pop star: "I have this joke where I'm the people's pop star"
Rebecca Lucy Taylor heads out on her own.
The last time Dork spoke with Rebecca Lucy Taylor she had just released her first single as Self Esteem and was making her first musical steps out from her former band, Slow Club.
Now, 18 months later, her multimedia project Self Esteem has taken on a life of its own, and her debut album ‘Compliments Please’ is the culmination of everything she’s always wanted to do.
Rebecca had been making music for over ten years with Slow Club, but with Self Esteem everything is a little bit different; the ambition is ramped up like never before.
“The difference compared to everything else I’ve made in my career is that I feel so 100% about it,” explains Rebecca. “You can’t fuck with it, in my opinion. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but I made what I wanted to make.
Self Esteem is a project that amplifies all the endearing and idiosyncratic sides to Rebecca’s personality that make her such a wonderfully daring and outspoken artist. Finally given free rein to pursue her own vision, she has taken the ball and firmly run with it on the 16 track pop tour de force of ‘Compliments Please’.
Awakening from her hazy summer slumber, Rebecca was again inspired by her lifelong obsession with Drag Queens.
"The advice that Joan Rivers gave a drag queen called Bianca Del Rio echoes around my head: 'If you can lay down at the end of the day and feel absolutely exhausted, then you’ve worked'. So I’d be sunbathing on the beach drinking a beer thinking, oh you’ve not worked.
The album that she created during that long hot summer is an amalgamation of all her tastes filtered through a pure pop prism. It might’ve been easy to just stick a trap house beat under the tracks and follow a contemporary pop formula, but Self Esteem is far too subversive for that.
“I came at it with my taste. I know the kind of sounds and sonics that get me off, and it was about finding those,” says Rebecca. “I naturally write pop songs. I like a verse going into a middle eight into a chorus. I did that in Slow Club; I was like the chief editor. That didn’t change too much. I haven’t made a conscious decision to make it wonky on purpose. If something sounds beautiful and catchy, you should leave it. With my gut reaction and taste as an amalgamation of things I’ve loved over the years it turned out alright.”
“I have this joke where I’m the people’s pop star because I’m not really young and skinny, posh or American,” she laughs with typical self-deprecating charm. “I’m a disgusting and gross person that happens to make this music. I’ve always thought there’s room for that.
Her work as Self Esteem is characterised by ultra-strong confidence in herself as an artist and a desire to never take a backward step.
The songs themselves are a perfect balance between celebratory pop bangers like the playful ‘Girl Crush’ and the lead single calling card ‘The Best’ and the kind of slow jam heart stoppers that Rebecca has always loved. On the great bangers vs slow jams debate Rebecca can see both sides.
“I need to write bangers because I need the gigs to be high octane and pull people in with them, but nothing is more fun for me than writing an emotional slowie,” she confesses. “I’ve got over ten years of making songs like that. I’ve always felt more comfortable in that part of the tempo world. They are the songs that mean more to people and are the songs that you listen to when you’re alone on the bus looking out of the window, but, I’m a real banger convert since I’ve been allowed to make them the way I wanted.”
Perhaps the strongest impulse behind Self Esteem is the liberating freedom of exploring your own vision and not worrying what anyone else is thinking.
Once the album is out in the world, Rebecca has big plans for her videos and aesthetic.
It’s been a long time coming for her to have this level of freedom, and she’s going to make the most of it.
The next big milestone for Self Esteem is her next London gig at the Village Underground in March. It’s a landmark gig.
In many ways, this first big solo London show is an occasion she’s been waiting for her whole career.
Taken from the March issue of Dork. Self Esteem's debut album 'Compliments Please' is out 1st March.
Words: Martyn Young
With Self Esteem, Rebecca is making music for people who share the same love, desires and sounds like her.
“I have this joke where I’m the people’s pop star because I’m not really young and skinny, posh or American,” she laughs with typical self-deprecating charm. “I’m a disgusting and gross person that happens to make this music. I’ve always thought there’s room for that.
Her work as Self Esteem is characterised by ultra-strong confidence in herself as an artist and a desire to never take a backward step.
The songs themselves are a perfect balance between celebratory pop bangers like the playful ‘Girl Crush’ and the lead single calling card ‘The Best’ and the kind of slow jam heart stoppers that Rebecca has always loved. On the great bangers vs slow jams debate Rebecca can see both sides.
“I need to write bangers because I need the gigs to be high octane and pull people in with them, but nothing is more fun for me than writing an emotional slowie,” she confesses. “I’ve got over ten years of making songs like that. I’ve always felt more comfortable in that part of the tempo world. They are the songs that mean more to people and are the songs that you listen to when you’re alone on the bus looking out of the window, but, I’m a real banger convert since I’ve been allowed to make them the way I wanted.”
Perhaps the strongest impulse behind Self Esteem is the liberating freedom of exploring your own vision and not worrying what anyone else is thinking.
Once the album is out in the world, Rebecca has big plans for her videos and aesthetic.
It’s been a long time coming for her to have this level of freedom, and she’s going to make the most of it.
The next big milestone for Self Esteem is her next London gig at the Village Underground in March. It’s a landmark gig.
In many ways, this first big solo London show is an occasion she’s been waiting for her whole career.
Taken from the March issue of Dork. Self Esteem's debut album 'Compliments Please' is out 1st March.
