Gabrielle Aplin: 'Nothing phases me'
With a UK Number One already to her name and more than 16 million views on her YouTube channel, you'd forgive the 20 year-old for getting a little carried away. But England’s rising folk star has her feet firmly on the ground...
Even with the boisterous bistro queues blocking the narrow pavements, I somehow arrive early at the Park Hyatt hotel, rue de la Paix, in Paris’ chic 2nd arrondissement. On the sixth floor I’m met by Romain, the PR for Parlophone, who tells me that Gabrielle Aplin is still at lunch so I’ll have to wait a few minutes. We’re in the duplex presidential suite so he takes it upon himself to show me around.“C’est un truc de ouf, mec!” (It’s mental here, mate”), he says excitedly as he leads me first into the interview/living room with plush silk sofas, a grand piano and table full of crystal glasses. Mahogany and oak line the walls on which hangs the artwork of American artist Sideo Fromboluti.The pièce de la résistance is the upstairs bathroom, just off the master bedroom, which includes a spa with a whirlpool, a gold mosaic steam room, massage area and a hairdresser’s chair for additional pampering. Madonna, Bono and the Dalai Lama have all stayed here – presumably since none have issues fronting up the five-figure nightly room fee. The 250 sq metre suite also features balconies with views of the Eiffel tower, on which Gabrielle will later play an acoustic set for a French website.Considering she hasn’t even released an album yet, I can’t help thinking the luxurious setting is a little over the top and it’s not surprising when I learn that Gabrielle will not be spending the night here. She will, however, pose for photographs for French magazines, tinkle on the grand piano as well as talk to me — once she’s gotten over the excitement of seeing the Eiffel tower for the first time, that is.
“Wow, oh my god, can you see it?” she shrieks as she bounds into the interview room, scarcely making time for a quick hello. Surprisingly I can’t see it, as from where I’m stood it’s hidden behind a crane. So instead I reach for a glass and pour her some water. Maybe it’ll calm her down.It’s no surprise that the 20 year-old singer is so excited to be in Paris.“My favourite person in the world is [French actress and singer] Francoise Hardy, she says happily. “Everybody here just looks like her.”
Gabrielle is in Paris to promote her first album, English Rain, her new collection of folk-pop songs that aims to build on the success of recent single Please Don’t Say You Love Me. Tomorrow she’ll fly to Australia to tour with Ed Sheeran, “a good friend” she says and again, something she is clearly looking forward to.Strikingly pretty and petite in person, Gabrielle Aplin first became known via her YouTube channel where she played cover songs of the likes of Birdy and Katy Perry. It began one day when she was playing the piano at school and a friend filmed it and put it online. A few days later, Gabrielle checked back and found to her surprise that it had generated hundreds of user comments and views.
“I didn’t think YouTube would be a doorway into the music industry, but it turned out to be the best way in,” she says. She continued making homemade videos and together with her manager launched her own record label, releasing EPs Acoustic, Never Fade and Home; a savvy move which means she still owns the copyright today. From the latter, it is her single Home which she says defines her the most and from where all the songs on her new album originate. The album is an expansion on this early acoustic work, featuring orchestras and string sections that enable her to focus her boundless energy into creating bigger, brighter pop songs. Laura Marling, Birdy and Lana Del Rey are all names that she has been compared to. To be mentioned in the same breath as such pop icons is thrilling for the young folk singer.
“I can get the Birdy references and I adore Lana Del Rey. She is very artistic, she has her own look and she knows what she’s writing about. I’ve been compared to her a few times or put in the same box. I take all comparisons well.”
It’s clear Aplin has creativity in the blood; she began writing short stories at age 5 in her native home town of Sutton Benger near Bath. She learnt music at age 11 and, after discovering Leonard Cohen and TS Eliot, ventured into poetry. After moving to London while still a teenager to further her career, she found herself sharing a house in the less salubrious setting of Wood Green. Although she enjoyed living in the vibrant, urban area, it was out of synch with the picture-postcard setting of her home town.
“London is like five cities in one. Once you realize that and discover that, everything’s fine.”
Now settled in leafy Richmond, Gabrielle has been tackling the London music scene head on. Last Christmas, her cover of The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood was featured on an advert for John Lewis. The song scored Aplin her first UK Number One, yet neither would have happened had it not been for some aggressive social media marketing on her part. She contacted the PR for John Lewis herself via Twitter who offered her a last-minute audition. When she got the job, she couldn’t help but reveal her delight to her already growing Twitter fan base. “PS. Still cant believe in on the John Lewis ad” she wrote on 14 November. While she’s not a fan of Twitter overkill, she knows that social media is an essential part of being a musician today.
“Without it I’d probably still be at university,” she admits. “Nowadays you don’t need a label to do anything. Before, 20 years ago, the first step for a musician would be getting signed but for me that was the last thing that I did. It’s crucial for building up a fan base. If a fan sees an artist is tweeting them people prefer that. It’s not superficial or untouchable. People like to know that what they are listening to is real.”
Devoted viewers of her YouTube channel will have noticed a video of her singing a duet with a well-groomed musician on the empty carriageway of a UK motorway. The boy is her boyfriend Alfie Hudson-Taylor of the Irish band Hudson-Taylor, who played the improvised gig with her after an overturned lorry outside Leeds had brought traffic to a standstill. This real-life event is referenced in the music video to Please Don’t Say You Love Me; a ballad in which an overly-attentive boyfriend discovers that his relationship is in jeopardy from an edgier, better-looking rival. Pointedly, love forms a big part theme of English Rain. Please Don’t Say You Love Me, the third track on the album, was inspired by indie flick 500 Days of Summer, (Gabrielle says “it sparked a thought”). In it, headstrong Smiths fan Summer (Zoe Deschanel) leads love-struck Tom (Joseph Gordon Lovitt) up the proverbial garden path before callously breaking his heart. Aware that my time in the presidential suite is drawing to a close, I can’t resist asking her which character from the film she most relates to.
“Two years ago I’d have definitely said Zoe Deschanel,” she blushes. “Now probably the Tom guy. I’m not too clingy, not too mean. I’d like to think I’m somewhere in between.”
For now, all that’s left is for Gabrielle to hope English Rain lives up to her previous good form in the music charts. And with an upcoming gig scheduled in Paris (she'll later postpone due to ill health), there’s every reason to believe her music will export well too. One thing is certain, despite a tendency to gaze up at the clouds, this is someone who has her feet firmly on terra firma. “I’ve never released an album before so I am venturing into the unknown. But you get used to weird things happening, especially in the music industry! I don’t get phased by much. I just kind of get on with it. I think it’s a good way to be. Then you don’t get big-headed.”
First published on Wordpress. Photo credit: EMI.