Shygirl on advice from Björk, falling in love and 'Nymph' | Mercury Prize 2023 - video Dailymotion

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Watch Shygirl on advice from Björk, falling in love and 'Nymph' | Mercury Prize 2023 - NME on Dailymotion

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00:00 - Good morning, Shy Girl.

00:01 - Hi.

00:02 - How are you feeling today?

00:04 - I feel finally awake.

00:05 It's taken me a minute,

00:06 but I'm usually an afternoon girly,

00:08 but I'm up and ready.

00:10 - You're doing well.

00:11 Well, Nymphs is an amazing album.

00:14 Now the Mercury Prize agrees.

00:15 How does it feel?

00:16 - I'm so torn, 'cause half of me is like,

00:20 "You totally deserve this,"

00:21 and the other half of me is like, "I'm so grateful."

00:24 So I'm like, half and half.

00:26 That's why Shy Girl is a juxtaposition in itself.

00:29 But I do feel like you have to back yourself,

00:31 and I did believe in myself up until this point,

00:34 but it's just great to be in the room

00:35 with so many other amazing artists.

00:37 And I think that I will speak about the most,

00:40 because it makes me look even better.

00:41 Everyone else is so amazing on this list.

00:43 (both laughing)

00:45 - Well, each of the shortlisted records

00:47 tends to say something different

00:48 about life in music over the last year or so.

00:49 I mean, what can you tell us

00:51 about the character of this record

00:52 and what you were trying to say?

00:53 - I think I just really wanted it to encapsulate

00:55 who I was in the making,

00:57 and that I had learned so much with the other EPs,

01:01 and being in the studio with so many amazing producers,

01:05 I had picked up a thing or two,

01:06 and I had something I wanted to say solely off my own back.

01:10 Like, it wasn't really guided

01:11 by anything other than my own intuition,

01:13 and that that was worthwhile following.

01:16 - Well, the live shows have been amazing, too,

01:17 and there's been a really great atmosphere there.

01:19 What can you tell us about kind of

01:21 the community around Shy Girl

01:22 and the way that the world

01:24 has kind of taken this record to heart?

01:26 - It's really interesting, 'cause I'm still

01:28 really getting to know it on the road,

01:29 and I'm always so surprised by who turns up at the shows.

01:32 You know, the crowd is so vast,

01:35 and even the other day, my grandma was front row herself,

01:37 so she was definitely loving it.

01:39 - Shy gran?

01:40 - Not shy at all.

01:41 But it's just been so cathartic, I think,

01:45 just being able to be there on stage,

01:46 talk about how I feel, get the energy out,

01:49 and then have people screaming about

01:50 Coochie straight up at me from the crowd.

01:53 But it's like things I just did not imagine,

01:55 like even playing at Glastonbury,

01:56 like I never saw myself being where I am right now,

01:59 and it's just nice to surprise myself and be here.

02:02 - I've always wondered, what's it like to say,

02:03 hello Glastonbury!

02:04 - I mean, the first time I definitely said hello Bristol,

02:07 which I got, at this time, I was like,

02:09 I'm just gonna say hi, I'm Shy.

02:10 (laughing)

02:12 So yeah, not messing it up anymore,

02:14 but honestly, it was just nice to see so many people.

02:17 I was playing Park Stage this year,

02:18 so it was just a beautiful crowd,

02:20 and just next year, I really wanna be in the crowd

02:22 more myself as well,

02:23 and like get a bit of that Glastonbury feel.

02:26 - And speaking of bucket list moments,

02:27 what's it like to have a friend, fan,

02:29 and collaborator in Bjork?

02:32 - I mean, it was more nerve-wracking actually

02:33 when she asked me to book a table for dinner,

02:35 and I was like, where do I take Bjork for dinner?

02:37 - She doesn't do Nando's.

02:38 - Yeah, I was like, I ended up taking her somewhere

02:41 completely ludicrous where there was sword swallowers,

02:43 so I think it was perfect.

02:45 But no, making music together has just been

02:47 a crazy experience.

02:48 I think I cried when I heard the first demo back,

02:51 when Sega sent it to me for the remix we did for her,

02:55 and then even just having her talk me through her lyrics

02:58 she was writing for the remix we did together.

03:00 And we've actually spoken at length about her experiences

03:04 in the music industry and how she feels like

03:06 she relates to me as well,

03:07 which has just been beyond my wildest dreams.

03:11 I grew up listening to Hunter on repeat,

03:14 and imagining I was in a world other than my own,

03:16 and I feel like now I'm really in control of the world

03:19 I'm creating, and the people that are engaging with me

03:22 have hugely validated me.

03:23 - Amazing, do you think you'll collab again,

03:24 or are you just friends for life now?

03:26 - I hope so, I feel like we've got a whole record

03:28 somewhere brewing, I need to get to Iceland, I think.

03:31 I think there's more there,

03:32 and I love that with my collaborators,

03:35 it's not just one and done,

03:36 I wanna go back, we're great friends,

03:38 and I really wanna see what else we can

03:40 provoke out of each other.

03:42 - Amazing, and we've been living with the record

03:43 for a bit now, have you had thoughts about the next album?

03:46 - I'm already deep in it, so I feel very inspired.

03:50 This is definitely giving me more juice.

03:53 I'm taking the sound in a slightly different direction,

03:55 so that's what I love, as soon as you're comfortable,

03:58 I'm like, snatch the rug straight from underneath you.

04:00 But no, I can't wait to play,

04:01 and I think I'm gonna play some of the new stuff

04:04 as the shows go on, just to keep it fresh

04:06 and keep my fans fed.

04:07 - What can you tell us about the vibe of what's to come?

04:10 - There's a lot of guitar.

04:11 Yeah, I think you'd be surprised, Shai does indie.

04:14 (laughing)

04:15 And it's not a joke, no.

04:16 But the thing is, I just think, I've been so eclectic,

04:20 and I kinda wanna stay to that,

04:21 and I'm really pushing myself in terms of learning

04:26 more about the instruments I'm using,

04:28 and which might seem like a no-brainer,

04:29 but I kinda feel like I walked in off the street sometimes

04:34 into the studio, and I've been learning ever since,

04:36 and there's just more I wanna uncover.

04:38 - Lyrically, what's been inspiring you?

04:41 - Love.

04:41 I know it's a cliche, but I'm so in love,

04:44 and I was like, ah, I thought this was gonna dead

04:46 my lyrics almost, 'cause sometimes when you're too happy,

04:48 it's like, okay, what do I even say?

04:49 But there seems to be a lot I have to say,

04:51 and I feel like I'm being way more poetic,

04:54 getting to the real root of songwriting, which I love.

04:58 I'm a big fan of just getting my heart out into the lyrics,

05:01 and I feel like, actually, up until now,

05:04 I've been quite reductive to what I'm capable of,

05:06 and I can't wait to just give more of me.

05:08 - Nice one.

05:09 And back to the Merkure Prize.

05:10 If you were to put some money down, other than yourself,

05:13 who do you reckon's gonna win?

05:15 - Ah, that's so hard.

05:18 I don't know.

05:19 I've really loved watching Ray's journey,

05:24 and she would be probably the person I would say,

05:28 but also Ben, Loyal Karna, is the nicest person,

05:33 and his music has really,

05:34 the sentimentality of it has really touched me,

05:39 and I even had a weird anecdote with him, actually,

05:43 recently, where my younger cousin reached out and was like,

05:46 I love Loyal Karna.

05:47 Obviously, he doesn't care about my music.

05:49 Loves Loyal Karna, and so I connected them both,

05:51 and he even texted him, "Happy birthday," and stuff,

05:54 and I was just like, he said he made music for young boys,

05:57 like my cousin, you know,

05:58 and it was just so nice to engage directly with that,

06:01 and this is why I just love who else is shortlisted,

06:03 'cause I'm just like, couldn't be better people, you know,

06:05 like people who genuinely live by the music that they make

06:08 and have gone through it to make it, you know,

06:11 like, it's all very genuine.

06:13 - Sweet.

06:13 Shaigo, thank you very much.

06:14 - Thank you.

06:15 (audience applauding)

06:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Shygirl on advice from Björk, falling in love and 'Nymph' | Mercury Prize 2023

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