It’s easy to get imposter syndrome and think ‘I’m not supposed to be here’
Singer-songwriter Mabel tells LUCY MAPSTONE about her hotly-anticipated debut album, and making it on her own without the help of her famous parents
heard the good news and she’s still stunned, wide-eyed and animated.
She reveals she was exhausted and in the middle of a busy day when her manager showed it to her.
“I thought, that’s how I’m getting through today because that’s an incredible achievement and I’m going to think about that any time I feel really tired,” she explains.
“It’s the best thing, because then you know all of these things that are making me tired are paying off.”
Following years of hard work, growing success and tiring schedules, now Mabel is ready to unleash her long-awaited debut album, High Expectations.
“It’s been a two-year process making this record – I’ve really put everything into it,” she says.
“Some of the songs are old to me now and I’ve been performing them live for a while, but I can’t wait for people to sing them back to me. It is nerve-racking and quite emotional because I’m really attached to it ; it’s been my identity in many ways for the last few years. It’s been my purpose.”
Mabel reckons the record was the making of her, both as an artist and as a young woman.
Writing it encouraged her to delve deep into her psyche, as well as confront her battle with anxiety.
“It was really difficult to write my song OK (Anxiety Anthem) because it was about dealing with my anxiety and looking at it in a positive light,” she says.
“I always say it took a day to write the song, but the actual process was longer than the making of the whole album, because it’s about me coming to terms with my anxiety.”
She acknowledges she is in a better place now but still has to deal with nerves, particularly before a live performance.
“I get nervous because I care,” she notes. “Nerves are really good; I love every person out in the crowd so much and I want to give them the best show possible, so I hope the nerves never leave me.”
However, nerve-racking as a gig might be, nothing compares to performing on television in front of an audience of millions.
Mabel shakes her head, smiling as she recalls making her debut on US TV earlier this year on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
“It was the most nervous I have ever been in my life,” she confesses, adding that her stint on Graham Norton’s UK show earlier this year was another pinch-me moment.
“It’s scary because when you have watched something and then you’re standing somewhere where a big artist has stood, and it’s your turn, those things live forever.
“And I have a tendency to catastrophise and think, ‘this could happen or that’, and what’s crazy is that when they actually start, I think, ‘Of course I can do this. I spent two days spooking myself but here I am doing it.”’
She says she was “having a meltdown” before going on Fallon’s show, though, because she thought she would embarrass herself in front of “the whole world”.
“Sometimes it’s easy to get impostor syndrome and think, ‘Oh my God I am not supposed to be here, everybody can see that, blah blah blah.’ But it’s important to have those moments when you stress, because it then makes the highs feel so much higher.”
Clearly driven and ambitious to her core, Mabel is keen to make it known that she did not use her parents as a step-up into the industry, although she says they do offer her all the support she needs to make her career her own.
“I used to be really afraid that my parents were the only thing that people were going to care about and, to be honest, I’ve spent years at interviews going, ‘Shall we just call in my mum?”’ she laughs.
“But I’m really proud of what they’ve accomplished, and I’ve got to a point where it’s not embarrassing to talk about and it’s not going to take away from me as an artist, because they’re amazing people who have accomplished incredible things.”
She adds: “I feel confident in what I’m making and what I’m doing, and I know that it’s not because of them.”