Queen Bea holds court
TRNSMT’s guitar-playing female headliner says she is proud to be carrying the torch
BEABADOOBEE hopes she can inspire more girls to pick up guitars and play in bands.
In 2019, TRNSMT boss Geoff Ellis got into trouble defending the festival from a lack of female headliners by saying women need to “pick up guitars”.
This year Phillippines-born Londoner Beatrice Laus, 22 aka Beabadoobee, headlines King Tut’s Stage next Friday – the biggest stage a woman headlines, though Ellie Rowsell-fronted Wolf Alice, Self Esteem, Sigrid, Griff and Nina Nesbitt all play the main stage across the three days.
What did you make of Geoff’s comments?
Whether they’re playing guitar or not, girls are doing cool stuff. I say it all the time but if me doing this inspires one girl then it’s all worth it.
Are you a TRNSMT fan?
Yes! We were going to do so many festivals around my first album and then they all got cancelled. We’re really excited to be there.
When did you first visit Scotland and did you try our delicacies?
My first time was on the Dirty Hit tour a few years ago.
It was super fun as we were playing small venues with loads of friends from the label. We’d a couple of big nights, but didn’t get around to deep-fried Mars bars.
What can we expect from new album Beatopia?
It’s exciting but scary. You put so much of yourself into albums and have to reveal them to everyone else and it’s not as much yours any more.
I’m so proud of it, though, and playing these songs live is so much fun.
We’re really thinking about how the songs grow into the live show too.
How did you learn guitar?
All on YouTube. I was hearing stuff like Kimya Dawson on the Juno soundtrack, and I just loved the simplicity of it and wanted to work that out. That’s where my song Coffee came from so I guess I started in 2017 when I put that out.
It was the first song I wrote so it’s crazy and weird that it’s become such a big one for me.
What has growing up in the UK been like for you?
I came over to the UK at three and there have definitely been times where I’ve felt like a bit of an outsider for sure, especially when I was at school.
But I mean London is home and now that all that stuff is out of the way it’s the best place to meet different people who are on the same page.
My friends come from so many different backgrounds.
Your debut album Fake It Flowers reached No8. Did you find it harder to write the second album?
Honestly, the main difference was just having all this time and our own space to lose our minds a bit and experiment. We had this little writing room, and it just became our own world. Before that, though, some of these songs did come out of lockdown, like just really losing my mind and making little demos.
How was co-writing some songs with Matty Healy from The 1975?
He’s like a big brother mentor, and just a really close friend.
It’s good to have someone around who gets how mad stuff feels sometimes and it was cool to work with him.
We had loads of friends involved like Robin from Cavetown and Pink Pantheress, and Georgia from Jockstrap.
Are there any Scots acts you’d like to team up with, like Nina Nesbitt or Lewis Capaldi?
Oh yeah, definitely! Primal Scream or Cocteau Twins would be nuts. There’s so
much incredible music from Scotland.
Was lockdown tough or did writing help?
Yeah, it was really hard. I was sick with Covid early on.
I did really learn how to do my own demos, though.
What are your plans for the year and are you looking forward to being back in Scotland?
Yes, 100 per cent. I can’t wait to play the Barras on my headline tour in the autumn.
We’re going to tour a lot, doing a bunch of festivals and heading back to the States too.
And cool places in Europe, Japan and south-east Asia too.
● Beabadoobee’s Beatopia is out on July 15. New single 10:36 is out now. They play TRNSMT next Friday and return to Glasgow for a Barrowland headline show on October 15.