Electro artist Billy Lloyd: “Feel happy with yourself and accept yourself”
Billy Lloyd have made quite a name for themself in the past year, having been played on BBC Radio 1xtra and been on tour around the world in countries such as Russia and America. And if you’re wondering why we’re referring to Billy as a ‘them’ – Billy identifies as queer, preferring the pronoun ‘them’ as they feel it fits them better and steers away from the gender binary.
“It feels great to see people’s reactions to it and to see people connecting to it and to just finally have it there for people to listen to it after teasing it for so long,” says Billy of the release of their new EP, Who (//). “I’m really proud of the work, I feel that it’s some of my most mature work, really.”
Billy has drawn inspiration from the likes of Patrick Wolf, Bjork and Lana Del Rey. Their first EP took a look at ideas such as consumerism, personal identity and online reality – in the second act of this trilogy they have delved even further into these ideas with great harmonies and melodies throughout.
The track Log In focuses on the Internet and how people can use it to escape their world and find new communities.
“I love the Internet… I think that it is just like the greatest invention that our generation will ever see and it does so much for people, especially vulnerable people who are not part of the mainstream hegemony, such as LGBT people,” says Billy.
“Through positive feedback from people, you are able to become more comfortable with yourself in real life so you can use that as a tool to feel comfortable with yourself and feel happy with yourself and accept yourself for who you are.”
Billy has written and produced all of the songs on both EP’s, except for one: the track One Day “is actually and adaptation of a poem by one of my oldest friends Waverly March and I thought it was such a beautiful and moving poem that I wanted to turn it into a song”.
Due to the unfortunate closure of The Black Cap, Billy had to cancel their recent planned London gig, however they hope that there will be a chance to play in the city before they move to New York. This hasn’t affected their appetite for live performing, as they will be attending Indie Fest on May 22 in Estonia.
Look out for the third part of the trilogy of EPs in late 2015, followed by an album.
“My plan is to re-visit the first and second EPs and kind of re-mix them and get them all re-mastered and to re-release it as one body of work at the very end so then it’s kind of rounded off”.
Check out the video for Nature, the second single off their new EP, Who (//):
For news and upcoming shows head to their site and keep up with them on Twitter.
WORDS BY JOSH BANKS