YOUNG BRITS DOING BITS: GEORGE RILEY

Words by Luc Hinson

Photography by Dan Pipe

Artwork by Tom Shotton

We caught up with West London born and Leeds based musician George Riley. George talked us through her journey, growing up Jamaican and Jewish, speaking on her identity, her musical influences, and finding validation and self-worth in her music. The full interview continues below.

BB: Thanks for sitting down with us George, for those who may not be familiar with you give us a brief introduction...
GR: Personally, I’m of Jamaican and Jewish heritage. I grew up in West London and I'm studying philosophy and politics in my final year, which I've enjoyed, and hated. I've enjoyed my course to an extent but I've found that in it I haven't seen myself represented at all, in both the lecturers and the student body. Everything about university felt like something I couldn't penetrate. So, I think the course and experience socially has forced me to take a step back from a lot of people, but in a really good way where I’ve had a chance to figure out what I want to do.

Music has always been something I've wanted to do; I’ve always been a musical person. I did musical theatre at Sylvia Young for five years, which isn't something I'm particularly into, but it brought out a confidence in me, made me feel like I could perform and be on stage, which I really enjoy. Making music is just so male-dominated and as a singer that doesn't play an instrument, I was so reliant on other people to fulfill my dream of making music. That meant going through so many producers who I didn't get on with, who didn't listen to what I had to say. Then I was like, "Fuck it, my ex downloaded Ableton onto my laptop, and I was like okay let me have a go." It wasn’t a quick thing at all, I’m still not that great at all, I still work with a producer. But now I feel like I have the vocabulary to articulate what I want to happen; I've got so much confidence. Now when I walk into those spaces with rappers, who are just bunning so much that they can’t even speak to each other, it’s so insecure, and that environment is so intimidating to walk into as a woman and feel like you're just being seen as one light-skinned singer. Now I feel, even in this past year, I've been doing the Black Feminist Society at Uni, I’m lucky enough to be on the committee; other people get so much out of it, but what I get out of it is for my sense of self, validation and feeling deserving of being in that University space; I’m so grateful for that. It’s really helped with my confidence, having these strong women around me all the time.

BB: When did you first become interested in music?
GR: I’ve always been interested in music; my dad was in music, it's always felt like part of my family and my upbringing. We’d listen to a lot of jazz; my dad has a reggae background. I think I’m a very expressive person, and singing for me was a way to expel that energy. I think it was something in me that I wanted to do. Now I see it very much as a tool. For ages in my teens, I was like, "Why isn't this happening to me NOW?" It got to a point when I became an adult and I realized no, you've got to do this yourself. I started to think about the image and what I wanted to say. It’s an innate thing I have, but I want to use it to tell a specific story, and maturity has taken that to happen. Now there’s so much focus on releasing and being independent; there's so much more room for the artist now to think about how they want to be portrayed and what they want to say. That’s also because of the political situation; we’re in such dire turmoil all the time; if you’re not saying anything, you won't do well.

BB: I feel like it’s indicative of the working environment we inhabit now that people are so much more inclined to give freelance work a go, it seems like on the surface we appear more well-rounded, we have to market and brand ourselves now.
GR: I would say that although we seem a lot more well-rounded on the surface, a lot of it is so shallow. You can so easily post a story about an issue and think that’s my bit done for this. I’ve seen a lot of that performative activism lately. Social media wasn't something I did at all, and then I realized it's crazy to be a musician and not have any kind of social media at all. I just find it so painful, also for my own mental health and “who are you…?” like how can I do this honestly? I'm trying!

BB: Who and what are the biggest influences on your sound?
GR: The Black Experience, especially for me it's my own identity; I struggled with it so much growing up, being biracial. I was brought up Jewish and then almost later found out that I was Black from other people. I was so confused throughout secondary school as people pushed a stereotype on me that I didn't quite fit, and I was trying to live up to that version of the stereotype that they had created in their own mind. Throw into that mix as well, just being so fetishised and sexualised from an early age. It took me to leave school for sure to really figure out what being Black meant to me and whether I could also be myself and be Black or be mixed. It’s so difficult when you have so many other ideas that society tells you what you should be; to come out the other side and self-identifying has been really liberating. Self-identifying the Black experience and there not being one essential understanding of myself.

BB: What are you hoping to portray in your music, what do you want your listeners to come away with?
GR: Validation, self-assurance, vulnerability. I think if I could do anything it would be to let people know they’re not alone, whatever they’re feeling—whether that’s defining their Britishness, knowing their mistakes, and I say vulnerability because to love someone, or yourself even, you have to be so vulnerable. You have to see parts of you that need more work. That’s something that has taken me a long time to come to terms with, and I feel so validated the more and more I do it and come out of it. So if I can do that for other people, particularly Black women, I will have succeeded. I’ll have succeeded anyway because it’s therapy for me; it’s therapy up until a point where you have to start mixing, and mastering and putting it out, the long work that goes between making something and the final product.

BB: What does home mean to you?
GR: My family I guess because I haven't always been as close to them. I was always quite odd as a child and I'm still odd; I'm just an odd person. But I've always felt normal within my family if that makes sense. I have to say London as well; there's no feeling like pulling up to London and seeing the skyline, being able to walk outside and have no one know you, that sense of anonymity. Especially someone like me because I like to dress how I dress, which is sometimes quite vibrant. Being able to walk outside and just do that, I feel much more comfortable being expressive with what I wear in London than in Leeds.

BB: What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say Britishness?
GR: Me. I do feel British. Because even though I'm not from here at all, I’m not anything else. The hard thing now, for many people, Britain doesn’t look like the Britain they feel, but for me, that’s all I am.

BB: What are your hopes for the rest of 2019?
GR: I don’t want to say finish my degree because that’s really boring but I do need to do that. I just want to be happy in 2019; in the next few months, I’m not going to take anything on unless I want to do it.