Gail
Words and Photographs by Willow Shields
It’s the middle of the beginning of Spring, and I’m in a massive park in South London with one of my favourite (and one of my most recently discovered) artists: Gail. She is a model, a musician and a personification of a ray of sunshine. After she shows me round her local park, which happens to rival my semi-local Hampstead Heath in both size and beauty, we take a seat on two logs which are normally used as stepping stones in a miniature pond, which has dried up due to the recent heat wave.
What kind of music do you make?
I always call it indie pop. I’d say it fits into that category pretty nicely, I like to include some rock element sometimes.
What’s your favourite thing to write songs about?
Oh god... it’s been a thing for me to just be writing about love, which is not anything new. But everyone has something new to say. Which is just writing about things that have happened to me, things in my diary that I’ve been like, “that could be a new way to embarrass myself. That could sound cool over a beat.”
Are you a “writing things at 2am in your notes app” kind of gal?
Oh wow you as well? There’s a camera in my room? Yeah I actually am and I glad you mentioned that, I don’t know what it is about writing with a pen and paper but my hand gets so tired. And you know, since I’ve not had to do that (school in a Little book) my arm just doesn’t work in that way. So much easier to type it out. The Apple notes app is great.
After going on a tangent about what different settings represent about ones personality, we arrive at Tik Tok, and online-ness.
Would you describe yourself as chronically online?
I would, yes. That’s fair. My screen time has gone down. I’ve been going outside more. In fact we’re outside now! But I think it’s... like Instagram I’m not really on. But Tik Tok is just such a curatable algorithm. Like... ooo.. this is a fun little song that someone’s singing. Oooo that’s a cute outfit... and I just can’t stop- OOO that’s a yummy recipe. It’s so much fun!!!
Who has influenced you in your music, fashion, life?
Music; I said this to you earlier, but I literally love Nilüfer Yanya. She’s probably one of my favourite musicians. Every time she has tickets out I buy a ticket to see her, she’s so cool. I’ve been stood next to or near her so many times and I never say hello because I’m just like so intimidated by how cool she is, and how much I love her music. But yeah everything she makes I buy and listen to. Very inspired by her music and her guitar, it’s very cool. We both just like very electric guitar heavy music. I don’t know, something about women and guitars. I always say this to friends who are probably sick of me saying I only listen to women bands and when I see a line up in London I try to check out who’s a woman or non binary or femme who I can go and support and listen to. I love Julia Jacklin, one of my faves and icons. The album crushing is just stunning. My friend Kitty Perrin has a new EP out, its very cool. They’re a very cool singer/songwriter. The way their stuff comes together is very cool and inspiring. Also, Sarah Meth is someone I’ve seen in London a few times recently, her songs are also very beautiful and inspiring, she has a new song out called ‘blue’. It’s really beautiful.
What is your favourite colour?
So I’ve got two. My original favourite colour has been a mainstay in my life since I was like 15, was red. I’d get everything in red. In my final Uni accommodation last year I had red gingham curtains and a red gingham bedspread and it just looked like a grannies picnic. And my new favourite colour that has recently entered the mix is, I really like purple. But more specifically lilac. It just makes me really happy. Do you ever just see a colour and you just get a little rush of serotonin?
What is your favourite season?
Easy! I was born in September, my favourite season is autumn, AND I have reasons why. I get really bad hay fever and eczema, Spring is actually just a logistical and physical nightmare, like I feel like I’m gonna die. Summer is like...also does not great things to my health. Like too much sun is bad and we all love it, but not too much. I hate being cold, so Autumn is this beautiful in between. Everything is dying on the trees so I don’t have to worry about that part. Or cry off the bottom of my makeup as you’ve seen. It also looks really beautiful, although 2012 may have ruined that because everything in 2012 felt like it was about autumn. You know how there’s like a colour of the year that are prominent in high fashion. Like 2012 just reminds me of burgundy and mustard and forest green and just I feel like it just ruined the good name of Autumn. Like pumpkin spice, Costa Coffee as an organisation. I love gingerbread right? But they have too much to do with Autumn. Is it ruining the good nature of Autumn? Perhaps.
Were you good at sports in school?
Oh god no, really bad. Really, really bad. My mum used to say to me that I used to wait for my friends in the races to hang out with them. Shed say ‘you never win the races because you keep turning back to hang out with your friends’. None of us are good at sports so I don’t know what she was weighing in for. It was just because I didn’t want to be there I wanted to hang out with my friends. I was at a sports day thing. I used to lie all the time to get out go PE. In year 11, which seems way too late to do that, in tennis when balls went off court we’d steal them because we couldn’t play so no one else could. We were just bored. But yeah I’m not good at sports or PE. I did doing the gym the other day so who knows where that’ll lead me. It’s like TV shows set in LA, they all ‘love spin class’.
What is your favourite film and why?
I’m going to not answer the question but also answer the question because I have a few... Clueless; sick outfits, wrote my dissertation on it, literally have watched it every month since I was 15. Get Out; iconic, the only sort of level of scary I can take, sticks with you but to a level I can manage and not cry myself to sleep. I really like About Time; cute movie about love, I don’t know if I’ll experience that love in that movie but.... It’s a movie so I don’t feel bad about that and its a fake written man and lady so I don’t feel bad. I also really love Legally Blonde. Understated feminist film from 2000 and really stands the test of time.
So there you have it folks, that’s all of Gails likes, dislikes, online habits. I absolutely fell in love with her when we met, and did it all over again when I listened to her music! I sincerely hope you do the same, because if anyone deserves all the fame and fortune in the world, it’s Gail.
