Lianne La Havas: Right Place At The Right Time
It’s been an awesome run of success for singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas, signing to Warner in 2010, appearing on Jools Holland in 2011, winning iTunes Album of the Year in 2012, performing at Glastonbury in 2013, and having Prince perform in her living room in 2014. Where to go from there!? To BIMM Bristol of course!
We were honoured to welcome Lianne to a Masterclass on the day of her headline appearance at Bristol’s O2 Academy. Host Annie Gardiner welcomed Lianne to the beautiful St George’s Hall where Lianne spoke to a hundred students. Annie told us:
“Lianne was a pleasure to interview and we had a good rapport from the outset. She was very focussed, intelligent and funny. The conversation flowed!”
Lianne was eager to talk about her love of songwriting:
Question: Do you look for something new in every song you write?
Lianne: Yes, absolutely, if somethings sounds fresh to my ears then I follow that. That is the bit I work on and it grows from there.
Lianne spoke about refining her writing method while making current album, Blood. She also touched on some highlights of working with Prince, who she described as a very lovely person – he even made tea while she was tracking!
Asked about women in the music industry, Lianne’s answer received a round of applause:
Question: Women are often sexualised in the music industry and you seem to steer away from that by focusing on the music and you do a good job of it. Is it hard to do?
Lianne: Not to start a debate, but if a woman is making her own decisions about what she is doing then it is her right to make that decision. If she wants to wear a bikini in a video she should be able to be free to do that, but not if she is being told by someone else just to sell more music.
Lianne also talked about she ended up with a contract at Warner Bros:
“I was in Los Angeles and Warner were there to meet with someone else’s manager. My music happened to be on in the background and the guy tracked me down to talk to me about it. I ended up getting a development deal from there!”
Luckily Lianne had the talent to back up her right-place-at-the-right-time moment! Thanks again for inspiring our students.
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