Becky Hill opens up about getting dropped from her label, trusting your intuition and her sonically delicious debut album, ‘Only Honest On The Weekend’.
Only Honest On The Weekend is a diverse body of work that showcases Becky’s powerful vocals and colourful song-writing. Hits like Remember (ft. David Guetta), Business (ft. Ella Eyre) and My Heart Goes (La Di Da) (ft. Topic), playfully blend feel-good, empowering and feminine vibes, while others reveal Becky’s more sentimental side, including Perfect People and Distance.
Happy were lucky to sit down and speak with Becky about her turbulent experiences in the music industry and how they moulded her into the resilient and driven artist she is today.
BECKY: Hello.
HAPPY: Hi, how are you, Becky?
BECKY: Good, thank you. How are you?
HAPPY: I’m great. What time is it where you are?
BECKY: It is 10 to 10 in the morning? What about you?
HAPPY: It is 6.50 pm in Australia.
BECKY: Nice.
HAPPY: Yeah. Congratulations on, you know, the soon to be release of your debut album. I feel like this is something that you’ve had, in the works for a while. So, you must be itching to get it out. How are you feeling?
BECKY: Yeah, I’m really excited. It feels like Christmas for me.
HAPPY: Long time coming.
BECKY: Yeah, big build up to one day when it just gets released online, it feels weird.
HAPPY: Yeah, it’s crazy. You’ve got to have like a proper celebration for it after COVID, I guess.
BECKY: I don’t have time probably until the end of October now. So, yeah, got to stay on top of my game until then, when work kind of cools down a little bit.
HAPPY: Of course. So, I remember watching some of your interviews before, and last year, you mentioned that you felt like a lot of people didn’t really know your name, but they knew your music. Do you feel like knowing that influenced, I guess, the creative direction of this album?
BECKY: Sorry, say that again.
HAPPY: So, feeling like people didn’t really know your name, but they knew your songs. Did that influence the creative direction that you wanted to take with the album at all?
BECKY: Not really. It definitely influenced wanting the album to come out at a time when people did know my name more, but I wouldn’t say the lack of recognition influenced my album. I definitely kind of made a conscious decision to start doing dance music, because I was kind of writing and singing on other people’s tracks that were doing really well. That was in dance music. Yeah. But that’s probably… this album has been completely selfish, really, in terms of how it was made. I just wanted to make an album that I was really super proud of and that every song I loved. So, I definitely feel like I’ve done that.
HAPPY: Yeah. And even listening to it, like I know you’re quite known for your dance tracks and they’re amazing and they’re boppy and they’re high energy and they’re just lots of fun – even the breakup songs are fun and positive and boppy. But I did notice that you’ve also taken a different direction, I guess. Like you just branched out and experimented with your sound with songs like Distance and Perfect People. So, I definitely noticed that shift in the tone and just the general sound of the music with those songs. So, what were some of the catalysts that influenced those things? Were there experiences that you had that made you want to venture out into those different kinds of sounds?
BECKY: Well, it’s funny, really, because I think from where I’m kind of sitting, I’ve always done those sorts of sounds. I did an EP called Echo EP, which was from my independent label Echo Records, and my first single was a song called Losing. And then on the Gets to Know Greatest Hits album, there were four new tracks that were also in the same vein. So, what I like to see is people going, ‘oh, this is a really different sound to you.’ And I’m like, ‘you didn’t listen to the stuff beforehand.’ For me, it’s nice now that people are getting to, you know, see the other side of me if they haven’t previously heard those songs that have been in that same vein. It’s really nice to meet people who go, ‘oh, this is different’. And I’m like, ‘it’s not different. I’ve been doing this for years, but it’s only now that people are listening to all the stuff’, you know, and that’s where the satisfaction kind of comes from, is that people are actually listening to the thing… that the music I make now is getting slept on.
HAPPY: Yeah, well, you’ve got your headline tour coming up. And I think ten of the thirteen shows have sold out already. So that’s a sign that people are obviously, you know, checking in and definitely know who you are, and are more aware of your presence in the in the music industry!
BECKY: Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s amazing. It really feels… there’s a lot of gratification to working for 10 years in the music industry and feeling like you’re getting nowhere and that nobody really cares about your music and nobody’s listening to it to having, you know, an 80% sold show and a song went to number three in the charts and an album that’s coming out – it really feels like a proper progression.
HAPPY: And during those times, where you felt like people weren’t really listening, how hard was that to stay focused and just believe in yourself and know within yourself that you have the skills, you have the talent, and people are going to see it?
BECKY: Well, it’s kind of more based on the fact that I would be rubbish doing anything else other than this. This is where my talent starts and stops, fortunately. So, it’s kind of like this has to work, because I don’t have a plan B. But I think in terms of making music, I’ve always made music for myself. I think the moment that you step out and start trying to make music for what you think other people want to hear, I think it really stifles the creative process. I’ve always just loved… since I was 13, I just loved sitting and writing pop songs in my bedroom. And I think that’s really what’s driven me all these years, is that actually, when it comes down to it, I love performing, but the thing that I love doing most of all is writing music, I love writing music. It excites me more than anything else. And I think that is how I’ve gotten so much music to feature on other people’s records, you know, a lot of these songs were my records originally that turned into somebody else’s. Or kind of right place, right time writing sessions like Afterglow. And, you know, the next song that I did, which I know kind of got traction over that side of the world, was the first song I’d written in… well, since I was probably about 17 on my own, in my bedroom.
HAPPY: Wow.
BECKY: So, yeah, it was stuff like that to be like, ‘oh, wait actually I can do this.’ I’ve got a saying in the music industry that ‘It is easier to quit than it is to keep going’, and I feel like if you keep going, one day, eventually, you’ll make it and get a debut album.
HAPPY: And that’s exactly what you did.
BECKY: Ten years later. Yeah, eventually.
HAPPY: Hey, you still got there and look, just listening to it, it’s… I’m speechless, I don’t know, it’s just amazing. I love it. The songs are already stuck in my head, like I’m going to be going to sleep tonight and I’m going to be singing them in my head, like, ‘damn it, Becky!’
BECKY: *laughs* Thank you so much. I’m sorry in advance.
HAPPY: It’s OK. Oh, so sorry, I’ve just got to compose myself again. I was looking at the stuff that you did earlier when you were on The Voice, just because I wanted to see if your vocal style changed a lot, but I was pleasantly surprised to, you know, notice that you’ve still kept that really strong but feminine like… your vocal style hasn’t really changed. It’s just… I guess you’ve matured in your voice, but that style is still at the core, very much you and very much the same. Was there ever like a… well, how difficult was it to, I guess, stay true to those roots whilst ensuring that you were still growing as an artist? Did you ever feel like a pressure to change your style to tap into something a bit more mainstream?
BECKY: It was never necessarily pressure, but I saw, kind of as a businesswoman, a gap in the market within dance music. I think one of the saddest things about dance music is the lack of female presence. And I definitely saw a pattern between the features that I was doing – that I was singing and writing – and the success they would have, and the lack of female presence within that space. And it’s amazing now, because it is becoming more populated with female producers, and singer songwriters in dance. But there was, at the time, definitely a space that I could fill and fill it quite successfully as well. I always wanted to do pop music.
HAPPY: Oh, OK.
BECKY: I loved artists like Robin and Passion Pit, and that was kind of like where my influences were coming from. But then I realised that I was gaining success in a very empty space, and that I could probably captivate on that and go for it. I also love dance music. It kind of runs through me, and always has done since I was a young kid, so it kind of felt like the most natural step in my career, although I did find it a bit difficult to come to that conclusion at the time.
HAPPY: Yeah, and just to have that belief in yourself, especially at such a young age, you really had to trust your instincts and trust your gut.
BECKY: Yeah, and just see where the success was coming from. You know, I was really lucky to have got a lot of success with MK, Jonas Blue, Sigala, David Guetta and people like that. It was quite clear that that’s where I belonged.
HAPPY: And considering all that and all the things you know now, what would you say has been that biggest mindset changer for you? And I guess, lesson you’ve learned about being in the industry as a female in a very male dominated genre?
BECKY: I think getting dropped from a record label taught me a load of stuff. I think setting up my own record label and putting all my own money into it, and spending an obscene amount of money on that, actually. But honestly like the best money I could have ever probably spent, because I had so much fun, and I learned so much from running my own record label with my manager. You know, we chose the songs that we wanted to put out, we got them mixed and mastered and ready for release. We did our own artwork. We did our own videos. And it was such a special time for me, that was. And I loved the releases that we did and I put on my own show, but it taught me so much about how labels were run. And I learned so much from getting dropped after having a number one with Overdrive with Oliver Heldens, and then releasing my own single and not doing very well at all, and then getting dropped at Christmas, like that was pretty brutal. And then kind of going back in and trying to get signed again, and it not working and me walking out of a label meeting going, ‘I’m never going to go in one of those again.’ And my manager going, ‘OK, fine. We’ll set up our own label.’ And I think that was the biggest thing for me, and when I met Polidor, I knew how to play the game, and I knew what steps I needed to take to make them and myself successful, and that whole period of my life was really, really valuable.
HAPPY: Wow. Yeah, lots of takeaways from that. And, you know, knowing what you know about the industry, what’s a thing that you would love to see change in it, especially in the dance music industry?
BECKY: I know that there are a lot of bookers and promoters out there fighting for an equal line-up. I know that there is now more of a space for female producers, but there’s definitely a lack of them, especially in the roles of people like Steve Mac or Max Martin or… you know, I can’t really name a big pop producer who’s female. And one thing that I would love is to work with more female producers who are killing it in the overground as well as the underground. But there are some amazing women coming up – Tesha, Sherrell, India, Jordan. There’s lots of women that are coming up that are incredibly talented, especially in the dance realm.
HAPPY: That’s exciting, and I think, you know, you’ve probably helped pave that way and keep the faith going with those artists as well, and producers.
BECKY: Yeah, hopefully. I mean, I will. I’d probably say that… I wouldn’t say that I necessarily paved any way for producers, but I like to think that, you know, if we keep shouting about it enough, it will encourage more women to get into those roles.
HAPPY: Definitely 100 percent. Becky, I know you’ve got to go. Thank you so much for taking the time out to have a chat with me. It’s been great. It’s been lovely talking to you, and all the best for the tour. I’m just so excited for people to hear the album. It’s going to be sick!
BECKY: Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time. You’re beautiful as well, by the way. I’m so sorry, I can’t stop staring at you.
HAPPY: Oh, stop.
BECKY: Have a lovely evening. And thanks again for this. Also, just a plug. I’ve got a new single out with Topic called My Heart Goes, which…
HAPPY: I love that one, yes!
BECKY: That’s going to be a really exciting moment for me as well. So, thank you so much for all of this.
HAPPY: Thank you, Becky. Have a good one.
BECKY: Thank you. Take care.
Only Honest On The Weekend is out now on all streaming services – check it out!
Interview by Alex Stefanovic
Photos Supplied.
