As part of the BRIT school alumni, Rhea Dean has been building her sound for a few years now. Having supported Katy B at Somerset House and Faithless at Electric Brixton, as well as performing at prestigious music venues including Shepherds Bush Empire and Ronnie Scott’s, she is now ready to release her debut EP. But before she does, Matt Tarr caught up with her to find out a bit more about this fast-rising talent…
We teamed up with you recently to run a remix competition for your track ‘Secret Lies’. What was it like having your track chopped up and played around with and what did you make of the entrants?
Rhea: It was really exciting to hear my song in a different light having been changed and mixed up. With the competition winner Luke, I loved that little drum & bass vibe. There’s actually a few tracks on my forthcoming EP that have a drum & bass flavour to them, so I’m a fan of that anyway. It was really enjoyable to hear all the tracks though.
Someone else who has recently provided a remix to one of your tracks is UK legend Matt Jam Lamont who remixed ‘Reflections’. How did you feel about having an artist with his status playing around with one of your songs?
Rhea: It’s such an honour. I’m really into house and garage and growing up I loved old skool garage; Sia’s ‘Little Man’ was even my ringtone for a little while! I was in Ibiza a couple of weeks ago and I went to see Matt Jam Lamont’s set in Sankeys and he played the track. I literally went nuts – I was so baffled I didn’t know what to do with myself. I tried to take a video but I was dancing around so much that the video’s crap and you can’t hear anything cos I’m going “aaaaahhhhhh”. It was crazy.
‘Secret Lies’ and ‘Reflections’ are the first two tracks that we’ve seen from you so far. How do you feel the reaction has been towards those tracks from fans and the music world?
Rhea: The response has been so positive. I’m getting the best response for ‘Reflections’ and people seem to just love it. It means a lot because when you’ve worked on something for so long, especially that song because it means so much to me and there’s a lot of meaning behind it, it’s great when people buy into the message you’re trying to put across. It’s a part of you really, so it means a lot when people can relate to it.
What was your thought process behind putting out those two tracks as the first ones from the EP?
Rhea: Just because they’re two of my favorite songs from the EP. I love all the tracks but those two mean the most to me. I wrote ‘Reflections’ when I was doing my dissertation, which was about how females in pop are oversexualised in society and I was looking at how women were projected to be a certain way, act a certain way and look a certain way and it just got me quite frustrated. That’s what that song is about because it’s just saying “No, fuck that – we’re our own person and we can do what we want.” We don’t need to be controlled and set back by these projections that people put onto us.
You alluded earlier to a few different styles that we can expect to hear on the forthcoming EP, but have you got a particular style of music that you would say is your favourite to make?
Rhea: Well I’m not held back by genres. All my tracks have a theme and at the end of the day they all come from me. So it’s like I’ve taken all these genres and eaten them, chewed them up and spat them out so that the songs have got bits of everything in them. They’re still me and I’m the main thing that keeps it all together, but they all have an electronic vibe to them, are quite emotional and I always tell a story in every one.
Songwriting is clearly a huge talent of yours and lyrically you showcase some serious skills. Is writing lyrics something that you’ve done since you were young?
Rhea: I’ve always written poetry and stuff from a young age and I only took songwriting seriously from about 18-years-old. It was then that I thought, “let me put some structure to this with verses, choruses etc”, so that’s when I started developing songs. But I did make up random songs when I was younger and my mum’s still got loads of cassettes of me singing randomness.
Having played a number of live shows around the UK this year, is performing your music live something that you particularly enjoy doing?
Rhea: Yeah definitely. It’s one of my favourite parts of being in this job. I absolutely love it. That’s what makes it all worthwhile. You can sit and write songs in a studio and record all day everyday, but it’s seeing first hand reactions from people face to face that is the most rewarding thing. Relating and connecting to your audience is the best part for me.
You can keep up to date with all the latest info on Rhea Dean’s upcoming EP and everything else by following her on Twitter and Facebook.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
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