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MusicTranscript
00:00 - Good morning, Shy Girl.
00:01 - Hi.
00:02 - How are you feeling today?
00:04 - I feel finally awake.
00:05 It's taken me a minute,
00:06 but I'm usually an afternoon girly,
00:08 but I'm up and ready.
00:10 - You're doing well.
00:11 Well, Nymphs is an amazing album.
00:14 Now the Mercury Prize agrees.
00:15 How does it feel?
00:16 - I'm so torn, 'cause half of me is like,
00:20 "You totally deserve this,"
00:21 and the other half of me is like, "I'm so grateful."
00:24 So I'm like, half and half.
00:26 That's why Shy Girl is a juxtaposition in itself.
00:29 But I do feel like you have to back yourself,
00:31 and I did believe in myself up until this point,
00:34 but it's just great to be in the room
00:35 with so many other amazing artists.
00:37 And I think that I will speak about the most,
00:40 because it makes me look even better.
00:41 Everyone else is so amazing on this list.
00:43 (both laughing)
00:45 - Well, each of the shortlisted records
00:47 tends to say something different
00:48 about life in music over the last year or so.
00:49 I mean, what can you tell us
00:51 about the character of this record
00:52 and what you were trying to say?
00:53 - I think I just really wanted it to encapsulate
00:55 who I was in the making,
00:57 and that I had learned so much with the other EPs,
01:01 and being in the studio with so many amazing producers,
01:05 I had picked up a thing or two,
01:06 and I had something I wanted to say solely off my own back.
01:10 Like, it wasn't really guided
01:11 by anything other than my own intuition,
01:13 and that that was worthwhile following.
01:16 - Well, the live shows have been amazing, too,
01:17 and there's been a really great atmosphere there.
01:19 What can you tell us about kind of
01:21 the community around Shy Girl
01:22 and the way that the world
01:24 has kind of taken this record to heart?
01:26 - It's really interesting, 'cause I'm still
01:28 really getting to know it on the road,
01:29 and I'm always so surprised by who turns up at the shows.
01:32 You know, the crowd is so vast,
01:35 and even the other day, my grandma was front row herself,
01:37 so she was definitely loving it.
01:39 - Shy gran?
01:40 - Not shy at all.
01:41 But it's just been so cathartic, I think,
01:45 just being able to be there on stage,
01:46 talk about how I feel, get the energy out,
01:49 and then have people screaming about
01:50 Coochie straight up at me from the crowd.
01:53 But it's like things I just did not imagine,
01:55 like even playing at Glastonbury,
01:56 like I never saw myself being where I am right now,
01:59 and it's just nice to surprise myself and be here.
02:02 - I've always wondered, what's it like to say,
02:03 hello Glastonbury!
02:04 - I mean, the first time I definitely said hello Bristol,
02:07 which I got, at this time, I was like,
02:09 I'm just gonna say hi, I'm Shy.
02:10 (laughing)
02:12 So yeah, not messing it up anymore,
02:14 but honestly, it was just nice to see so many people.
02:17 I was playing Park Stage this year,
02:18 so it was just a beautiful crowd,
02:20 and just next year, I really wanna be in the crowd
02:22 more myself as well,
02:23 and like get a bit of that Glastonbury feel.
02:26 - And speaking of bucket list moments,
02:27 what's it like to have a friend, fan,
02:29 and collaborator in Bjork?
02:32 - I mean, it was more nerve-wracking actually
02:33 when she asked me to book a table for dinner,
02:35 and I was like, where do I take Bjork for dinner?
02:37 - She doesn't do Nando's.
02:38 - Yeah, I was like, I ended up taking her somewhere
02:41 completely ludicrous where there was sword swallowers,
02:43 so I think it was perfect.
02:45 But no, making music together has just been
02:47 a crazy experience.
02:48 I think I cried when I heard the first demo back,
02:51 when Sega sent it to me for the remix we did for her,
02:55 and then even just having her talk me through her lyrics
02:58 she was writing for the remix we did together.
03:00 And we've actually spoken at length about her experiences
03:04 in the music industry and how she feels like
03:06 she relates to me as well,
03:07 which has just been beyond my wildest dreams.
03:11 I grew up listening to Hunter on repeat,
03:14 and imagining I was in a world other than my own,
03:16 and I feel like now I'm really in control of the world
03:19 I'm creating, and the people that are engaging with me
03:22 have hugely validated me.
03:23 - Amazing, do you think you'll collab again,
03:24 or are you just friends for life now?
03:26 - I hope so, I feel like we've got a whole record
03:28 somewhere brewing, I need to get to Iceland, I think.
03:31 I think there's more there,
03:32 and I love that with my collaborators,
03:35 it's not just one and done,
03:36 I wanna go back, we're great friends,
03:38 and I really wanna see what else we can
03:40 provoke out of each other.
03:42 - Amazing, and we've been living with the record
03:43 for a bit now, have you had thoughts about the next album?
03:46 - I'm already deep in it, so I feel very inspired.
03:50 This is definitely giving me more juice.
03:53 I'm taking the sound in a slightly different direction,
03:55 so that's what I love, as soon as you're comfortable,
03:58 I'm like, snatch the rug straight from underneath you.
04:00 But no, I can't wait to play,
04:01 and I think I'm gonna play some of the new stuff
04:04 as the shows go on, just to keep it fresh
04:06 and keep my fans fed.
04:07 - What can you tell us about the vibe of what's to come?
04:10 - There's a lot of guitar.
04:11 Yeah, I think you'd be surprised, Shai does indie.
04:14 (laughing)
04:15 And it's not a joke, no.
04:16 But the thing is, I just think, I've been so eclectic,
04:20 and I kinda wanna stay to that,
04:21 and I'm really pushing myself in terms of learning
04:26 more about the instruments I'm using,
04:28 and which might seem like a no-brainer,
04:29 but I kinda feel like I walked in off the street sometimes
04:34 into the studio, and I've been learning ever since,
04:36 and there's just more I wanna uncover.
04:38 - Lyrically, what's been inspiring you?
04:41 - Love.
04:41 I know it's a cliche, but I'm so in love,
04:44 and I was like, ah, I thought this was gonna dead
04:46 my lyrics almost, 'cause sometimes when you're too happy,
04:48 it's like, okay, what do I even say?
04:49 But there seems to be a lot I have to say,
04:51 and I feel like I'm being way more poetic,
04:54 getting to the real root of songwriting, which I love.
04:58 I'm a big fan of just getting my heart out into the lyrics,
05:01 and I feel like, actually, up until now,
05:04 I've been quite reductive to what I'm capable of,
05:06 and I can't wait to just give more of me.
05:08 - Nice one.
05:09 And back to the Merkure Prize.
05:10 If you were to put some money down, other than yourself,
05:13 who do you reckon's gonna win?
05:15 - Ah, that's so hard.
05:18 I don't know.
05:19 I've really loved watching Ray's journey,
05:24 and she would be probably the person I would say,
05:28 but also Ben, Loyal Karna, is the nicest person,
05:33 and his music has really,
05:34 the sentimentality of it has really touched me,
05:39 and I even had a weird anecdote with him, actually,
05:43 recently, where my younger cousin reached out and was like,
05:46 I love Loyal Karna.
05:47 Obviously, he doesn't care about my music.
05:49 Loves Loyal Karna, and so I connected them both,
05:51 and he even texted him, "Happy birthday," and stuff,
05:54 and I was just like, he said he made music for young boys,
05:57 like my cousin, you know,
05:58 and it was just so nice to engage directly with that,
06:01 and this is why I just love who else is shortlisted,
06:03 'cause I'm just like, couldn't be better people, you know,
06:05 like people who genuinely live by the music that they make
06:08 and have gone through it to make it, you know,
06:11 like, it's all very genuine.
06:13 - Sweet.
06:13 Shaigo, thank you very much.
06:14 - Thank you.
06:15 (audience applauding)
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