HENRY MOODIE’S REFLECTIVE ROAD TO RELATABILITY

BY: DENISE J. MALLaBO

PHOTOGRAPHER: YURI HASEGAWA, FASHION STYLIST: STEPHANIE GUTIERREZ, GROOMING: JOSEPH ADIVARI, DIGITAL TECH: ELLIOTT SMITH-HASTIE, PRODUCER: JESSE ZAPATERO

UK – based singer Henry MoodIE was relaxed as he prepared to speak with me. He’s back in Surrey, enjoying the tranquility of the countryside. His calm belied the fact that he had recently returned from an intense international tour to promote his music. This year, the 20-year-old traveled to Europe, the United States, and Asia to meet with fans from those continents.

“It literally blows my mind that I come from a small village in England and my songs are blowing up at the complete other side of the world. Going over and seeing it connect with other people. When I'm on stage, I'm seeing people's faces light up when they hear their favorite song. Sometimes I'd see people crying when they're singing ‘pick up the phone’ because it's helping them through hard times,” shares Henry.

Henry's happiness stems from his ability to express his emotions through singing, and the fact that his music resonates with others, making him feel less alone.

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Henry began uploading TikTok videos of himself covering songs by artists like Adele, Sam Smith, Justin Beiber, One Direction, and many more during the peak of the pandemic. Until he began sharing his original compositions, "you were there for me," "drunk text," "closure," and "pick up the phone," which were met with an overwhelming response on the platform thanks to his 6.4 million followers. The extent to which his music had garnered support from his diverse fan base, whom he refers to as "Moodets," became clear to him when he started performing live as an open act at concerts, festivals, and intimate gigs. Social media certainly played a huge part in Henry and his songs’ popularity. He’s appreciative for it and he likes the community that his music has built and continues building. “I know quite a lot of people that their friendship groups are people that they met at concerts, that they met online. Fan base culture creates such a lovely friendship community and you can bring people together, that's one thing I love about it,” he shares. He makes certain that the community he is attempting to develop through his music is diverse, inclusive, and as conversational as possible. While he is aware of the pros and cons of having a large online subscriber base, he is grateful that the majority of his followers just express his love and gratitude.

During a brief respite from touring since he’ll be back on tour again and will do a few festivals in Asia, Henry sat down with A Book Of and talk about his use of writing as a kind of therapy, his intention to write more "happy" songs, and his latest single "bad emotions," among others.

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You have been writing songs since you were 13. What topics did you write about at such a young age?

I've been writing songs since age 13 but they're nowhere near good songs. They were just whatever was going on at that time in my school; friendship drama. Sadly, I was bullied at school so I wrote a few songs about that. I like to think that I've improved since then. I've got a new phone and I lost all my old voice notes. I wish I could find them and listen to them.

I was in the studio a month ago, I did write a song about something that happened in school. I've done a lot of reflecting recently on things that happened in my life, where is normally when I am in the studio it's very much what's currently happening that I will write about. The other day I wrote about my experience getting bullied at school. It was interesting going back to that place that I was five years ago. I'm definitely thinking about reusing all those concepts.

You've been immersed in music since you were young, from listening to others to making your own songs. How did you decide to pursue this as a career, releasing your music and touring to promote it?

To be fair, at first, I never really thought I could do this because it's such a dream that everyone has. It was never really in my head, me asking, "How do you get into this industry? What do you do?" I started posting in social media when I was 14 or 15 and when I started getting traction on TikTok during Covid, that's when I was like, "this could be my way in this industry." And that's when I started really thinking that maybe I could do this as a job because social media, as everyone knows, for independent artist, which I was at that time is so powerful. You can really start your career if you have an internet connection and a phone. That's what I ended up doing. I kept posting on social media consistently and I kept writing songs. I went to this songwriting college in London and I was learning more and more. For a couple of years now, I've been trying to take in as much information as possible, to learn as much as I can. I put out my first song when I was 18 called "You Were There for Me" independently. Because I was able to figure out how social media can help me and I was able to build my audience, that song blew up. Then I signed a record deal and it was just a snowball effect after that. It's a scary thing to think of it as a job because it's not really common, it's quite unique.

You said in an interview that your mother is a therapist, which is why you feel comfortable discussing your feelings. What is her opinion of your music?

She is like, "Henry, you need to write some happy songs, your songs are so depressing." She has a point, so I started to write some happier stuff. She's really just proud of me. My mum just always wants me to do what makes me happy. She never pushed me into this career. To be honest, for a while, she didn't want me to go in this career, but I think she saw how music makes me happy. She just supports me. I'm just so grateful to have such an amazing parent.

I think she listened to my songs and she's like, "Henry, you've therapized yourself." If you listen to some parts of my songs, it literally sounds like a therapy session that's snuck in to a song. At the start of a song, I'm singing about my anxiety and by the end of the song, I resolved it. But yeah, occasionally she'd be like, "Henry, what's going on? Talk to me." And I'm like, "I'm fine, I promise."

Doing something creative is such a blessing. I feel so lucky doing this as a job. It's so fulfilling that I turn up to work every day and I'm doing something I enjoy. It's a real privilege. I keep reminding myself, because this career can be overwhelming at times, that I'm so lucky to be doing this.

You have always written songs that reflect your personal experiences. What are your thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of doing so

The advantages of being open is it can help other people because I think as an artist and as a listener myself, I'm a big fan of Taylor Swift and Conan Gray, the vulnerability in their songs helped me. It's nice to feel that you're not alone and someone is going through the same thing as you. The disadvantages I would say are, I hate the speculation, especially with "drunk text" all my friends were like, "who is it about?" I'm like, "it's about someone but I'm not saying." I haven't told anyone who "drunk text" is all about and it's been out now for like a year and a half. I managed to keep that one a secret.

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Your songs "drunk text," "pick up the phone," "you were there for me," and "closure" are incredibly relatable, regardless of whoever you are singing them to. Are you currently experiencing any pressure to compose songs that are immediately relatable and people can latch on, as opposed to songs that are more carefree?

There is definitely a pressure, I think every artist is going to get to where you want your songs to be relatable and personal and I went into a writer's block a little bit actually at the start of the year wherein I was trying to chase another "pick up the phone" another "drunk text." You can never recreate; you've got to let it be and move on to something new and now I'm in the position where I'm writing songs and I blocked out all the outside noise that's telling me that "it needs to be like this or like this." I'm just writing music that I relate to and now I feel like I'm back in a place where I'm writing songs that I'm just so excited to put out. I was listening to a demo before this Zoom and I'm so excited to start teasing it. But yes, there's definitely is pressure, 100%. I think that's part of the reason why I haven't written many happy songs because happy music is quite difficult to write. Because sometimes it ends in a cringey space very quickly. I really tried. One of my biggest goals is to write a happy song and for it not to be cringey and for it to be relatable at the same time. Luckily, I've done that, it's a song called "good ol' days," which is an unreleased song that I'm planning to put out soon. I think it's really important to put out happy music out there but definitely, song writing is therapy for me so I naturally lean towards sadder emotions.

You have millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok, which is helpful to promote your music and brand. We know what the benefits that it can give, but what to do you think are the drawbacks of having such a large fan base online?

Negatives of social media? There's so many. Our generation are in a crisis right now, I have no attention span anymore because I'm scrolling on Tiktok and Instagram too much. I can't keep my focus on things, I notice that about myself. I really need to put down the phone. I feel like there's so much hate, luckily, I don't get it on my videos. Most of the time, when I go on someone’s Instagram reels and would scroll through, the top three comments are just hate or just people pick out the worst part of every video. It's interesting because I feel like hate comments are always a reflection of the person commenting it versus on what's actually happening. Every time I'd see those hate comments, I think that there are so many sad people who are taking it out on others. It goes to show how unhappy a lot of people online are. It makes me sad how much hate I see online, it's horrible. They must be so bitter in their own life. It's a reflection on how so many people need to work on their mental health.

You just released your new song “Bad Emotions.” Can you tell us about the song?

"bad emotions" is a song about me and my mental health. I feel like is a bit similar to "pick up the phone" in the sense that my mission in that song is just to help and motivate people. I'm really, really excited about that song, but honestly, I don't really give a fuss about numbers and how well it would do, my goal is just that it would help people going through a hard time. That's my mission for the song. If it helps one person, then I'm happy.

You performed at sold-out shows last year and are now touring Asian countries. What is the best part of traveling the world and performing in front of people that sing your song in unison? Where do you want to go next?

That makes me so happy and it heals the part that hurt. A big song in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia is "drunk text" and playing that song was so fun because the entire audience were singing-along. That was just a moment that I would never forget. I'm excited to go back and perform again. I think its seeing people get moved by the music and also, it's cool to see that I got quite a big demographic of listeners; older and younger people, all genders. It's nice to see that my songs are connecting with all types of people. It's heartwarming, I love performing. I also love seeing different cultures. I've always been obsessed about learning about different cultures and now being able to travel and do that as part of my job, it's an added bonus to the music. I feel very lucky.

I'm excited to go to Japan somewhere in August. I'm just excited to be back out on the road really. It's interesting being at home. I haven't been at home for more than one - two weeks at a time for the past two years, I've always been traveling so being at home for a month, I'm like, "what do I actually do with my time?"

What do you hope your fans take away from watching a Henry Moodie concert?

I hope they like it. I hope they feel like they get their money's worth. I hope that they feel a sense of community. When I did my first tour, I was watching all these friendship groups form because people would come to my shows, and they would meet. I hope people find new friends at my concerts, sing-along, and just have a great time. I hope they enjoy it. I hope I don't mess up.

In an interview, you mentioned that you’d like to stretch yourself and write more happy songs because your songs are depressing, which i think they’re not. How’s that coming along?

I've done it. I've managed to write a couple of happy songs that are going to be on the upcoming EP. There's actually three of them. I'm just so excited because I feel like I've expanded my songwriting ability more. I'm also constantly looking for new things to do. I've always lived by the mentality of keep stretching your comfort zone and growing as a person. So yeah, I've written some happy songs, there's obviously a lot of sad ones. I'll always be writing sad song for the rest of my life.

What are you looking forward the most this year in terms of your music career?

I'm looking forward to the festivals in Asia because I've never really done festivals. I'm just excited to be in different countries. I'm excited to write the first album as well.

If you were a book, can be a title or a genre, what kind of book would you be and why?

I would like to think self-help book because I feel like I'm trying to do that with my music.