In Conversation With #239 - H. L. Grail
H. L. Grail has just shared her incredible meditative debut EP ‘Island’ - which is out now via Spinny Nights imprint Underfoot.
Island is a sprawling 4 track piece that speaks to a particularly difficult time in Mullineaux’s life. Written in a seaside apartment in Portsmouth, as an attempt to process a volatile and emotionally draining relationship, Island is an unfiltered outpouring of love, pain and disappointment.
She took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Holly, - how are you? So your EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
I'm doing well thank you! It's certainly been a long time coming... These songs have been around for a couple of years now and they mostly relate to quite a difficult time in my life. Putting them out feels like a release (pardon the pun) and now I can focus on a more positive new chapter.
It is called ‘Island’ - what is the meaning behind that?
So I'm from Portsmouth, and the majority of these songs were written there, so there's a literal connection in that sense, but mostly I'm fascinated by the island mentality that exists there. I wasn't really aware of it until having lived in London for 7 years before moving back to Southsea. There's an incomparable sense of pride and community but on the flip side there's a lot of ignorance and resistance to change. I feel that the word island also has deeply lonely connotations of isolation and of being disconnected from others, which is something that I saw in my partner around the time of writing the EP.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
I recorded it with my good friend Euan Hinshelwood at Vacant TV studios in Greenwich. My band Goat Girl used to practice there so it felt like home. Euan's so wonderful to work with, he makes you feel really at ease and he's got a great ear for getting good vocal takes. I roped in my trusty Goats to play some additional parts. There's violin by Lottie Pendlebury, cello by Reuben Kyriakides, backing vocals, synth and extra guitar by Ellie Rose-Davies and Rosy Jones came up with the genius midi percussion on OTD. Euan played some sax lines for me that I'd originally written on midi for trombone and another one of my best friend's Daisy Goodwin came and sang on it also. I wanted it all to feel quite free and spontaneous so there were no rehearsals or anything and it came out beautifully. I particularly enjoyed mixing the organic sounds like piano and acoustic with effects to make them sound a bit more woozy and seasick.
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
Perhaps it's a bit of a cliché but it's basically a break up EP. The songs were/are my way of dealing with the fallout of a volatile and emotionally draining relationship. I. guess they're quite literal in their examination of love, loss, pain and disappointment but I think there's a hopefulness in the music or an eventual acceptance that I did the right thing by ending it.
If the EP could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
I'm really not too much of a film buff, but something sad and beautiful, featuring the sea in some way. I remember Free Willy being pretty heartbreaking at the end.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP - if so, which one and why?
There's a couple that stick out... "with my feet in the sand I wished you were a better man" sums it up pretty well or "you haunt the walls like a fading memory, it's all ingrained in a mental tapestry" really gets across how I felt at the time.
Now the EP is out there - what next?
I'm fully immersed in writing the third Goat Girl album at the moment but there's a H. L. Grail headline show at the Ivy House in Nunhead on the 9th of March, with support from 2 other GG side projects, Mushy P and Edna. The plan is to do it with a full band so we'd better get rehearsing...
