March 15, 2024 / By: Josh Kitchen
I spoke with North London based indie-pop singer-songwriter Natalie Shay about her new single, "Like You Boy", the sense of communion found in live music, spending all your money in a Silver Lake bar, Taylor Swift, and where to find the best fish and chips in London. Shay's next EP comes out at the end of May, and she promises it's the best one yet.
"Like You Boy" is out today. Congratulations! It’s a very honest song and it has a real sing-along quality where it feels like an audience participation song. Talk to me about “Like You Boy.”
So, I wrote this song about four years ago. I wrote it on my own in lockdown, on my guitar, and it's become the sort of token acoustic song for pretty much every live set I've played in the last four years. In the middle of the set, I'll play an acoustic song, and it's been that song. It's not new to me, or people that have seen me live, but it's new to people who have never seen me live. So, it's quite an interesting situation to be in. I think it's definitely a live song. It's kind of weird to have it recorded. I find it strange to listen to it since I've never really heard it with other instruments. And it's still quite weird to me to hear this version.
I think what makes your music so great is how it works in your live set. The songs feel alive.
Oh, thank you. I love playing live more than anything else. I started gigging and playing shows when I was 13. So, I've been doing gigs in shows for 12 years now. I record music so that I can play live. I really enjoy people and that connection and just the whole performance aspect. When I do write songs, in my mind I think well, it needs to be something that I can play live. And that's something I keep in mind the whole writing and recording process.
Something that I like to talk about is the live music experience and how its such an amazing way to commune with other people. When you go to a concert, you're there with people who are there for the same thing - you already have that in common. It's almost like it's a religious experience. Would you agree?
I totally agree. I think it's such a strange thing - loads of people coming together to watch a person sing, and they clap, make noise and dance. When you're on stage, you're looking at all these people and you're like, this is strange. But it is quite like a religion type thing. I feel like you kind of get similar types of people at gigs. And I like those kinds of people. It's very special.
You mentioned you've been doing this for a long time. I wanted to talk about that a little bit. Your first song [“Follow You Home”] came out in 2014. Can you talk about your journey and growth?
It's so interesting because that feels like a lifetime ago. I wrote “Follow You Home” and “And They Stare” and they were my first two releases. I released them independently at 14 and 16. I was playing gigs and stuff, but I didn't really know I was doing but I knew that I wanted to put the songs out. It was so exciting to release them. But they were in a different time. I wanted to get on the iTunes chart and be in the newspaper. It wasn't about Spotify at all. It certainly wasn’t about TikTok. It was a completely different time to be releasing music. So, I feel like I've lived through these two types of digital release eras. So much has happened since then for me as an artist. I still play those songs live because they're special to me and I think I can play them better now. I've come a long way as a person and an artist. I think I've definitely grown up especially in the last three or four years.
I think that's great that you still play those songs live because songs tend to change and develop new meanings, especially when played live.
It's so true, about the meanings. I'll sing lyrics that I wrote, like, 10 years ago, and I'm like, oh, that's good! That applies to how I feel now, even though it's not about anything to do with anything I do now. You do find new meaning and you find new purpose.
Your music spans so many different genres. Can you talk about how you got involved in the EDM scene on tracks with artists like Grum and Kryder?
The story is quite interesting. I wrote a song when I was about 14, and I recorded the vocal on my own. The person I recorded it with had some friends who were starting out as DJs. And they asked if they could play with the vocal. This was about 2015 and I didn’t hear anything about it for another four or five years later when I got an email saying your vocal is going to be on a dance track with Grum on this massive label. That song was called “Stay”, and it did well. Grum asked if I wanted to do some more songs with him, so I did another with him called “Afterglow” which did really well in the EDM world. Lots of different people remixed it including Kryder. He came to me telling me he wanted to do a new version of his song, “Rapture", but you’re the only person who I want to do the vocals, so I did, and that did well too. I’ve luckily fell in with some really cool people and I’ve written some songs that have done well.
[On many genres] For a long time, people used to tell me it was a problem. Like, oh you don't know what your sound is? They’re all my sound! They’re all me.
Can you talk a little bit about your influences?
I’m a massive Taylor Swift fan and have been since I was about eleven years old. When “Love Story” hit in the UK I was like, what is this song? I need to I learn this song. I’ve played classical guitar since I was five years old. I got the Taylor Swift chords book for Fearless. I learned all the chords in that book. I started writing songs because of her, and everything I've ever done is kind of because of her. So, she’s my biggest inspiration. Haim as well. Their first album was the first I got into in terms of production, and I was like, wow, like, I didn't know that production could be this cool.
I’m in Los Angeles. In your song, “Doing Well” you sing about spending all your money in a Silver Lake bar. What’s the bar?!
[laughs] Everybody asks me this. I’ve actually never been there! So, I wrote I wrote this song with my favorite band Fickle Friends, and they've been there. And they did very well. And when we were writing the song, we were discussing things that we've done, what do we consider doing well, and they’d go to Silver Lake all the time and spend so much money there. I put it in because they'd been through that. Now I have to go because I can’t keep saying I’ve never been!
You have some videos where you talk about great restaurants, so I have to ask - where can we find the best fish and chips in London?
Oh my god. You're going to get the best fish and chips by the sea. But then then it's like there's two types of fish and chips by the sea. There are the ones that are family owned that are especially cool special. It's like special fish and chips, which is going to be brilliant. And there's also the ones that are like, well, people will come here for fish and chips. So, we can sell really bad fish and chips for lots of money, so you have to just be able to spot which ones are good and which ones are pretending.
You don't have a huge discography yet, but at the same time, you have all this really unique experience that sets you up to really be successful.
Thank you for saying that. That is how I look at it. It’s weird because I still consider myself a new artist, but I don't feel new at all. But I guess I'm new to the scene. You can sort of play live for years and years and not be on Radio One. I think because I because I've worked so hard for so long and not particularly caught like any massive breaks or gone viral or anything, I really appreciate everything that happens, and the weight of every achievement. I feel like I’m really in touch with the reality of what I’m doing and how important it is and how hard it is and that that makes the whole journey better.
What comes next?
Just to say if you want to follow me, all these songs are off of an EP that's coming out at the end of May. So, if you follow me, stay tuned. And then the best EP that I've ever released will be out in May.
Listen to "Like You Boy" here!
Follow Natalie Shay on all platforms here!
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