Fast Five: Hattie Briggs

When did you begin making music, and did you ever ponder a different career?

I’ve been playing and singing since I was very young, but my first song didn’t appear until I was 17. I had never thought I would be able to write a song so hadn’t tried particularly, but then the first one came along almost by accident and I haven’t been able to stop since. I have known for a couple of years that I wanted to pursue music as a career, but before that I had no idea what I wanted to do after university.

How would you describe your music?

I think it is fairly genre-less, which is something I love about it. It crosses over into pop, folk, acoustic, singer-songwriter, soul, blues, but doesn’t fit into just one category. In the main it’s quite mellow and melodic, and I pay particular attention to the lyrics – I hope all of my songs are meaningful in one way or another.

What have you been up to so far and what can we expect over the coming months?

In the past year and a half I have been playing a lot of gigs and writing a lot of new material. I was a BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Nominee 2014, which opened a few doors for me and led to a live performance on Radio 2. I released my debut EP last November and have just finished making my debut album for release around next spring. In the months leading up to the album’s release I’m putting out a 2 or 3 singles, the first of which, “Old Eyes”, is coming out on iTunes on September 22nd.

If you could duet with anybody who would it be and why?

It would have to be James Taylor. He is my favourite artist of all time along with Eva Cassidy. I can never get enough of the warmth and depth of his voice and the easy flow of his songs. I’m going to see him live for the first time at The Royal Albert Hall on October 7th, so I’m sure I’ll be singing along all evening.

What’s your desert island disc and why would you take this one album?

I’d choose the album “October Road” by James Taylor because it is comforting, contains sentiments of travel, love and home, and because the more I listen to it, the more I notice small things about individual songs that I hadn’t noticed before, and that make each song more meaningful to me than the last time I heard it.