STACK #198 Apr 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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INTERVIEW

HANNAH REID LONDON GRAMMAR

Ambient and celestial, the music of London Grammar has always found its anchor in the blissfully grounded voice of vocalist Hannah Reid. For third album Californian Soil , Hannah decided to allow that voice to reach its full power, in more than one understanding of the phrase. Words Zoë Radas

London Grammar top to bottom: Dan Rothman, Hannah Reid, Dot Major

W hen Hannah Reid told her London Grammar bandmates that she felt it was time she took the conch – stepped into the trio's lead both visually and conceptually – multi-instrumentalist Dan Rothman remarked that it was “one of the least terrifying things [she'd] ever said.” Which begs the question: Is the delivery of terrifying statements to her musical brethren a common event? “I have definitely said loads of terrifying things,” the musician laughs freely. “There were a couple of times where I told Dan that I wasn't coming to a gig that we were playing; I probably really traumatised him.” It's incredibly telling then, and speaks to who Dan and third LG member Dominic 'Dot' Major are

as people, that this conviction of their frontwoman's was not in the least terrifying. Hannah

I think women over-compromise, all the time... every one of my girlfriends has been in a relationship like that - every single one

Reid's new perspective

– solidifed by 10 years in an industry where she'd felt the reins, and her voice, had been

taken from her either surreptitiously or else brazenly out in the open, by

people not part of the band's DNA – was something the two men had witnessed. “I think [they] could just see that there were moments in our career where people haven't respected me enough,” Hannah says. "So they were happy to support me." While Dan and Dot clearly

APRIL 2021

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