Camp Cope's Georgia Maq releases debut solo LP (listen and read a Q&A)
We named Camp Cope‘s sophomore album How to Socialise & Make Friends our favorite album of 2018, so needless to say, we’re excited to learn that singer Georgia Maq has just surprised-released her first solo album. It’s called Pleaser, and it’s a little different for Georgia. It’s not much like Camp Cope’s indie-punk, and it’s not like the acoustic singer/songwriter stuff Georgia has made in the past either. Instead, it’s synthy and poppy (but still in a lo-fi bedroom way), and it’s a self-described “love album.” “I think the main theme is love, obviously, all kinds of love. Love that you walked away from so you could love yourself, unrequited love, forgiving love, love with no point to it,” Georgia says. She also tells The FADER that feeling burnt out by constant bad news was part of why she wanted to make a “beautiful” album. “I don’t want to be talking about those [negative] things all the time. Everyone deserves to feel happy.”
The bulk of the album was produced by Georgia’s Run For Cover labelmate Katie Dey, except “Away From Love” and “Like A Shadow” which were recorded with Darcy Baylis. You can stream the full album below, and physical copies are due February 14 (pre-order).
We also caught up with Georgia to ask her some questions about the new album, and about her favorite 2019 albums. Read on for our chat…
Tracklist
01) Away From Love
02) Driving Blind
03) Pleaser
04) Like I Do
05) Like A Shadow
06) Easy to Love
07) You’ll Be Singing My Name
08) Big Embarrassing Heart
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1. What made you realize you wanted to make a synth-based album, and how did the songwriting and recording process compare to that of your guitar-based music?
I guess I just got bored with singing and playing guitar, and had been playing around on Garage Band and keyboard when I was at home. I’ve always loved sexy, emo pop music and wanted to try it out. Earlier this year I reconnected with an old friend from high school, Darcy Baylis and we spoke about making a song together, so one day I went to his house with a guitar, I was messing around some with chord progressions until he was like “ok that’s the one”, so we recored that and he added some drums to it, I wrote the lyrics quickly and in three hours we had “Away From Love.” This was at the start of June this year, after that, I went to New York City alone and went into a music store and started playing around on some Korg synths they had, and I wrote the chords for ‘Driving Blind” and “Like a Shadow.” Once I got home, I started talking to my friend Katie Dey, and she invited me over and we created “Driving Blind.”
I guess the main difference with the songwriting process, comparing Camp Cope and Pleaser, is that with Camp Cope songs I take a lot of time and I edit and edit and edit until I think it’s the best it can be, with Pleaser, as soon as I came up with a line, that was it, we just took it and ran with it, and I’m pretty happy with the end result. Also when Camp Cope records, we do it so quickly and just leave everything as it is, but with Pleaser, we’d record and have a song, and I’d listen to it and make notes on what I wanted to change, so I definitely had a lot more time to come up with sounds and parts that were sonically pleasing to me.
2. How long have you been working on these songs?
It was three or four months. Some of the lyrics and little snippets of songs, I’d had for years and not known what to do with them because turning them into a Camp Cope song didn’t sound right to me.
3. Who are some of the artists that inspired you for this album?
Robyn, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charlie XCX, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Hole, Lorde and the Replacements.
4. Do you plan to perform them live and if so, will you have other band members? In the USA (hopefully)?
Yes, I do plan to perform them live and I plan for it to just be backing tracks off my phone, so I don’t have to carry anything around except an aux cord.
5. It’s now December. Any albums by other artists you were especially excited about this year?
Norman Fucking Rockwell by Lana Del Rey, both Big Thief records and IGOR by Tyler, the Creator.
