BABii: Only Child
With her tantalisingly-dark debut album HiiDE gaining traction by the play, Margate singer/songwriter BABii has given fair notice of her thrilling potential. A solo artist through circumstance rather than design, she tells Andy Gray why ‘one can be fun’ when it comes to making music.
Pic by Lucy Michaela
BABii is different. It’s evident in her debut album (a mesmerising mash of breathy vocals and super slow-mo electro), and her look (street-smart Rainbow Child?).
Then there’s her answer to the question that all upcoming artists shall be asked; the one about musical influences, heroes, heroines and whatnot, cos this is where BABii really owns her unique space. Half-expecting her to offer a roll call of female artists past and present, the singer (aka Daisy Emily Warne) singled-out an 16th astronomer/physicist/engineer as her creative inspiration. “I watched a documentary about Galileo when I was a little kid,” she explained. “He said the earth was round and not flat, and even went to prison because of his belief.
But he stood by it the whole time. As a kid, it made me realise that sometimes it doesn't matter what other people think about your ideas. It inspired me to trust my own thinking.”
And lo, BABii became the solo artist we know today; an emerging force in an electro field in which she appears to stands alone in more ways than one. It wasn’t always so… Her first musical outing was with boy/girl three-piece, Us Baby Bear Bones, who built a growing following and reputation during the BABii-in-waiting’s time as a Brighton-based student. As well as touring with Sophie Ellis-Bextor in 2014, the band gigged with an up-and-coming Royal Blood, and headed a bill with a then unheard of George Ezra. But just as bigger things beckoned, the band’s male member (Luke) jumped the bandwagon. “He kind of gave-up at the last hurdle,” BABii said. “He liked doing music for fun, but it was becoming more than that. Eventually he said, ‘actually, this isn’t what I want to do’. It was quite crazy, cos we’d all put a lot of effort into the band.”
Home alone
BABii said her creative world came to a halt with the band’s demise. “I just stopped everything,” she said. “I had a bit of crisis, and actually decided I wanted to become a hairdresser Instead, I moved home to figure out what I was going to do next.” ‘Home’ at that point was Ramsgate where she kept music on the ‘down-low’ before receiving an unexpected offer to record with local producer Adrian Sherwood, co-founder of dub record label, ON-U Sound. BABii said she ‘kind of shrugged-off’ the invite, adding: “I didn’t know he was quite a renowned producer.”
The singer, who gives her age as ‘in my twenties’ when asked, mindful of being written-off as past-it by a still ‘yoof’-obsessed music industry, said she realised Sherwood was a talent worth tapping-up when she discovered he was working with Japanese punk instrumentalists, Nisennenmondai, a band she coveted. “A week later,” she said, “I went to see him play with Squarepusher in Brighton. I really liked it. So I was like, ‘I’ll see you in the studio next week’. BABii convened at the producer’s home studio in Ramsgate where she and Sherwood’s son, Max Brown, ‘hung out’ and made music.
According to the singer, it wasn’t long before ‘Adrian’s ears pricked-up’. He invited her to make an album, catching her by surprise for a second time. “I hadn’t thought about it all – I was making music for fun,” she said. “But I thought, ‘Why not’?
New born BABii
A producer with fingers in many consoles, Sherwood only worked on two tracks which make up BABii’s debut album, HiiDE. “I ended up finishing it myself,” she said, explaining that the remaining songs were written and crafted on her laptop. The album itself, comprising nine, one-word-titled tracks such as ‘VOLCANO’, ‘SKiiN’, and SEiiZURE’, is a blissfully uneasy listen. Twinkly and spacey, intense and immersive, HiiDE has an addictive atmosphere. The creator’s dreamy, gossamer-light vocal floats above a series of portent and fractured sound scapes.
Clues to the record’s air of quiet desolation are in lyrics such as, ‘I feel exposed on the skin you used to touch, and I miss you so much’ (SKiiN); ‘I fell in love in with a carnivore, between his eyes and past his jaw’ (CARNiiVORE). BABii doesn’t shy away from the fact that HiiDE is a break-up album, but one thankfully shorn of Adele-style bombast. “Another part of my moving home was the break-up of a relationship with a long-term boyfriend,” she confirms. “We were together, on and off, for like seven years.
It was dramatic, and volatile in a lot of ways. So the album is kind of like me processing and letting go of that situation.”
Released earlier this year on digital and vinyl formats via Death Wartz, the record company arm of Transmission Records’ store in Margate – the label specialises in horror soundtracks, I told you she was different – Hiide is already old news, according to BABii. ”I actually don’t like it anymore – I’ve heard the songs so many times.” As if to prove her point, and with HiiDE barely clear of the starting blocks, she’s released a second album, XYZ; a collaboration with her Margate housemate Kai Whiston.
They use the moniker Iglooghost, which is part of a larger arts and music collective and includes its own clothing range. BABii said the electro-instrumental album – a self-release – was written ‘in the space of a week’. She said: “We all had all bits of beats and music, so we said, ‘let’s put it all together and see what happens’.
Although a creative whirlwind when the inspiration takes her – BABii also runs Margate-based music and arts studio, Feyer Island – the singer insists she isn’t working to a career masterplan. According to BABii, ‘quite a big team of people’ books her gigs in UK and Europe, one of which saw her fly to Russia for a one-off show in Moscow. Good music travels far; although at this early stage of her career it’s surprising to learn a Margate artist has fans way-out east. “I’m told there’s quite a big electronic scene in Moscow,” she said of her fledgling following in communism’s capital.
Single pleasures
Fans closer to home can get their BABii fix when she tours the UK until 2019’s end. By then, she said album number two, with a ‘faster, more dynamic’ feel, will be on the runway. Although she admits to bouts of loneliness, BABii said there’s much to recommend being a singleton, in creative terms at least. “I don't have to rely on anybody,” she said. “I can do the things I choose to do. It doesn't have to be that compromise, like ever.” On stage she sings and plays sample drums, describing it as ‘a live-audio visual show’. She seemingly vibes off the uncertainty that accompanies each outing, saying: “There's always a chance that it could go wrong, and pretty much always something does go wrong when I’m playing. But it’s part of the show, and it means people know it’s real. Because it’s electronic music I could perform it by just pressing play on my laptop, but I don’t.”
With the disappointment of her band’s split when poised for success seemingly cast to the past, one can’t help but wonder what became of ‘Luke’, the Us Baby Bear Bones member whose departure sent BABii into a momentary, creative tailspin. ”He's very successful at computer coding; coding and programming,” she says, genuinely pleased for her ex-bandmate. “That's kind of what he always wanted to do.”
BABii’s pretty happy with life, too. She intends to continue playing her music career by ear – going wherever it takes her, answering to no one but creation’s call. “I’ve surrounded myself with people that understand what I'm trying to do and support me over my crazy ideas,” she explained. “I avoid anyone that will try and change that.”
I think a certain 16th astronomer/physicist/engineer would approve…
Pic by Lucy Michaela