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Hi guys, welcome to VENTS! How have you been? Good thanks for asking!
So your latest single “Next Big Thing” takes a pretty hilarious and self-aware swing at influencer culture and the pressure to constantly chase attention. What sparked the idea for the song, and did you know from the beginning that you wanted to approach the subject with this much humor? We made an album and wanted people to hear it without having to share our dinner on Tik Tok so we made a song that other people could share on Tik Tok for us! We are really making fun of ourselves really, we are social media prudes.
The song pokes fun at the idea of becoming the next big thing while simultaneously admitting that, well, becoming the next big thing probably wouldn’t be so bad. How much of Forget Them Wendy’s songwriting comes from that ability to laugh at yourselves and the music industry at the same time? It would be a nice problem to have! The world is pretty messed up and if you don’t find humour you can go insane, but before you can laugh at anything you have to be able to laugh at yourself first, I think the music is partly our attempt to do that!
You’ve described Forget Them Wendy as being about “owning who you are, even if you’re not entirely sure who that is.” How does that idea shape the songs you write, particularly when you’re dealing with identity, relationships, and the pressure to present a certain version of yourself? Did we say that? Wow, profoundly Zen. I suppose it’s right we are all different from one feeling to the next, capturing the essence of your identity would be a bit like trying to catch a fart in a fishing net.
Your sound brings together indie-pop melodies and grunge influences, with bands like The Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins, and The Breeders among your shared inspirations. What is it about the sound and attitude of 90s alternative music that continues to resonate with both of you? I like the attitude of giving a little bit less of a crap about being the ‘Next Big Thing’, the scruffy clothes, the rawness of the records, can you imagine Kurt Cobain doing an Instagram Reel to promote his new album? ‘Hey guys we put a lot of heart and soul into this one, give us a like and share with your friends please, your support means everything to us, here’s a picture of my cat…’ It violates the law of attraction, people aren’t attracted to things that are desperate to chase them. So either you violate the laws of attraction to be heard or no one hears about you, like us, yay!
Laura and Olly, you clearly have a lot of personality in the way you interact, and that chemistry seems to spill directly into the music. How does your relationship as friends and collaborators affect the songwriting process, and do you ever find yourselves turning actual conversations into songs? All the time, obviously Wise Guy was about Olly acting like a wise guy and pissing off his friend, and Overthinker came from a conversation about Overthinking things. The first few hours in the studio is usually just us shooting the shit and catching up, it sometimes feels like a waste of time but it isn’t because you are actually laying a rapport and thematic framework for the song you are about to write.
Olly, your production background includes work with artists ranging from Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre to M.I.A. and Lucy Rose. How does having someone with such a broad production background shape the sonic possibilities of Forget Them Wendy, especially when you’re deliberately drawing from a very specific 90s-inspired palette? It wasn’t really deliberate, this was just like what sort of album would we make if we were left to our own devices to do exactly what we wanted, and this is what we did. When I’m wearing my writer/producer hat I like to keep it varied though, otherwise I’d go stale, or insane. You have to make a lot of music these days to make money out of it and if that was all 90’s influenced alternative it’d ruin it for me. I think everything you do helps you learn something that helps everything else you do too, well you guys can be the judge of that…
The band name comes from Peter Pan and that idea of escaping the responsibilities and expectations of adulthood. Has that meaning taken on a different significance for you since starting Forget Them Wendy, particularly as you navigate the realities of being working musicians? Oh yes, 100%. That’s why the name resonated with us. We’re in a world where the adolescent human instar is revered. Everyone wants to be young free and single travelling the world in their VW van forever, not grow up and take on responsibilities of their own. Of course every thing that adds fulfilment and achievement in life restricts your freedom in a way. It’s hard to produce an album in a camper van in Cambodia for example. So I suppose it’s about retaining the glint in your eye while you laugh your way into a prison of our own creation.
You’re releasing songs individually while simultaneously overthinking the final track order for your debut album. What makes putting together an album feel so much more complicated than simply writing and releasing one song at a time? It’s hard enough to get anyone to listen to one song, let alone a whole album, so this way we can pace ourselves and also our listeners, it works for both sides I think.
“Next Big Thing” jokes about people walking away from a future Glastonbury performance to hear the latest hit while ignoring your “serious songs in strange time signatures.” Do you think there’s a tension between making music that is immediately catchy and making music that challenges listeners a little more? I don’t think so actually, The Beatles made canonical pop songs that were challenging and complex but sound lovely and are very catchy. We’ve never been interested in being obtuse for the sake of it. It’s fun to make things that we enjoy listening to and maybe because we enjoy it other people will also enjoy it.
With the debut album gradually coming together and songs like “Dead in the Water” and “Plug It In” already receiving strong BBC Introducing support, what do you want the full-length record to reveal about Forget Them Wendy that listeners might not get from the individual singles? Hopefully it all hangs together in a richer context and feels like a coherent body of work when it pops up on discover weekly on Spotify for 15 people and then slips into Never Never Land…
