The Key Talking Points Which Shaped Georgia’s Seeking Thrills

Last week, British electro pop sensation Georgia released her long-awaited sophomore record Seeking Thrills. Ahead of its release – and on the night of a packed show at Utrecht’s Song van het Jaar festival – the London musician sat down with All Things Loud to run through the record. Here are its main talking points, as explained by Georgia herself.

ON EMBRACING FREEDOM…

Seeking Thrills carries with itself an overwhelming sense of embracing positivity and empowering yourself. Speaking of its lyrical content, Georgia told All Things Loud that Seeking Thrills is “about finding love and finding your own freedom on the dancefloor”. It thus shouldn’t come as a surprise that the album’s opening double of whammy of Started Out and About Work the Dancefloor hammer this feeling home: “Started Out is a song that very much encompasses my love for house music. The whole track is about going for Chicago house sounds and that sort of production”. About Work the Dancefloor, on the other hand, is about “finding that special moment on the dancefloor”. Similarly, 24 Hours is about finding love on the dancefloor.

ON GIVING UP ALCOHOL…

Shygirl collaboration Mellow is the first instance on Seeking Thrills where we hear Georgia open up about her dark side. In her own words, it’s “about a hedonistic trip to Tenerife. During the making of this record I did not drink; I was sober for two years and I was getting myself into quite a healthy mindset and lifestyle. Mellow is my dark side, about wanting to go out and have a crazy, hedonistic time. I developed quite an unhealthy relationship to alcohol in my past and I think that after the first record I was in an overwhelmed state. A lot was going on in my personal life as well and it was all a way of escaping, like a coping mechanism. It wasn’t like I was on a bottle of whiskey a night, but I was just going on benders and not looking after myself”.

Elaborating on the track, she adds that her regular benders became “a little bit of a pattern that I wanted to break, and so for this record I wanted to enter a healthier mindset where I could express myself and get what I wanted in songwriting and production. I gave up alcohol for two years and now I’ve slowly started reintroducing it in a way which is better for me. I can quite happily have a glass of wine now and call it a night, whereas before a glass of wine would turn into a night where I black out. That was not good, but I did go on tour with The Flaming Lips and not drink! Wayne Coyne’s a big believer in health and feeling, he does yoga before going on stage and he was very interested in my reasons for giving up. The band have had a whole history of addiction so he was interested in my drive to this decision.”

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ON THE RECORDING PROCESS…

Speaking of the vast differences between the process behind Seeking Thrills and that behind her self-titled debut, Georgia explains: “I had a really strict routine for making this record. I was up at 7am, and I was swimming before every recording session every single day. If I didn’t manage to do it every morning then I would try and make sure that I could swim around four times a week. I’d get to the studio at around 9, 9:30am and then do a full seven or eight hours. I’d call it a night by that point, but I treated it like a proper job, a 9-5 thing.”

She adds, “This time round I also had an engineer with me in the studio, and he would make sure that we stuck to a routine and started early. It was a bit different this time round but I have to say that I really enjoyed this process more so than the first record. I felt more disciplined and I felt like it was okay to be disciplined. I got into the fact of being harsh on myself and asking if something was good enough.”

ON IDENTITY AND EMPOWERMENT…

On the track Til I Own It, Georgia focuses on her frustrations with the area in London she lived in. “At the time of writing this song I was a bit frustrated with London being a place where I felt like I’d lost my identity a little bit. In my area – North West London – I noticed a huge change; a lot of wealth moved into the area, with a lot of the locals ending up leaving. I felt a bit affected by it and I was a little bit unsure about if I was able to afford living there”. 

Touching on identity, she ponders, “What is my identity here, and what is my place here? I wrote Til I Own It from that place, and although it isn’t a political song in any shape or form it does feel quite emotive song. I definitely wanted to balance out the clubbier pop songs with something more ballad-like”. Later track Ray Guns, on the other hand, centres on empowerment and contains a powerful visual message. “I had this vision of this army of women with guns shooting out lights and spreading rainbows of love around the world”. 

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AND ON SEEKING YOUR OWN THRILLS…

True to its title, Seeking Thrills is quite literally about going out there, seeking your own thrills and being free. As per Georgia, “each song on the record is meant to encourage or empower you to go out there and seek a thrill, like the the thrill of the unknown and having that feeling at the start of something”. Seeking Thrills is out now via Domino.