Spindle Radar Exclusive: BTS With Pop Songstress Litany

UK pop songstress Litany is a dynamic artist that needs to be on your radar. Raised in Harrogate, the singer-songwriter immersed herself in the music scene at a young age. As time went on Litany switched from music fan to artist, telling her own stories and finding her voice.

Looking towards hitmakers like Robyn, HAIM, Florence + The Machine for inspiration, Litany has created a sound that blends the vast eras of pop music. With over 70 million streams, collaborations with some of the industry’s biggest producers and releasing her brand new video for ‘Uh-huh’, Litany’s star is showing no signs of dimming.

We were able to chat with Litany about her brand new single ‘Uh-huh’, its accompanying video, working with comedian Joe Lycett and RuPaul Drag Race UK alum Vinegar Strokes and more. We also snagged some exclusive behind the scenes photos from the shoot. Check out the shots and interview below.

Heya Litany! How’s it going 

Hello! It’s going good, you guys have caught me whilst my Shihpoo puppy, Lemmy is napping – at 13 weeks old, my life now revolves around her and she bloody knows it, diva.

How’s this second lockdown treating you? 

Waaaaaay better than the first one. Back in March, I was nursing the aching sadness of a cancelled tour but this time, I’m in single campaign mode and loving it! Aside from releasing music, my boyfriend and I (when we’re not cleaning up dog piss) have picked up where we left with our Lockdown Cookbook and have cooked some world-ending curries.

Let’s dive right into your fantastic track ‘uh-huh’! What themes or meanings did you want to explore with the track? 

I wrote this track just before UK Quarantine 1.0 when my boyfriend Matt and I had just got together. Prior to this, I had been single for almost 6 years and hadn’t really ever known what real love or passion felt like until I met him. The lust was so strong, he was all I could think about in the writing session that day and the only way I was going to ease the sexual frustration was to write about how mind-blowing our sex was. It was so refreshing for me to write so brazenly about it – it’s incredibly freeing to talk so unabashedly about something most of us all do.

When it comes to its sound and production, was there a specific genre or era of music that inspired you? 

At the time, I was obsessed with Pang by Caroline Polachek. I had that album in heavy rotation and I think it definitely rubbed off on this song. I wanted to experiment with using my voice in more obscure ways, rather than just sing nicely. I was working with FYFE on this record and he has such a knack for knowing what I’m after even when I can’t articulate. As soon as it was clear what the lyrical direction was with the track we wanted it to sound as obnoxious as possible and groove so much you’d find yourself saying Uh-huh when the bass slapped you across the face.

You also dropped the video for the single today! We here you partnered up with comedian Joe Lycett for the project. How did this link up happen? 

Yes! It’s rather poetic really. I was in bed reading his book ‘Parsnips Buttered’ when I got an Instagram message from the man himself saying he was a huge fan. PSYCH cause I’m a huge fan of his also. After a couple of messages back and forth we’d quickly established a mutual desire of working together on his first-ever music video. 

Can you take us through the creative process for the visual? 

Within 24 hours of Joe hearing Uh-huh, he’d sent through the most stupid yet perfect pitch for its visual counterpart. He wanted to hammer home the whole ‘sex so good you forget who you are’ theme and introduce as many characters as we could in a Covid world to create a sense of chaos. Due to the aforementioned global pandemic situation, we were forced to zoom most of our planning meetings, most memorably, the dance rehearsal. To put it politely, neither of us are dancers so naturally, we knew we had to include a totally rad popstar dance outro because y’know, pop music.

The video also features RuPaul Drag Race UK alum, Vinegar Strokes. How did you two meet? If you could lip sync for your life with any queen from Drag Race 

Now this, was something I totally wasn’t ready for. Vinegar now knows that she was my ultimate fave on Drag Race UK and was ROBBED by the way. Joe had met Vinegar before and after hearing about how much of a huge fan I was, reached out and asked if she’d want to be a part of this ridiculous music video he was directing. Much to my delight, she accepted and now naturally we’re best friends but having seen her slay the lip-syncing on set, I would actively choose not to go up against Vinegar in a lip sync for your life, I’m a sore loser.

With the release of ‘uh-huh’ making the rounds. What else can fans expect from Litany in the coming months?

Uh-huh will probably making the rounds in various forms until the end of the year, which is VERY exciting but in 2021 I have a whole host of smashers that I’m itching to release, who knows I may do another EP!? 

Make sure to check out Litany’s brand new video for her track ‘Uh-huh’ and listen to the song here!