FEATURE:
Spotlight
the sensational Ledbyher, but she has released two albums already. Her debut, CUNCH, arrived in 2023. The following year she put out achy. They are both seven tracks long, so I wonder if she classes them as albums or E.P.s. Maybe projects? It is hard to tell. In any case, this is an artist that I would now recommend to everyone else. There are interviews from last year that I want to get to before closing off this feature. I am going to start out with DAZED and their feature from last year. They gathered a “creative consortium including David Sonubi, Hilary Xherimeja and TJ Sawyer gather to reflect on both Martine Rose and their own visions for the city”. Ledbyher was among those who was interviewed:
“Rachel Aisyah Diack – AKA Ledbyher – is the artist behind ‘bedroom drill’, a self-described term she attributes to an Instagram comment. With a discography that combines Clairo-like vocals with Playboi Carti’s alien beat signatures, Diack is kicking a path through an industry that, she says, isn’t always welcoming to women.
Martine’s work never leans into being ‘trendy’ – do you ever feel like there’s pressure to conform creatively to musical trends?
Rachel Aisyah Diack: In some ways I feel like it creeps in. Being a woman in rap comes with its own ceilings and floors, of course, but because of that I’ve always been more interested in one-manning my own little world than squeezing into someone else’s. There’s a sort of dance between what I love and what my fans love that creates the magic. Whether that’s genre or videos or clothing, I don’t think of how to conform but how to comfort.
What do you think London needs right now?
Rachel Aisyah Diack: London needs a lie-in. When I moved here and started chatting to people it felt like everyone was racing against themselves to the next project or the next train or something. But it’s still really cool to have a day off! Go grab a Greggs with your mates and have that be the most exciting part of the day. I’ve started giving myself Sundays off (listening to The Sundays usually), doing things that require minimal brain cells and maximum joy.
You’ve described your sound as ‘bedroom drill’ – can you elaborate on that?
Rachel Aisyah Diack: Honestly, it came from a comment years ago. I remember captioning a post: “What sound is this?” The options were lady trap or bedroom drill. I went with that partly because it made me laugh, but mostly because it’s true! I used to turn down studio sessions just to sit on my bed with a laptop on FL and a pair of battered headphones, producing until the sun came up. There’s something romantic about it. That’s where I started placing the drill drums I was making on top of bedroom pop melodies”.
I am going to move to Wonderland. and their interview from July. Ahead of her performance at London’s Jazz Cafe’s and this hugely anticipated day festival in early August, “rising artist Ledbyher talks heritage, essence and leprechauns”. I do feel that everyone needs to follow the wonderful Ledbyher. Although she is a woman working in Drill and she has this strength and confidence, you wonder whether her male contemporaries will raise her up. She has had co-signs from the likes of Skepta, so I think that has helped. However, it is still a genre which is very male-heavy and not always embracing and open to incredible women:
“Talk us through your year so far, what have you been up to?
I’ve been up to so much that it honestly feels like there must be a leprechaun working with me behind the scenes or something. I keep looking back through my camera roll since January like, “oh wait, that happened too.” It’s all moving fast, but I’m so thankful to finally be doing the things it took me six years to reach, and to be doing them with people who share the same passions.
And I say passions plural because it’s been a real mix: music stuff, fashion stuff, uni stuff, and even some unexpected things I’ve picked up along the way like basketball, and a newfound love for a latte.
How does your Indonesian Scottish heritage inform your musicality and personal outlook?
Well I grew up first in Medan, Indonesia and if you ever go, the first thing you’ll notice is how loud and saturated it all is. The colours, the smells, the tastes… everything is so alive. Then we moved to a rural Norfolk village, which was a much quieter, calmer way of living. But that early perception of Indonesia never really left me. Seeing that side first made me aware as a kid that there was a big wide world out there, and so I never wanted to stay put.
When we moved here me and my sister also couldn’t speak English at all, which didn’t help. We faced quite a lot of rubbish as the mixed-race family who moved in down the road, so I saw the bad side of people quite early on. I understood at a young age how the way you look, or the way you articulate yourself, can define how you’re treated, but also that hate is often simply a lack of knowledge.
What, at the core, influences you to write and create?
I think about this a lot. It’s still something I’m figuring out! I’ve realised most of my writing ends up foreshadowing something that’s about to happen, even though I’m usually pulling from past experiences. It’s the creepiest thing. But I heard the icon Bel Cobain say the same thing live once, and it was such a relief, because it happens to me allllll the time.
I write about love a lot in my spare time, but the songs I tend to release are the ones I feel could connect with more people. So there are probably hundreds of love poems that’ll never see the light of day hahaa. It’s ironic, because I barely date, my last relationship was almost two years ago now, but yeah, it’s love. The sappy stuff. Oh and I always try to put a bit of motivation in there too so I can feel like a boss in the shower of course.
Are you a natural live performer or is it an aspect of artistry you’ve had to grow into?
Hmmm maybe a bit of both. I remember my first time playing live, I only had about three songs out, so I’d fill the rest of the set with covers, like “Soft Spot” by Piri and Tommy just to reach the 30-minute slot and get the crowd singing back something, anything we both knew. As soon as my foot touched the stage, the nerves disappeared. There was this weight lifted knowing the tracks weren’t mine, it felt more like karaoke, having fun, dancing it out, trying to get the words right.
Fast forward to now, the fact that when I go out people are actually singing my songs back to me? That’s been the natural journey evolving in real time. I’m growing into being the person behind my own music live, and learning to truly believe what’s happening in front of me.
What is in your festival survival pack?
Oooo if I’m playing, it’s orange juice, incense, a fat JBL speaker for the green room, another outfit (my real one) for when I inevitably spill said orange juice on the first, and tea, lots of tea.
But if I’m going to a festival? Whole different story. Get me a rolling tray, a box of white wine with the little spout thingy, 100 hair bobbles, my Ed Hardy side bag and… BLISTER PLASTERS!!
What else have you coming this summer and beyond?
Shapeshifting…making noise inevitably! Lots of collaborations with cool folks and videos that make you feel like you’ve been there before. I’ve got something very big and exciting on the way, so right now I’m just focused on doing my friends, family and myself proud, while representing everyone from the small-town dreamers to the big-city go-getters and beyond.
This is all still new to me, so you’ll probably also catch me frolicking in the sun with my friends in random places… or riding a Lime Bike the wrong way up the road”.
In association with Lyle & Scott, CLASH spoke with Ledbyher in August. They went into depth and detail. It is a really interesting interview I would suggest you read in full. However, I have pulled a few parts from it that I wanted to highlight here. This is an artist capturing a lot of love and attention right now. Someone you cannot miss out on:
“A vocalist, producer and creative director all-in-one, she keeps her circle tight-knit. Last year saw the artist release her collaborative project ‘achy’, created in tandem with her older sister Anjeli, which submerged itself in a more stripped-back, contemplative headspace. Followed by a string of singles, a sonnet-led EP and a buzzy On The Radar Freestyle appearance, each release becomes more defined, exerting Ledbyher’s strengths as a bad-to-the-bone world-builder.
You moved from your family home in Norfolk to London – how have you found that shift? What have you learnt during your time in the capital?
People are crazy. That’s what I love, because I’m a bit crazy so I kind of fit in. I think the hardest thing about London is trying to keep up with everything. In Norfolk, you have one party a month, and that’s the thing everyone talks about for the next two months, and then you’ll go to another party, and that’ll be the cycle. But now it’s like a party every day, a show, an opportunity…and a birthday. I’m so grateful for it because I was so bored.
By the age of 15 you were selling self-produced beats online. Where do you think this drive, and DIY-ethos stems from?
I don’t know, I mean, I’ve always considered myself my dad’s daughter, a daddy’s girl, but in a way where he kind of treated me like a son. We did a lot of boy-ish stuff. We’d build something from the roots, like a whole summer house. When I said I wanted to build a studio, he was like, okay, we’re gonna rip out everything in the shed, we’re gonna make a soundproof studio. I feel like that has always been in me, to build from the ground up. He gave me all the tools, and then he was like – you do it. Now I’m older, I think back and I’m like yeah, he did push me to be the really tough female that I am today. You can’t break my skin.
Where do you feel most inspired, artistically?
Recently, I’ve realised that I can’t live somewhere without water. In Norfolk. I’d go every week or so to the river. We lived by a little stream so even when I went to sleep, I’d hear water all the time. I used to live in Stratford, I was very weirded out by it. Then, when I moved to London Bridge, I found I kept going to the water and realised – it must be this bloody thing.
You seem to approach drill from a new angle, what do those productions unlock for you and your sense of expression?
I love drill percussion. BK The Producer, he’s a good friend of mine now, but I’d replay his beats over and over again on YouTube. I think it was the claps, he changes the velocity of the clap so it makes you feel like you’re going up and down, up and down. You see the crowds of drill, everyone goes mental. I’m trying to take away what I like from that, and not become a drill artist, more so understanding that I like these patterns in it and this feeling.
You’ve established yourself as a multi-disciplinary artist – you direct and edit your own visuals, you design clothing and flit between the role of a producer and vocalist. What kind of world are you looking to build as Ledbyher?
Oh, I don’t know. I have no idea. I’ve got an ideal world I’d love to do. I’d love to do a lot of charity work. I want to live in London, but I want to be everywhere. I don’t like flights, but I enjoy travelling and meeting people that I would never have met. I like performing as well, maybe a tour. I like what Tyler does with Chromakopia, something very hyper stylised, era-defining”.
I think I might actually leave it there. There are other features like this that celebrate Ledbyher and her rise. I am looking forward to seeing where she heads this year. UP TO MY NEXT IN U was released recently and is another incredible track from someone who is going to continue to grow and build her career. I feel this year is going to be a really exciting and eventful one. No doubt there will be a lot of festival appearances through the summer. Do go and follow Ledbyher and check out her incredible music. This is someone that…
EVERYONE should know about.
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