FABLE is back with new music "THIRSTY' and a new outlook after a 4 year break | We Talk Her Return To Music & Mental Health
Image | Kofi Stone
Singer-songwriter Fable makes her much-anticipated return with new single ‘Thirsty’, via Naim Records. Having built a reputation as one of the UK’s most intriguing musical prospects, with widespread acclaim for her bold and atmospheric sonics and captivating live presence. Fable returns ready to reclaim the spotlight with her first new music in four years. ‘Thirsty’ is an attention-grabbing, fire-breathing barnstormer that fuses otherworldly tones and ethereal vocals with slamming rock, showing us just what we’ve been missing. The accompanying video highlights Fable’s striking physicality, juxtaposing images of nature with mental destruction to show our simultaneous connection to, and disconnection from, the world around us.
After receiving a lot of praise from critics for your music starting out, you chose to withdraw from music following the loss of a close friend to suicide, facing your own mental health issues and becoming an ambassador for a mental health charity My Black Dog. How have you equipped yourself to overcome these struggles and why do you want to return to music now?
I wanted to bust back through that door because life is so short. My early 20’s climbed the peak of my depression, I was struggling with addiction in an overcrowded shared house, battling a toxic relationship with myself, and feeling the weight of sadness from those around me. It wasn’t until I heard the news that my friend and ex-partner had been lost to suicide that I had to collect my things and move away to reevaluate the meaning of existence and my order of operations. I think there’s a false narrative surrounding mental health that it strikes you like lightning one day, and if you meditate or medicate it will all just go away and you can resume your life how you were, but in my experience, it’s the factors in your life or the ignorance of them that are connected and contributing to the whole health of your being. This was an empowering realisation because it puts you in the cockpit of your nose-diving mind and says “now I’ve got your attention, would you like to start steering?” That’s not to say that its easy, chemical imbalance and your family genetics are sometimes all stacked against you and the mind is prone to falling back into it’s engraved patterns, but the knowledge that you hold the power to make baby steps in the opposite direction is the most hopeful feeling, and the reason I’m back.
Is Fable still the same entity we knew four years ago, how have you evolved musically during this break?
I’ve changed and so has my music, my lyrical content has become more personal, whereas previously it was more a commentary on the world around me or stepping into a character akin to PJ Harvey’s lyrical role play in her work. This time I found it therapeutic to go into my own story and try to express something nearer to the truth that I was experiencing. Musically I’m including a wider range of influences. The lockdown made a dead zone in my gig diary which allowed me the time to experiment with different sounds which I’ve come out of feeling quite genre-less.
What is the song about?
“Thirsty is about taking the beauty of life for granted. How overtime we write off profound stuff as mundane because it's a constant; the sky’s always there, but it's weird and beautiful that we even exist under it. It's playful at heart but it's about my realised depression and learning how to reset my perspective through mindfulness,”
What was the inspiration behind the music video? The opening visuals recall the dark aesthetic of Ursula and her two eels from Disney’s The Little Mermaid; was this part of the inspiration for the music video?
I can’t believe I didn’t make this connection! That’s fucking hilarious and has made my day. I’m disappointed I don’t have a fantastical explanation of how it inspired the video because well.. it didn’t, however, the snake-like electric eels are used to symbolise temptation which is similar to how they are personified in The Little Mermaid.
The music and visuals for your song and music video “Thirsty” move back and forth from calm to explosive. What is the significance of this contrast?
I think Dynamic is an integral feature of anything I create. It’s the pattern of nature, the ebb and flow of the tides, the calm before the storm, it’s in the duality of everything. I wanted to take myself on an adventure when I wrote ‘Thirsty’ and these highs and lows that you see in the visual were incited by that musical dynamic.
Have you performed since returning to music and the covid19 outbreak? If so, how does it feel to be back on stage?
It was all rather poorly timed. I signed to Naim at the beginning of 2020, we were so excited to spring forward into this new decade with a wealth of new material and energy and then things got slightly more complicated. The realisation I might not be back in front of live audiences until next summer with the difficulties facing the industry at the moment is forcing us to be patient and find other ways to perform. I’m starting rehearsals with my band imminently in preparation for plenty of online live sessions until we can all stomp together again in a sticky mosh pit somewhere.
‘Thirsty’ is about “taking the beauty of life for granted”. What do you think caused this lack of gratefulness?
I think it’s an evolutionary trait. The part of our minds that is responsible for detecting threats in our environment, over time ignores the things we perceive as constants. These things become so assumed and irrelevant they are almost invisible when we are in a state of fear, the sky, flora and fauna, the subtle patterns in nature aren’t the most pressing matters of the day so we look straight through them and forget the beauty and value of the planet.
You’ve spoken about mindfulness and how it has helped you “reset your perspective”. How do you approach and practice mindfulness?
Mindfulness for me is simply observing and being witness to my own nature and thought processes without judgment, or if with judgment, observing that response too, peeling away at the onion in my mind. This has been the key to stilling my emotional reactions and addictive qualities, I still have to work every day to keep these things in check but this model for thought really helps.
In your single ‘Thirsty’ one of the lyrics is “you expect me to believe that I’m not the whole universe striking up a melody”. This lyric could be interpreted in many ways; what did you mean here?
I guess its an expression of defiance towards individualism, we have been marginalised to act as individual aliens, separate from nature and each other, nature is a song and we are a hook, It’s a celebration of unity with the whole universe, but its also a bit, ‘fuck you!’
A change in record label can sometimes lead to artistic changes. How has the change impacted you?
Naim is the first label I signed to before that I was self-publishing my music. James and Nathan from the label introduced me to the brilliant Jonas Persson, the man behind the guitar on Thirsty and who I’m co-writing the whole album with. What I’m really enjoying about being signed to a smaller label is the amount of creative control I’m given over the content, so expect it to probably get weirder.
Could you tell us about your writing process? How do you approach writing personal pieces?
I used to always start with the drums and now I’m all over the shop with it, some poetry could be the catalyst, or I’ll start howling and record that, layer it up, It’s about being receptive and listening to what the song wants from you as well as what you want from the song, it's the same relationship a sculptor has to piece of stone, it’s already in there it’s up to you to reveal it.
There are elements of punk, rock and metal, how would you define your music genre and why do these genres appeal to you as an artist?
Where do I start!? I’ve always been drawn to Punk and Heavy Metal, anything that's got a whiff of anti-establishment I’m there. Black Sabbath, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Crass, I love that era of bands. I think rock is something I’ve always embodied so it was obvious it was going to define my genre, Thirsty is that, but the rest of the Album might surprise you.
You've said “it’s hard to be human now” in a previous interview. In what way do you believe that this is the case?
Everyone’s lives are so complex. We are kept so busy by so many things most of which are unnecessary and contribute to the destruction and polluting of the planet, none of which actually end up making us any happier, and it’s fully fucking bonkers. Our children are being messily programmed by social media algorithms, we’re about to completely miss the deadline to clean up our act before the climate crisis becomes irreversible and Trumps the president of America. But on a lighter note.. no I can’t think of anything, I was about to say you can go down the club and dance it off but Covid saw that one out.
Thanks for having me X-RAY I guess the good news is the only way is up.