London-based alt singer-songwriter A.A. Williams has produced some of the most hauntingly melancholic but beautiful sounds to have hit the UK underground in recent years. Her own tastes range from clattering industrial to 90s alternative rock to OTT horror metal - and everything in between. With that in mind, we asked her to make us a playlist and tell us all about it.
“My parents brought me the VHS of QUEEN Live At Wembley when I was six or seven and obviously it’s mindblowingly good. Who Wants To Live Forever is heart-wrenchingly beautiful. They also brought me the piano book for that release, it was a two-pronged attack: ‘You can enjoy this, but you’ve also got to learn it.’ It was my introduction to really good songwriting and I’ve internalised that.
“Before GARBAGE’s I Think I’m Paranoid, I’d never heard a woman in heavy music. I didn’t have many mates who weren’t into pop, so liking heavier music made me feel like an outsider at times. I went to see Garbage for my first concert and not only was I floored by Shirley Manson being an absolute goddess - confident, brash and ballsy, walking around the stage like she owned everything - but there were kids like me in that audience and I was like, ‘Maybe I’m not doing this on my own after all.’
“PLACEBO’s Without You I’m Nothing is one of the best songs of all time. I loved it so much I had to cover it. One of the things I loved about them was that they did proper B-sides, not just remixes. So I’d go and buy all the singles, it made me feel like a proper fan. I remember a version that had David Bowie on. It was absolutely incredible! I was 14, 15 when this came out and I don’t remember another song feeling so resonant in the sense of the angst, anguish and longing."
Before Garbage, I'd never heard a woman in heavy music
“A friend of mine introduced me to CULT OF LUNA and Amenra around 2012. I had no idea post metal was a thing, that these textures existed. Hearing Finland, I was working away a lot that year, and I was on tour in America with another artist. I basically spent the whole trip looking out the window watching landscapes shift and change, listening to Somewhere Along The Highway. Managing to get Johannes [Persson, vocals] and Fredrik [Kihlberg, guitars] on my first record made it feel like I’d come full circle.
“I didn’t know music could be sexy until I heard Dragula by ROB ZOMBIE. As a kid, you think rock music is full of angry blokes in baggy trousers, but actually it’s so, so hot. It was in The Matrix – or on the soundtrack at least – and I ate it up. You could attribute my entire musical personality to that movie and soundtrack, at least as a starting point.
“I could pick pretty much any song by NINE INCH NAILS. But Right Where It Belongs was the first time I cried to a song on first listen. I have to be in a certain frame of mind to listen to some songs, I can’t just have something on in the background. I can’t actually remember how I first heard it, but it just got me – maybe it was the wrong time, wrong place. It’s this little piano-vocal thing, but it’s beautiful and I love the sentiment behind it.
“It’s not always easy to understand how you feel about something, and it’s certainly not easy to vocalise that. So when you hear a song like Exit Music (For A Film) that resonates with you, that links with something inside of you, it’s almost like talking to someone about that thing. It’s like having a friend who is listening to those words. RADIOHEAD have always been that for me. As a teenager and a kid, I’d never even try to say some things out loud, so when I found songs that could do that for me, because I was a bit shy or didn’t have the bravery to talk to somebody, it was a huge help.
“I did a lot of classical music when I was a kid. I listened to a lot of alternative rock and metal, but I didn’t actually play any. Neon Ballroom by SILVERCHAIR came out in 1999 and it blew my tiny mind. I listened to the opening track, Emotion Sickness, and it verified both parts of me because I’d not realised those things could cross over. There’s strings, pianos, all this beautiful stuff, and the arrangements are absolutely killer. It was a seminal discovery.
I feel weird if I play a gig and there’s some other guy playing music before I go on
“I really loved PORTISHEAD early on and then kind of forgot about them. Machine Gun came out when I was in my 20s and the jarring juxtaposition of jagged, disgusting drums and beautiful, raw, delicate vocals just did it for me. It was beautiful, a real masterclass in minimalism. It’s brilliant! I saw them live at Glastonbury and the whole set was incredible: understated, but in front of thousands of people. They created an intimate environment in the dark in front of 10,000 people or whatever. It’s a reminder you need beautiful and disgusting things to coexist.
“Is Rat Wars not the best album of all time? I absolutely adore HEALTH; Sicko has such a good groove to it and ever since the album came out that song has been on my pre-show playlist. Every night before a gig, I put it on because I want to dance around and have a good time. Its nice to have music that centres you. I feel weird now if I play a gig and there’s some other guy playing music before I go on. I don’t know what to do! So I have a playlist that gets me from doors to close every night.”
New A.A. Williams album Solstice is out now via Reigning Phoenix Music. She plays ArcTanGent in August
