After the release of his debut single, ‘you were there for me’, in 2022, it’s only been going up for 19-year- old newcomer Henry Moodie. This year, the young artist supported The Vamps, Busted, Mimi Webb and Lauren Spencer Smith on tour across Europe and the UK, while releasing three more original songs and growing an adoring fanbase on social media. Over a long-distance Zoom call from Paris to London, Moodie shared his experiences of attending the music university BIMM, discussed his admiration for Taylor Swift and her ‘Eras’ tour, shed light on the importance of vulnerability in songwriting – and even offered some insight into his own exciting upcoming era.
“I think when I was really young, I wanted to be a doctor or an astronaut. Everyone had this sort of similar thing, do you know what I mean?”, Moodie remembers when asked if being a musician has always been his dream job and continues, “I think when I reached like 11, 12, I really fell in love with music slowly through doing covers in my breaks during school. And then when I was like 13 or 14 years old, I realised that I really wanted to do this when I was older.” But during that time, Moodie explains that he felt like that music probably wasn’t going to be a career for him because he didn’t really know how to get into it, without any help and without knowing anyone in the business. A couple years later, he started “going properly on socials” – especially on TikTok, where he first blew up for singing a song about being addicted to the app. And soon after that, he realised that it was the perfect platform for him to promote his music on – and slowly but surely the first interest from managers and music agents started bouncing into his inbox.
Soon after that, Moodie became part of a band, The 202, which he departed to focus on his solo career and further education, leading him to sign up for a songwriting diploma course at the music university BIMM in the UK capital. He elaborates on his university experience by saying: “I learned probably more from being in the industry alongside BIMM than BIMM itself. It was more the structure and the time it gave me to work on music; the social life and routine were really important to me.” No matter how much the word has become an absolute ick in today’s society, it were the offered networking opportunities that pushed Moodie’s career to the next step.
“I think it is important that people show vulnerability so THAT otherS doN’t feel alone.”
When asked about his musical inspirations, the pop singer’s eyes immediately light up as the conversation shifts to fangirling about Taylor Swift: “Every album she makes is so consistently good. The way she creates these maximalist pop songs, but still somehow makes them lyrically interesting and simple and catchy at the same time. Also, she’s a great performer. There are so many different things about Taylor Swift that really inspire me, and genuinely, for most people and a lot of artists I know, it’s the same for them. She is the biggest inspiration.”
Moodie highlights that Swift’s transition from country to pop and the music she has created since has had a particular impact on the stories the musician wants to bring to life himself. After allowing him a few seconds to make up his mind about his favourite Taylor Swift era, he chuckles: “I think the ‘Reputation’ era was where I really became a proper Swiftie, but the ‘Lover’ era was the most fun one. The era Moodie as an artist himself is currently in, he calls it “the calm before the storm” as he is focused on creating bedroom pop at the moment, and he has “got a few more songs left” before coming in with a new sound in the next year: “And that’s what I’m calling the storm.”
With his new song ‘closure’ coming out on October 13th, there has been a lot to unpack for Moodie and new paths to walk on, as the stellar track is also the first song he has written in collaboration with Ines Dunn. “The song is about a relationship ending purely because this person just fell out of love. And I think it’s tough to be in that situation sometimes because you can’t really stop that from happening, it’s just part of being human. People can fall in and out of love with people, and it’s not really their fault. Sometimes it’s just meant to be,”, he exclaims. “That was kind of where I was coming from with this song. I was sad that the relationship had ended, but I was also like, “I can’t blame you for anything but I kind of wish you did something that gave me a reason to get over you. I wish you were this horrible person because you not being the bad guy is actually making it more difficult for me to get over you”.”
Working on ‘closure’ with Dunn also helped Moodie push himself lyrically, as her ways of writing songs stretched his imagination in terms of concepts and twists: “She is the next big thing, I love her.” Moodie also teases that his favourite original song has not been released yet – and it won’t be until January 2024: “I don’t want to give away the name just yet, but I was listening to it before this chat and I’m so excited for it. It’s a concept I haven’t done yet. I’m really, really excited.”
As a songwriter, it’s vital for the young star that his songs all come from a personal place or one that he can relate to. “I think that’s really important because songwriting, for me, it’s like therapy. It’s therapeutic for me to get stuff off my chest,”, Moodie reflects. After the release of ‘closure’, he aims to enter a happier space. “A place that talks about growing up and things outside of relationships,”, he explains, as he doesn’t want to, “fall down a big trap of always writing breakup or love songs”. He wants to expand his horizons, improve his skills and write things beyond that, but, “if something big happens in my life, breakup-wise, I’ll obviously write about that”. Another thing he really wants to try is to write from a third-person point of view: “I want to write a story about people, I think that’s something that would be really fun.”
To answer the question if one of his already released songs felt too personal to share with the world, he takes some time to think: “The first verse on ‘pick up the phone’ was quite vulnerable for me, but I wasn’t scared to release that one because I think it’s important that people show vulnerability so that others don’t feel alone.” However, he was “slightly scared” to release his heartfelt ballad- like hit ‘drunk text’, but, “you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to stay true to yourself! So I’ve done it”. Moodie also admits that he sometimes writes songs about one specific person, as he did with ‘you were there for me’ – an ode to his best friend – and with ‘drunk text’ – a song about a crush who “has no idea and they never will”.
“IT IS REALLY WEIRD IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE I HAVE DREAMED ABOUT DOING A HEADLINE SHOW FOR SO LONG AND THEN IT FINALLY HAPPENED AND SOLD OUT.”
Regarding Moodie’s life on tour, which he is currently sharing with Canadian singer-songwriter Lauren Spencer Smith, the rising musician seems to have reached his personal heaven, as he describes it as “so fun and very easygoing”, due to Smith and her team being “absolutely amazing”. His favourite tour memory so far has been playing at a festival in Zurich: “It was in a stadium of like 50,000 people, and I’ve never done that before, so that was a big moment for me, that was my favourite.” He also reminisces about a show he did in Amsterdam as “the crowd there is always amazing”. But Moodie’s favourite European city he has spent time in so far is the Swiss city of Bern: “I think it is the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to, it’s so pretty.” Once he is back from tour, Moodie will be home for only four or five days, before travelling the world again, this time all the way to Los Angeles, California. “I will be there to write songs, which will be good. Writing will be my main thing after this. I love touring, but you need songs to tour and I’ve got to write much more of them,”, he confesses with a giggle.
Looking back on his career so far, Moodie considers his headliner tour as the proudest moment up until this point: “I did a headline tour back in May, that was a really surreal thing because as a support, people are turning up for the headliner, but as a headliner yourself, you’re like, “Oh my god! These people are here for me. They’re buying my merch, they’re singing my songs.” It’s really weird if you think about it. Especially because I’ve dreamed about doing a headline show for so long, and then it finally happened and sold out. It was a big moment for me.”
With so much planned for his future already, Moodie seems to have a busy rest of the year ahead of him, but in true Gen-Z nature, that doesn’t stop the newcomer from continuosly adding to his list of aspirations: “I think my first album will be a really big thing for me, that is my closest next goal.” And how about meeting Taylor Swift? “Oh my god. Meeting Taylor Swift! Going to the ‘Eras’ tour, that’s what I wanna do. I got waitlisted, I’m so sad. I need to somehow figure out how to get tickets, that’s actually my next big goal.”
Written by Vicky Madzak // photography by Isaac Lamb & Joshua Fairbrother
GEM Magazine 