The Great Escape 2014: Woman’s Hour: ‘We’re Not A Band With A Narrow Audience’

One of the most exciting aspects of a festival like Brighton’s Great Escape is that it throws audiences out of their comfort zone. Punters flurry round venue to venue, trying to discover something that excites them, and sometimes the best moments arrive when there’s zero expectation of what to expect.

Woman’s Hour have been building up to the release of debut album ‘Conversations’ for a while now, but they’re still excited about playing to crowds who might not have heard their music before. Catching up with vocalist Fiona Burgess ahead of TGE, she spoke about the band’s recent foray into seated shows. ‘It’s just a different audience, in a way. The thing that’s nice for me, is it’s not necessarily your typical gig audience. It forces people out of their comfort zone. We’re not a band with a narrow audience. It’s important not to see ourselves that way.’

On debut album ‘Conversations’, she admitted to feeling like the album was ‘creeping up’, alongside the heightened anticipation. ‘We’re all probably very self-critical. I enjoy criticism and I think it’s really important. And I hope this album isn’t our best album,’ she said. ‘And the more I think about hype, the more negative I think it is. If there’s no hype and you create something that’s unexpected, that’s almost better.’

Woman’s Hour play Brighton’s The Great Escape tonight (8th May) at the Komedia, 10.15pm.