Artist Spotlight: Molly Willis
Including Guest R&D Playlist
Welcome back to Recent and Decent Spotlights!
At the end of last year, I interviewed a few local bands and asked them to share a little R&D playlist of their own. More specifically, they were Red Mar, Magnolia, Bag of Cans and FEASTS.
Now I’m getting back on the horse, so to speak. I love learning about how a musician ticks, what their motivations are, what inspires them and they prioritise. So I thought I’d do it all again. And again and again…
Today I’m sharing an interview with Molly Willis. She is one of three artists that will playing at an upcoming ReWork gig. The brilliant idea behind a ReWork gig is to ask artists to come along and play songs by a particular artist in their particular style (as well as a couple of originals). And the next one: The Beach Boys. I’m actually interviewing all of the acts for this night so expect a couple more interviews in the very near future!
For now though, it’s Molly Willis everybody!
Introducing MOLLY WILLIS
Molly Willis is a Norwich-based singer-songwriter who released her debut EP Bad Art in March 2020, an indie rock record in the vein of Sharon Van Etten, Mitski and Mazzy Star chronicling her experiences with bipolar disorder. Her opening song from that EP with the same title is one of my favourites. It is gorgeously produced, with rich, warm guitars and patient, dreamy vocals. It feels instantly nostalgic.
Since Bad Art, Willis has been steadily releasing music off her folk rock and dreampop-tinged debut album, Horror Movie, due for release in 2025.
I have also shared her latest, rather-lovely single, Groovy, in one of my Recent and Decent playlists a few weeks back. I still haven’t quite caught her live yet but my long overdue wait will come to an end when she performs at the Beach Boys ReWork gig in August!
And now for interview
Firstly, please introduce yourself.
I’m Molly Willis - I’m originally from Oxfordshire via South-West France (where I grew up) and I spent my teenage years in Diss. I moved to Norwich in 2018 and started putting out music the following year. I write for my day job (it’s in marketing, but I can tell myself it’s very Mad Men if I want to stay on brand) and, besides music, I like books, witchy things, “nerd media”, being queer and talking about politics.
You’ve been releasing music since 2019. What inspires you to keep writing?
I wish I had a good answer to this, but I have absolutely no idea. I’ve just never done anything else. I was that kid scribbling lyrics in the margins of my notebooks at school, or getting inspired by something I heard, watched or read and staying up til 3 or 4am hashing out a new idea. I don’t know if I’ll always do things the way I do them now, but I can’t imagine writing - music or other stuff - ever not being part of my life. It’s coded deep into my wibbly-wobbly brain.
I’m always so impressed by how inclusive and collaborative the Norwich music scene is. Have you worked with many local artists?
I’ve been really lucky, for someone so introverted, that I’ve had opportunities to work with people in the local scene I really admire. Jack [Blair] from Mama Oh No produced my song Hypocentre - he was doing a music production degree and his tutor was my producer, Jonny [Cole], so he connected us. Helena [Lewis] from Damp Matches reached out after we played on the same line-up and we did a show together in early 2024. I was also part of the choir when Damp Matches played the Arts Centre last July. Rowan from Dog At The Opera played bass for me at my last gig, and Will How from The Reverse Cowboys is an old friend of mine from sixth form, and has played drums for me on studio work and at gigs since I started in 2019. Actually, I’ve known all The Reverse Cowboys since I was a teenager and they were my original backing band at my first gig, which is dead funny.
Your first EP, Bad Art, was released in March 2020, just before the first lockdown. How did this affect you?
Oh God, how long have you got? In a way, I was really lucky. It felt like people were extra supportive of small and/or local artists at that time and the promoters in the Norwich music scene were keeping tabs on everyone putting out new music. When shows opened back up, I started getting booked, which was a surprise. I thought everyone would forget about me, but I was booking solo gigs off the back of Bad Art way into 2022-2023 without putting out any new music. On the other hand, I’d just started playing shows with a band, and that got interrupted. I only played my second show with a band in March this year, and I felt like a newbie all over again. I think, without lockdown, if I’d have kept the live performance momentum going, I’d be a lot more confident with a band nowadays.
I ask so many people this but the answer is always slightly different: how do you go about writing a new song?
Dumb luck. Every time I’ve sat down with a blank slate and tried to build a song from scratch, it’s turned out rubbish. I’m a lyrics (preferably lyrics + melody) person first. I’ll usually be listening to a bunch of music, or listening to a podcast, or watching a movie, and get a random flash of inspiration. It’ll just be a few lines and maybe a concept. Sometimes the whole thing will come pouring out. From there, I’ll be walking around - wherever: the kitchen, my bedroom, sometimes even the stairwell of my office building - trying a few ideas out, just me and my voice, listen to references for the sound I’m going for and start to build out the music. I’ll put together a demo - I’ve definitely improved production-wise since lockdown/working on my album - and eventually take it to Jonny, who I’ve worked on almost everything with, and we’ll make the vision come to life. Boom. Magic.
Can you describe your new album? And does it have a release date?
I’ve gotten more comfortable describing Horror Movie as a concept album, even if it’s a loose concept album. I wrote everything between 2020-2022, which were probably the hardest years of my life so far. The whole idea is that being stuck in one room, as I was, dealing with mental illness, is a bit like the concept of a horror movie - confronting your monsters before you’re able to leave, that kind of thing. I’ve seeded horror references into basically every song and the tracks are arranged in a narrative sort of way. It’s definitely more experimental than my debut EP, which was pretty stripped back, but all the same ideas are there: shoegaze, dreampop, alt-rock, folk-rock. There’s a couple of all-out pop songs on there, some slightly more developed indie-rock like What Kind of Woman and more ambient stuff too. As for a release date, uh… I’ve sort of given up setting release dates that I don’t stick to. I’m recording the last few songs at the moment, and when they’re done, I won’t hang around getting it released. I’m aiming for this year.
Finally (and I've decided that I'm going to ask every artist this from now until the end of time), would you be able to create a 7-song Recent and Decent Guest Playlist? [All songs have to be released within the last year]
Anyone who’s ever met me will tell you that making lists of random stuff is an absolute passion of mine. I have a whole notebook for it. Arranging things? Creating rankings? Ecstasy.
My taste recently is half-groovy and heart-breaking indie songs, half-absolute pop bangers.
Alexandra Savior - Unforgivable (her new album Beneath The Lilypad is by far her best work)
Debbii Dawson - You Killed The Music (deserves superstar-level praise, frankly)
CMAT - The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station (this is better than Take A Sexy Picture of Me, fight me)
Bartees Strange - Hit It Quit It
MARINA - Final Boss (her latest album entirely exceeded my expectations, it’s great)
Kae Tempest - Statue In The Square (all stand for the trans-masc national anthem)
Ruby Roberts - Trampoline (missed Ruby’s set at Voodoo’s earlier this year by a few minutes, but I said hello and she was lovely)
Sign off
Thanks so much to Molly for that sincere and illuminating insight. Below is her most recent single, What Kind of Woman, which only came out a couple of weeks ago. If you’re Norwich way, then do check her out on 9th August at the Beach Boys ReWork gig. I’m really looking forward to it!
I’ll share another artist interview next week. Maybe two. It all depends on how much thought-space I have left after putting on my first ever gig! See you all soon.