Ones2Watch Home

Music does make life sweeter, doesn’t it? Especially when it's a wondrous journey of r&b, soul and tongue-against-your-teeth grooves that have you feeling a silly version of elated. Georgie Sweet is a throwback artist, a voice that defies genre & is haunting with range. On her third album, I Swear To You, the listener is throttled into a collision of sultry gems that feel bespoke for moody escapades, rainy day recoveries with tea, and preambles to fun with friends. It’s a wonderful album and its deft poetic intent took us in immediately. Georgie is hard to narrow down, a capable persona that we needed to speak to directly, so we did:

OnesToWatch: Why are you an artist?

Georgie Sweet: It's just something that I've always felt like I have to do. One of the only things that really centers me and makes me feel calm is doing some kind of art, whether that's drawing, animating, writing, or singing. I also grew up being obsessed with music, and I used to dream of creating art that resonated with people the way that art resonated with me. 

Tell me more about the other art forms that you creatively expressed yourself through. 

I'm currently working as an animator and illustrator. Ever since I was a kid, I was always drawing, making something of some form. I could never stop creating. Music has always been the primary art form for me because my mum and dad are musicians and music was the center of what we loved. But I think I was naturally always doing something creative, which has impacted my work as an adult. There’s definitely a parallel line between animation and music. 

Could you imagine doing one without the other, or do they complement each other? 

I quite like doing them alongside each other because they're both quite different in their processes. They complement different parts of my personality, but at the heart of it is still pure creativity. Animation work definitely has collaborative elements, but a lot of it is solo reworking with your headphones on. Then there's obviously the side of music that's more collaborative.  

What part of your personality is animating and what part is music? 


Music-wise, I don’t know if I’m an extrovert, but I do really like being around people. I've started to enjoy performing. But another part of me does need to be alone to recharge. Doing a solitary job does work really well for me. I don't think I could do one without the other, it keeps me busy and balanced. 

How long have you been animating?

I was constantly drawing growing up, I did a lot of painting in college, and then when I got to uni, that's when I really started to get into animation. That’s what I studied. 

What about writing songs? When was the first time you wrote a song? 

I mean, the first I remember quite wickedly. I was on my trampoline with my friend. I wrote this terrible song,
I was probably like seven. But I must have been 15 when I wrote my first “real” one. My singing teacher and her partner who run the label that I put my first album out on, they were very encouraging. They motivated me to just write something and see what happens. The first time I played anything for them, I had it on such low volume so they could barely hear it. It was very daunting. I don't think it came that naturally to me, to be really open with what I was making. I found that really hard. 
But I got there in the end. 

When it comes to your songwriting process, do you have a way that you always go about it? 
Or is it ever evolving and changing? 

Honestly, it changes every time. I work with Mark Grapson, he produces and plays keys, he does it all. Most of the songs I write, I'm in the room with Mark now. So sometimes I come with ideas for melodies and then he finds the right chords. Sometimes it's just an idea. I'd say most of the time, it's us finding chords that resonate with how we're feeling and the rest will come after that. 

Pivoting to your record, which is beautiful. I have to ask about the artwork. That’s you on it, right?

That’s me… pre or post trampoline. 

Tell me about the album title and how it corresponds with that artwork. There's something cheeky about it that I’m curious about. 

We didn’t start this album with an idea or motivation behind it, it was one of those things that worked itself out as we went on. We had quite a few of the songs when I was looking through my phone, and found this weirdly high res photo of me as a child. And I just thought it could look quite interesting on vinyl. And then, weirdly it started to make sense as a representation of the album. When looking at the themes of the album, it was all a lot about growing up, and all of those things that you experience when you go through that. The last song is about looking to the future in as much of a hopeful way as you can. There was a slightly cheeky, but hopeful sense to the image. That's how it makes sense to me. It’s an homage to childhood and future and what it all means to go through that and come out feeling positive at the end. 


I love it. I feel like there’s almost a conversation between this album’s artwork and that of your first, it’s a conversation of Self. For such a young artist, you're quite prodigious in albums. I'm assuming the pandemic had something to do with this, just based on the release dates, but I could be wrong. So tell me what it's like to have a third album in hand already. 

Oh, thank you. The first record that I put out, which was Misunderstood, some of those songs I wrote quite young. 
I was probably 16, 17, when I wrote a lot of those songs. So that one, although it did feel like an album, I think in actual essence, it was a mixtape more than anything really. 
So, I think this project is the first thing I've done where I've really felt that from beginning to end it's been an intentional process. 

How old is the oldest song on this record? 


It would be “All That We Were,” which we wrote in 2022. So it’s been the last 3ish years. The first record took 6, so. 

Georgie, you've been writing a lot of songs. You're being very humble here. 


Honestly, the only way it's been able to happen is through other people supporting and saying, "Hey, you could make this into an album.” I don’t think I’d have the feeling that I was capable enough to do that without them. So to say, I've got three now is quite weird, 'cause I'm like, how has that happened? 
But it’s very cool. 

How prodigious are you, actually, though? Do you have dozens of songs that get filtered to make an album? Or are you very deliberate about writing?

You hear about people having to cull 20 songs into an album, I haven't really had that process yet. It’s been more that what was made went on the album. 
For I Swear to You, we had so much energy when we went into writing everything we made, that there are only about five that we didn't end up going ahead with. A lot of the stuff we made, we ended up really liking.
It was so fresh and exciting working on it. Me and Rapson just have a very good synergy. So most of the time, we make stuff and we feel pretty good about it. 

If you could put a listener in the most ideal place to listen to this record – to really understand it and value it and be impressed with your work – where would you put them or what would they be doing? 
Is this a trampolining record? 

I feel like a trampoline you have to be jumping, so maybe that could be quite an accurate depiction… No, I would say somewhere quiet, away from distractions. Or maybe somewhere quiet that's very familiar to you. Somewhere that can make you feel connected to your energy. I feel my happiest when I'm listening to records that I love in a sunny room that's quiet. 

If everything works out on this record, what does that look like for you?

It's so hard, because I think I'm constantly trying to put my expectations down super low, so I'm not disappointed. As long as it impacts a couple of people. And I really do genuinely mean that. Of course, another part of me would like to be able to work with people. I think that's the thing that I’d really love, is for the record to be able to allow me to go and work with people that I think are incredible. 

Can you name some names? 


Louis Cole is amazing. He’s done stuff with Thundercat. Just to be in a room with him and to be around that kind of musicianship that I have obsessed over for years… that would be a moment for me. 

If we were to come across you after a gig and everyone's piled into your place of residence, everyone's hungry and you are required to whip up a meal. What would it be? 


I've been really enjoying cooking fajitas. Or like a platter of poptarts. 

How do you make your fajitas? 

I'm not a good cook at all. I can't cook. But for fajitas, I like a bit of tofu. A bit of soy sauce. Chickpeas, mushrooms, peppers. 

So these are proper vegan fajitas, it sounds like. 

I'm a bit funny about cooking meat in general. I just would rather not. 

Last couple of questions. Do you have any advice you would give to yourself before your first album release? 

I’d probably say to not worry as much about what people think. It's so easy to compare yourself to other people, but I have kind of reached a point where I've let go of that a little bit. Realizing that once you let go of expectation, what other people think of you, and you just let what happens happens, sometimes really cool things can happen, too. 

Even being significantly older than you, I still need that advice. I’d love to hear about any non-music recommendations you have? 

Something that I watched this year, which immediately went into my top five films. It was Oscar nominated, but it was snobbed quite hardcore. It's called Sing Sing. I think it's that feeling of hope. Even through a lot of horribleness in the world, it’s about finding that glimmer of hope, which I think for a lot of people can be through the arts. It really resonated with me and I just thought it was so incredibly made. 


Amazing. At OnesToWatch, we love when artists put us on to their favorite artists. So, anyone on the rise that we should be aware of?

Well, truly, Louis Cole, he deserves to be a mega favorite, in my opinion. I've been really enjoying Ray Lozano, she's really cool. Todd Rundgren. 

These are great, thank you so much Georgie.