Robert Diamant

I'm just loving the fact that you through your kind of access to this pop world now are kind of introducing us to this performance artist.

Yeah, definitely.

Now, in the past on Talk Art, we've had lots of different musicians, including Self Esteem.

And Self Esteem is like a very close friend of mine.

And there's also a kind of parallel that I see with you and her, because I think you've both had this kind of long fight to have your kind of breakthrough moment.

And for a lot of people, I know everyone's like, wow, she's come out of nowhere.

But I'm very aware that you've spent like 15 years songwriting, touring, producing, collaborating with all different kinds of people.

And obviously it's a joy now to see that breaking through.

What's it like when you were growing up in terms of access?

Because I know like you're being described also as self-made because, you know, you have come from an estate, you're supporting working class stories.

And even in your lyrics, you're being very direct about that kind of subject matter, which I think is really important.

How was it like trying to break through in the early days?

I think also, if you think about the art world, it's the same thing.

There's so little access now to free art education.

And in Margate, there's a few art schools here, including Tracy Emmons, like TKE, but there's also the Margate School.

There's lots of courses where you can kind of get onto for free, like Open School East.

but it's the same thing and it's like for me i just felt like there was a message in your success you just have to really like um fight for your art and i think it's the same if you're a painter or if you're like someone that likes drawing or making sculptures it's a really difficult thing to actually get it off the ground when you were like in your teens say what were your interests were you writing songs and lyrics were you like a dreamer were you like writing poetry

These days, I saw that you're obsessively collecting clothes and almost creating different personas every day.

And it got me thinking about like Cindy Sherman and loads of like contemporary artists.

Or even like in the pop world, we interviewed Alison Goldfrapp not long ago.