London Grammar: “Kids see right through something that’s not authentic”

ZEAL & ARDOR never fail to pull from interesting and unusual sources, and ‘greif’ is no different.

Words: Martyn Young.

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London Grammar’s rise to become one of our biggest and most beloved bands is a testament to the enduring relationship and creative bond between three friends. They supported each other through a swift ascent before navigating those slightly awkward middle-period years, including the tumultuous pandemic uncertainty surrounding their third album, 2021’s ‘California Soil’. 

In 2024, Hannah Reid, Dan Rothman, and Dominic “Dot” Major now find themselves refreshed and refocused on their career highlight, ‘The Greatest Love’, burnished with a telepathic understanding of each other and the enduring legacy of precisely what it means to be London Grammar.

“‘The Greatest Love’ feels like a celebration to me,” says Dot proudly. “There is a liberation that comes with having been involved in music for what feels like a long time now. I think we took risks in the process that we hadn’t before.”

The album feels like the work of three people who have been through a lot together but are now at peace with who they are, allowing them to make their most creative and diverse work. “We’ve definitely grown up together,” explains Hannah. “We’re closer now than we ever have been before. I feel really lucky to have Dan and Dot in my life. We’ve supported each other through some real ups and downs of life.”

Dan acknowledges the rough times when the trio would sometimes second-guess themselves and who they were making music for in the years following their stunning debut with 2013’s ‘If You Wait’. “This has been a bumpy development path for all of us,” he explains. “I think we have each been up and down in our confidence and sense of ease in creative and performative settings. 

“Strangely, it feels like we are slowly returning to where we were when we first met, which was largely more confident and comfortable with ourselves. I don’t think this is uncommon, and it’s something I’ve spoken about with other artists and musicians who have been working in music for the sort of time we have.”

“I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved as a band,” adds Hannah. “We’re not the kind of artists to crave the limelight. We’ve never been able to play any kind of game, and what we have over the course of these four records feels like a real musical journey. Each album is such a snapshot in time of what the three of us were going through and how we were working creatively. I think that’s what being a band really means.”

“I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved as a band”

Hannah Reid

The feeling of what it means to be a band inspired them to work more quickly and instinctively than they ever have before, an impetus partly inspired by the flux of the pandemic years. “We finished the third album, and then it got delayed, and we couldn’t tour, so we just went straight into making the fourth album,” says Hannah. “There are songs that have been written in very different places. We’re much more self-sufficient, so I think it’s a bolder record because of that.”

The album encapsulates different facets of the London Grammar sound as the trio incorporate a wider electronic palette. “I have personally been listening to a lot of dark electronic and ambient music in the last couple of years, and I think that comes through in moments,” says Dot. 

The musical sense of freedom is also mirrored in the physical freedom they enjoyed as they worked for the first time in their own studio. “That just felt private and exciting,” enthuses Dot. “There’s no time limit to the exploration you can achieve in there. No engineer that you are naturally conscious of not going too late with. We spent hours experimenting with freedom in the knowledge that we could throw things away too.” 

The relaxed nature of the environment allowed the band to revel in gently shaking things up without losing any of the essence of London Grammar. “What seemed to emerge was an album made for songs that felt quite ambitious, varied, and unafraid to chase a sound or idea that was out of our usual space,” says Dan. “I think there is also a nostalgic sound to many of the songs from music in our childhoods, particularly music from the 90s.”

“We’re much more self-sufficient, so I think it’s a bolder record because of that”

Hannah Reid

While the music incorporated slightly different flavours, like the club-based opening banger ‘House’ or the warm, enveloping electronic rush of ‘You And I’, the essence of London Grammar that continues to tie everything together is Hannah Reid’s stunning vocals and her songwriting, which feels absolutely central to ‘The Greatest Love”s vivid and evocative imagery. 

“I either have to be in a lot of pain to write some songs, or I have to be very relaxed,” reflects Hannah as she explains her songwriting process. “Some of the songs, like ‘The Greatest Love’ – that song came out of very pensive relaxation. It took me a year to write that song. It was going through my head. There are other times where I could be in a lot of pain about something, and I’ll purposely go and sit down at the piano and write a song about it because I have to get it out.”

“I think, lyrically, Hannah has written with a freedom on this record. It’s still dark, but there is a hopefulness and optimism in there too, and hopefully, the production really highlights that,” says Dot. 

“I do think this record is more celebratory,” agrees Hannah. “It’s not morose; it’s more upbeat.”

The songs on this album all have a lyrical sharpness that makes them even more resonant. You can hear this in the striking single ‘Fakest Bitch’, a song that highlights the instinctive directness of the songs and their process. 

“That was really fun writing that song,” smiles Hannah. “It’s probably the only song where we were all in the studio together, and it just came out. I think I wrote that song in half an hour. I had a set of specific images in my head that the lyrics were born out of.”

The songs on ‘The Greatest Love’ are written from the perspective of someone who has grown up and experienced the world in all its joy and pain. It’s not an album Hannah could have written when the band first found fame, when she was in her early twenties. ‘You and I’ is a centrepiece song that represents the maturity and empathy in her songwriting now. 

“It’s directed towards a younger me,” explains Hannah. “It’s about letting go of old versions of yourself. There’s a line, ‘All this preaching – it’s never got me very far’, and that’s me being self-critical of myself in those moments. That is something I do through my art. It’s about self-reflection. Even on ‘Fakest Bitch’, I’m not a fake bitch, but everyone knows or has had someone in their life like that who has made them feel that way. But in writing that song, I reflected on parts of myself that I didn’t like. With ‘You and I’, it’s an open letter.”

“It’s still dark, but there is a hopefulness and optimism in there too”

Dot Major

Musically, the band met the challenge of complementing the depth and maturity of Hannah’s lyrics with a sound that was bigger and bolder, with ‘You and I’ building to a heart-stopping climax. “That is one that probably had the clearest sonic direction and was reaching ambitiously for a style reminiscent of pop records from the late-80s/early-90s, even records from the late-70s like Steely Dan,” says Dan. “The rhythm track is comprised of a live take between Dot on drums and Seth Tackaberry on bass guitar, which we recorded in a rehearsal room before departing on tour with Coldplay with our co-producer, Tim Bran. That became the centre point. We also recorded a children’s choir at a local music charity for the outro. There are also production flourishes by Jon Hoskins, which helped take it out of our comfort space.”

They knew that they were onto something special with this song and had to take the time necessary to get it right. “‘You And I’ took a long time to realise,” says Dot. “Hannah had written these incredibly immediate lyrics and a hook that just felt like it would work in a commercial space. Those songs can be the hardest to bring to life because you can almost be afraid of the commerciality in case you get it wrong. In the end, it’s quite a live recording. Hannah just feels like she is soaring over the top now, and it took a long time to get the rhythm right to give her vocal the freedom to really communicate with you. Dan was so instrumental in this track in really having the patience to get it right. It has such a nod sonically to so many of the iconic records from the late 20th century that we are all so in love with.”

Self-reflection, encouraging a newfound feeling of self-assurance, is a theme on the album as the band reflected on difficult professional and personal experiences to give them a renewed focus on the band and how to move forward. For Hannah, her diagnosis of the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia at the age of 24 is something she constantly manages, and as the band dealt with the professional uncertainty of trying to make, release, and tour an album during the pandemic, it conversely and fortuitously allowed Hannah the time to finally work on herself. 

“I have it under control, so I’m a lot better at managing it than ever before, but it was worrying for a time,” she reflects. “I did think that maybe the band would come to an end because of it. When I first developed it, it was really severe. I’ve learned to control it. I developed it when I was 24, around the first album. We were quite seriously overworked as a band. We had only 10 days off in a row in two years. I developed it then, but I found the pandemic really helpful because it was like, I can’t go on tour, so I really worked on my health and discovered what my limitations were. It made me realise that I had been really overworking myself.”

The release of ‘Californian Soil’ in that strange period was a pivotal moment for the band. “It gave us an opportunity to really look within ourselves and make music. This is what being in a band is really about,” emphasises Hannah. “It’s not about being on tour, even though the live shows are great, and we really love our fans. If you don’t take care of yourself and if you’re not focusing on the music, then there is nothing. There’s no point in any of this. That reconfiguration was invaluable. Of course, it was a really hard time for the planet, and it wasn’t easy. We were worried that we weren’t going to have an audience at the other end of it. It was a second album going into a third album that felt like it was quite different from anything we’d done before. I felt like we got really lucky, and it connected and did alright.”

“We were like, ‘No, we really love this, and we’re going to do whatever we want’”

Hannah Reid

Reinvigorated and refocused, London Grammar trusted their instincts despite some people around them having doubts. When you get 15 years into a career of working closely together, you know what’s right for your band. There’s strength in unity. “I think there are songs on here that some people around us just didn’t really like, and we were like, ‘No, we really love this, and we’re going to do whatever we want’,” says Hannah passionately. “You just have to do what feels right for you. That’s all you can do, really. I was surprised by how prolific we were. We have our own studio space now, and it feels a lot easier. We wrote a lot of material there, and we’re already thinking about album five.”

One of the different ways in which the band worked this time around was in how Hannah used her voice. Her vocals have established her as one of our finest performers of the last 20 years, but now older and with more experience, Hannah looked for new dynamic ways to harness that power. “I’ve really struggled with my voice over the years, partly due to my fibromyalgia,” she admits. “It takes away all your strength. If I feel like I’m having a flare-up, it feels like I lose all power in my voice. It’s really distressing. I think that’s the hardest thing I found about this album. Touring can do a lot of damage sometimes. I’m refining myself vocally, and I’m still working on that, to be honest. I try to take care of it now as if it were a person. I didn’t have that kind of connection with it when I was younger, but it does have emotion; it has a mind of its own, and if it’s feeling tired, I shouldn’t push it. If I’m hungry, it’s not going to perform in the way I want to.”

An enforced need to try to sing in a different way was ultimately beneficial in emphasising the stories and lyrics that are so pivotal on this album. “Sometimes I just can’t belt now,” says Hannah. “On ‘Fakest Bitch’, though, it’s not about that. It’s about the story you’re telling and the words.”

The collective desire to follow their vision has resulted in some of their best work, like the soaring and expansive title-track that closes the album and stands as one of their greatest achievements. They all immediately recognised the power of the song, but again, not everyone felt the same way. “Loads of people we were working with just didn’t like it. We were like, ‘Whaaat??? Why?!’” laughs Hannah. “We are quite sensitive, the three of us. That’s something that we share. I think now we’re better at just shutting the door and saying, ‘Here it is. This is what we love’. No one liked that song, and I think it’s amazing.”

One of the key lyrical passages in the title track ‘The Greatest Love’, as it swells to its stirring climax, is when Hannah sings, “I need you because you’re a woman. I’ll hate you because you’re a woman. I’ll love you because you are a woman.” It’s all extremely powerful stuff from a prominent woman in pop who has spoken so eloquently over the years of her own experiences of working within the music industry. Does she feel the environment is getting more welcoming for a wider array of strong, creative women? 

“It feels different to me now because I’m older, and I think that helps,” she answers. “It’s a question that I’d be interested to ask younger female singers embarking on their career – whether or not they feel like something has changed? I feel like women have always been leading pop music. I do think it is different now when I think about the female icons I grew up with who were pushing the boundaries of pop culture. I would hope that it is easier now than it was for them when you think about people like Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Britney, and Beyoncé. This is where I’m really lucky to be in the place I am with Dan and Dot, as there is something about female creativity that certain men struggle to want to own.”

One thing Hannah does recognise that is different from when London Grammar first started out is that people are looking for different things from their pop artists. “I do think that kids nowadays want authenticity, and there is a change where kids are smarter than we were,” she says. “I just bought whatever manufactured stuff was shoved in my face. They see right through something that’s not authentic, which on a wider scale gives humanity a bit of hope.”

“We’re already thinking about album five”

Hannah Reid

On some levels, it feels like London Grammar in 2024 have reached the ideal level of success in relation to fame. They can easily sell out arenas across the world and play any festival stage while maintaining the freedom to make creatively fulfilling art, free from some of the fan hysteria of the modern hyper-social age that people like Chappell Roan have spoken so passionately about. 

“It hasn’t always felt like that,” admits Hannah, though. “I feel like that has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve had because our first record was so successful. There was always criticism where it was like we were always trying to match something. On our second album, to be honest, people were just waiting for it to fail. There was a lot of negativity. I do think that we’ve been quite strong internally to say, ‘No, this is what being in a band is. You’re never going to make those same songs again. We’ve changed so much as artists that you can’t recapture that, so you just have to move on’.”

There are multiple shows to play and stages to grace as the band look to bring the expansive sound of ‘The Greatest Love’ to their diverse and now substantial devoted audience. “We have a real cross-section,” smiles Hannah. “Something I really love is that the front rows of our gigs will have little kids, often with their dads, going to their first gig, and there will be a 7-year-old girl or boy obsessed with London Grammar. It’s just amazing. Then we’ll have much older audience members. The one thing our fans all have in common is that they really love music. It’s the emotion.”

Despite their individual projects, with Dot’s music on his own, Dan’s extensive production work, and Hannah’s burgeoning career as a visual artist, there is always the desire for the band to retreat within the strong cocoon of London Grammar, which the three members have forged over so many years. “We’re going to completely disappear behind the music. Album five is going to be the most unsellable, obscure record that we’ve ever made,” laughs Hannah. “That’s the goal, just completely mad. We’ll go and live on a farm for six months and make it. That’s the dream.”

Taken from the October 2024 issue of Dork. London Grammar’s album ‘The Greatest Love’ is out now.