Exclusive Interview with Flo Wilkes

By Adesewa Yusuff

Adesewa: Hey guys, it's Adesewa on behalf of the ABC On, and I am here with the lovely Miss Flo Wilkes!

Flo: Hello!

A: Hello! How are you? 

F: I am good, how are you doing? How are you feeling?

A: I am very well, thank you. Flo, where are we today? 

F: We're at Nell’s in West Kensington for my first headline show.  

A: Ah! First headline show, congratulations! 

F: Thank you so much!

A: Oh my gosh, wow. 

F: It's overwhelming, yeah. 

A: This is so exciting. I've been so excited for this day, you don't even understand. 

F: I'm so excited to see you.

A: Ah, lovely. Right, Flo, we're gonna jump right in. 

F: Awesome. 

A: Music, what does it mean to you?  

F: I think music is, and obviously it's commonly described as, the universal language, you know, the language that everyone speaks. A chord progression can touch so many people in so many different ways. So, music to me is not only like my own therapy,  but it's also just,  I think, something that ties everyone together and to be able to be a part of that movement. Especially when music has, I mean, saved so many lives, saved so many people from mental health illnesses, or introduced new people, like me and you. I think just being a part of that means the most to me.  

A: And how old were you when getting into, like, the music scene? 

F: So, I first did my first live stage performance when I was 9, and I started recording music when I was 15.

A: And how old are you now?  

F: 18!

A: 3 years. 3 years you've been recording music, which I think is so insane. And I, I really do admire people who, or like musicians who start really young. Like 15 is an insane time to start recording your own music.

F: It's not normal, and it means that you have to go through the stage of everything being awful. [We laugh] I would listen back to my demos and think, ‘Oh, this is great’. And then I listen to them now and go, ‘what is that?’ 

A: Yeah. 

F: So definitely a learning experience, but I think it's important to have.  

A: What made you want to start writing?

F: Um, truthfully, I heard loads of songs that I just thought, wow, like this song is so incredible, I'm so angry that I didn't write it myself. And so then I started building up this aim of sort of like, well, how can I write a song that makes me feel the same way as listening to that song made me feel. So that was basically what really got me motivated writing.  

A: And what kind of music did you grow up on? 

F: Rock and roll, definitely. Uh, a lot of Led Zeppelin, Queen, Jet. They were my top three bands for a really, really long time. But then also, I think inspiring my writing was more Sabrina Carpenter, Madison Beer, especially her production styles. But growing up, definitely rock and roll. 

A: Nice. Um, I know you have a band, is it One Man Down Band or One Man Down? Because I've been so confused about your name. 

F: Oh, it's actually neither for me. 

A: Oh, it's neither? 

F: This is a completely new band. Well, I've performed with One Man Down obviously, and we still do perform together, but we were all heading in quite different directions, and I thought for my music, I  wasn't going to force a heavy metal guitarist to play one of my acoustic songs. [we laugh] So, it's a, it's a new one, but it is One Man Down. 

A: Okay, cool.  I was gonna ask the question, um, obviously you said, kind of, separated a little bit? Hiatus, would you call it? 

F: Um, yeah. I'd say a hiatus, maybe.

A: But how did that band come about? 

F: A music camp, the same one that I started performing live on the stage through.

A: Nice

F: They started getting us to rehearse weekly. Which, um, in time, that was the final band that started performing really well together. And, yeah, that's how it happened. 

A: So, your first ever single, Fool. 

F:Oh

A: Tell me about- 

F: Wow, what a song! [We laugh]

A: Tell me about that process.

F: Um, I wrote the song when I was  just testing out which chords I could play on guitar,  and I really loved this one chord progression, and I also really loved this song called Crisis by Joshua Bassett and I wrote a song which made me feel the same way, um, as that song made me feel. And it wrote itself in about half an hour. And I sent it to one of my friends and I said, ‘What do you think?’ And she sent me a picture back of her crying. [I laugh] So I thought, ‘Wow! [She laughs] Maybe this could go somewhere.’ So I took it to my producer, and we recorded it. And then a year later, I decided, maybe this could be heard by other people.  

A: Nice. Nice! And what happened after you released that song? What were the reactions to it?

F: Honestly, because a lot of people thought it was about this one boy that it was not about a lot of the reactions were, ‘Oh, like look at this girl who's written this song, ha ha ha ha’. Like the circle of friends that we had, etc. Um, that's how it went at first. But also, a lot of good feedback, a lot of people very intrigued by someone releasing a song.They, I think the confidence levels, they were intrigued by.  But, there were very mixed reactions because I, obviously a lot of people loved the song, but also there was a stigma around it with this one guy, which is really annoying. It, like, invalidated my work. 

A: And going into Hopeless, your newest single released last month. Congratulations on that, by the way. 

F: Thank you so much. 

A: It's very different from your previously released songs. What made you change your style?

F: I mean, obviously I have, I was working with Alfie on Hopeless instead of Louis, and I've been working with Louis for all this time. But I'd always loved writing heavy songs, I just hadn't released one yet. And Hopeless wrote itself in about ten minutes. Because I had the idea of, oh, like, ‘you're living proof of how stupid I am’ and I changed the lyric to Hopeless. And I gave it to Alfie, and Alfie said, ‘oh, this is heavy.’  And it was. [We laugh] So. 

A: Where do you see yourself in 10 years time in an ideal world?

F: In an ideal world? 

A: In an ideal world.

F: I'd love to be doing  Not only performing, and singing, and maybe being in some session,  some sessions, and recording and releasing, but also writing, and maybe writing for other people, co writing, that whole spiel I think would be really important to me, because I think the writing is honestly just as important as, as the performance, because you can have a great singer, but you can't always have a great writer behind that voice.

A: Will you ever release an EP or an album? 

F: Oh, oh, I tried to release an album in August. 

A: Oh, did you?

F: Yep. Tried to release an album in August. 

A: What happened to that? 

F: Um, I ran into some difficulties with my relations with other people that I was working on with the album. Um, and we decided that it would probably be best just to call it off for a little bit.

A:n I see.

F: And then I decided that my style was changing so often that I might as well, call, like, wait a little longer, and I'm so happy that I did, because otherwise, Hopeless wouldn't have even happened. But I think an EP of singles that I release this year could definitely be the works. 

A: Alright, I think that's all we have time for today, Flo, I'm afraid.  But thank you so much for doing this interview!

F: Thank you!

A: And I cannot wait to hear you on that stage. [We laugh]

F: Thank you so much, I'm so excited, thank you so much. 

A: This has been Adesewa with the ABC On, and I will see you guys maybe in another interview. Ok, love you, bye!

Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed this interview with Flo Wilkes! Make sure you check out our other interviews and to read my review on the gig and to watch my vlog on our TikTok @theabcon. See you all later! Ok, love you, bye!