Georgia Crandon Is She The Next Amy Winehouse

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Georgia & The Vintage Youth

Interview conducted on Auguest 5, 2018

by Dan Locke

Georgia Crandon is just 22 years of age, Essex girl with a big voice, big blonde hair and a cool little jazz band called The Vintage Youth. Her retro jazz/swing style of music is both vintage and fresh, hence the name of the band. The music gets you tapping your feet (think Jools Holland or Paolo Nutini) whilst her ballads are stripped back allowing Georgia’s strong vocal to take you somewhere inside yourself and make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end (think Adele or Amy Winehouse).

Georgia hadn’t been on the music scene for very long when she performed live at the NEC Arena, Birmingham in the UK and gained 2nd place in a competition ahead of 9000 other hopefuls in July 2015. Her solo acoustic rendition of a re-written Rodgers & Hammerstein piece ‘My Favourite Things’ during that final was awesome and certainly memorable to all those there.
Since then she has virtually written her first album, released her debut EP ‘The Girl’ and follow up EP ‘El Reco’ which features Neville Staple (The Specials) and has been played on BBC Radio 2.

In November 2015 her debut single obtained her Westfield/Senheisser artist of the month. Georgia and her band are now beginning to gig regularly on the London scene since being played regularly on BBC Radio. (BBC 2, BBC London, Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and many more including Wales.)

Were you a musical person growing up?

Yeah, I guess so. I’ve played piano since I was 10 and music was always on in the house. I wrote a lot of poetry too as a kid – I didn’t have many friends! But I never thought to put the two together until a few years ago.

What was the first band you were in?

The one I’m in now.

How did you get the name for your band?

I originally started off as just ‘Georgia’. But type that into Google and I’m competing with a state in America. The Vintage Youth are my support band and the name came around when trying to describe my brand and style of music. It’s a mix of old and young that brings everybody from all generations and backgrounds together. The Vintage Youth seemed to sum up my sound.

How did you come up with the title of your new record?

It’s named after one of the tracks ‘Remember Brick Lane.’ I just thought it sounded pretty cool, to be honest. The song itself is about a guy I went out with

Georgia & The Vintage Youth

in Brick Lane once. Brick Lane is a famous street in London that I love, they have some banging curry houses.

What track on the EP best tells about your musical style?

All of them I guess. The other tracks are more Jazz/Funk, produced by the legendary Mo Pleasure. They’re a lot of fun. ‘Remember Brick Lane’ is more bluesy and that’s what I’m really into. Jazz and Blues are what I listen to the most.

Describe your music to someone who never heard it?

Think of New Orleans and a Dixie-style jazz band performing on a street corner with a celebration of horns. I think that’s why my music crosses genres like Swing, Ska, and Soul. I do love a bit of brass.

You were a runner-up on TeenStar 2015. Did it help or hurt your career?

Definitely helped. It’s what started me off. Didn’t hurt my career at all, it’s not like it’s X Factor. It’s a national competition that gives artists the opportunity to perform on big stages, with big audiences and professional production teams. It depends what you want to take from it. I was approached by an artist development team that gave us a real insight into how the music industry works and enabled us to network and build the team we have. It also helped me tap into talents I never even knew I had and made me realize that this is all I want to do.

You have that Amy Winehouse sound. I saw her at SXSW back in 2007. In a tent with a 100 people with their jaws dropping. You remind me of her very very much so. Did you start your musical career to be similar to her or did it just happen?

You’re lucky to have seen her! She was great. But no, I would never try to be similar to anybody. You can’t get a better Amy than Amy. There are definite similarities there because I think we grew up listening to similar music and learned from similar singers. But then we are also very different in other ways. It’s a huge compliment when people say that I remind them of her, I think we all miss her a lot. But I would hope to have my own stamp on the industry so I’m just going to continue being myself.

I wrote a blog about it too a couple of years ago, which gives a more comprehensive account ===è http://www.georgiasmusic.com/blogpost2/.

What was the first concert you saw?

Georgia & The Vintage Youth

McFly! What babes. They were my pin-ups.

You are from Essex. Have you ever run into any of these local people from Essex?

Rod Stewart

I’ve seen Rod Stewart out and about, I think he used to live in Epping which is about 10 minutes away from me. The others though, no. Essex is quite big to be fair.

Anne-Marie

Depeche Mode

Blur

Gorillaz

What is your favorite club to visit in Essex and why?

The options are pretty slim. They’re all a bit of a dive. I prefer pubs to clubs.

Tell me about David Swift?

Dave Swift has been Jools Holland’s bass player for over 28 years. He’s played bass for and alongside so many incredible artists that have been on Jools Holland’s show like Paul Simon, Smokey Robinson, Eric Clapton, even Amy Winehouse. We were looking for a bass player to record ‘Remember Brick Lane’. When our pluggers suggested Dave Swift I was like, “Yeah right”. They sent Dave some of my work and he liked it and agreed on a session in the studio. We got on and he is now a close friend.

What does rechord mean? (I heard it through the grapevine(rechord))

Rechord Productions is a small company my pals Charlie Stone and Daisy Morecroft set up. They’re really good. They make great promo vids and we’ve worked together a lot. They’re the same age as me and are starting out in their own careers, so we all help each other out.

I see on Youtube you have performed with many different people. If you could perform with anyone who would it be and why?

The Muppets. I have a weird crush on Dr Teeth.

Any plans to tour the USA?

I do have plans to tour their yes. I think the USA can open many more doors for me than the UK as its more liberal thinking in music genres. Touring from New Orleans, through Memphis, Texas and Nashville would be a dream. Mo Pleasure (Earth Wind & Fire) who produced a few tracks for me has invited me over to his home in Atlanta to record and tour LA so watch this space.

Anything in closing?