Aptly named The Venus Project, Georgia Nott’s latest all-female album collaboration is empowering.
And it’s a project which was spurned on by experience after experience of being “the only girl in the room” within the music industry. The result speaks for itself: an album that is a stripped-back, beautiful and raw exploration of her thoughts and experiences.
With the album’s launch cleverly tying into International Women’s Day, Miss FQ digital content producer Ella Francis chatted to Georgia about female empowerment, style icons and her latest project:
MFQ: Firstly congratulations on releasing The Venus Project: Volume 1. Can you take us back to the beginning and tell us what encouraged this project and the process of it coming together?
Georgia Nott: Technically the idea was born two years ago. Something just clicked and I realised that doing an all women album was what I could do for the feminist movement and the best way that I could share myself as a feminist and to celebrate women.
I’m in an industry that, like a lot of industries, is male-dominated and to be able to do something that is a piece of art (and not just about sharing my opinion) that actively celebrates and collaborates with women just seemed like the perfect thing for myself and the people that I was surrounded with and met in the music industry. It felt very appropriate making something that honed in on how amazing women are, not how annoying men are!
What have you found to be the biggest difference working as a solo artist?
The biggest difference is the kind of music that I’m making. I’ve always wanted to do this kind of music and bare my soul in a very stripped back, exposed way. I think that’s the best thing I can do as an artist for people and for myself and my own growth. It’s been incredible because I think I’ve gotten to a point where I’m not afraid of people seeing the worst parts of me anymore and I think that’s something that four years ago would have been terrifying to me. To be here releasing an album that embodies all the strongest and most vulnerable parts of myself is liberating.
Listen to a snippet of Won’t Hurt by The Venus Project:
The project was created entirely by a team of women – which is incredible and such a celebration of all things female – can you tell us about the women you worked with?
It started off with just me telling people that I wanted to do the project. And then Camila, who plays keys for Broods, was the first person that got behind me and said, “I’ll help you in any way I can and I’ll do whatever you want me to do to be a part of it.”
Then I slowly started to tell and meet more people and they would put me in touch with others and introduce me to people that they thought would be awesome to work with. A lot of it was just connecting on the fact that a lot of women were so passionate about a project like this.
A lot of the people that I got to work with are at the beginning of their careers which was awesome because I feel like that’s a really hard place to be, especially as a woman. How can our voices be heard and talent appreciated as a minority in the industry? So being able to work with people that aren’t necessarily at the peak of their career yet (well, they’ve got way bigger things to come!) was really special. I felt like I was in the same position and that I hadn’t yet reached the thing that I was most proud of…
There’s just not a giant group of females to choose from and that’s something that I hope through projects like this it will encourage more women to take their place in the music industry and feel like they belong.
“I felt like I was in the same position, that I hadn’t yet reached the thing that I was most proud of.”
What did you find was the most empowering part working with a range of women in the music industry?
Everything! I find it hard not to be inspired by women. Every woman that I worked with on this album inspired me in some shape or form whether it was just the way they worked creatively, how they thought or saw the world as a woman, their perspective on things or their stories.
It was such a learning experience for me and definitely made me feel like I didn’t have to compensate or apologise for the fact that I was a woman in the industry. There’s been so many times I feel like I have to prove that I’m worth my place, which has in a way made me grow in a different sense. But I think the growth that I felt as a human being in this project was out of control.
I feel like I’m a completely different person compared to what I was two years ago because of this project. I feel like I learnt to empower and inspire myself which is a really beautiful thing. I’ve found being able to look in the mirror and think, “you’re my hero” is something really special for me because a lot of people are almost too afraid to think that of themselves.
What are your hopes for this project and women in the music industry?
I really want this project to keep going and to take it live. I want to invite as many women as possible to be a part of it and have their input creatively, have their voices heard and have their work appreciated. I’d love to do a volume two with more women and have a different type of music with someone else driving the creative.
I hope that through collaborations like this women will continue to empower each other and leave projects feeling what I feel now. From this project, I feel that now I can stand up for myself when I feel like I’m not being valued and stop apologising for the fact that I’m the only woman in the room. To see more women in the room that’s my hope. I feel like it’s the beginning of something amazing.
What is inspiring you right now? What are you watching/listening to/reading?
I love [the TV series] Broad City and actually since I’ve started watching I’ve reconnected with how confident I can be as a personality. Also watching them own their sexuality and give a different definition to the word sexy was super inspiring to me. It makes me laugh and I relate to it a lot. I feel like they cover a lot of things that are hard to talk about through humour.
Who are your biggest style icons?
I wish I could dress like Rihanna, I love everything about her! I went to see her live and she wore a loose-fitting mesh jumpsuit with sequins and tassels randomly all over it. I love how she doesn’t stick to any perfect body standard – she’s just hot in any sense. She never looks unsure about what she’s wearing instead she always looks like she knows it’s f@#king awesome.
Today is International Women’s Day. Who would you name as the most influential women in your life?
There are quite a few for different reasons. I tend to be influenced by the people around me as well as myself. I try to figure out who I am without other people’s opinions or other people’s guidance. I know it’s really important to have those people that inspire you but I do really believe that I should be the one that inspires myself.
There are people that definitely keep me on track when I feel like I’m falling off my own ego or like I’m going down a self-confidence hole. My friend Tove and my mum are good like that. I have amazing friends that just keep reminding me that I’m doing the right thing, especially throughout the making of this album. It was really hard sometimes and when I felt like I was getting too overwhelmed, those people were just the kind of people that kept me feeling like I was on the right track.
My friend Elliphant is a Swedish singer and last October/November during a writing camp she started giving me the world’s most complimentary pep talk. It made me think, “I am enough and I am good the way I am”. And people like that inspire me to be like that for other people and to not be afraid to give compliments. I feel like that’s what women need to do for each other.
In line with this do you have an outfit or look that makes you feel the most empowered as a woman?
When I dress like I’ve just stumbled out of a lost property bin I feel like that actually really empowers me because that’s how I feel on the inside. I feel like I don’t match all the time like I’m all over the place, colourful and clashing. I want to feel colourful and all over the place so when I dress like that it actually makes me feel happier and like I can just be this larger than life [person].
The Venus Project: Vol 1. is out now and available on iTunes, Google Play and Spotify.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
