DANIELLE MUSTARDE TALKS REBIRTH, SELF-ACCEPTANCE AND CHANNELLING SERENA WILLIAMS WITH REBECCA LUCY TAYLOR

PHOTO CHARLOTTE PATMORE

Meeting in a busy London pub on a cold afternoon in late December, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, better known under her current moniker, Self Esteem, awaits.

Our interview’s been serendipitously squeezed in after an already jam-packed morning and even busier afternoon for Taylor. Despite the relentless chaos of album promotion, she is accommodating, easy to strike up a conversation with and wonderfully sincere – her not-so-subtle Shefield accent rolls off the tongue.

Now based between Margate and London, the last time we spoke Taylor had just released the late-2017 single Your Wife, her first as a solo artist after ending a decade-long gig as one half of the indie-pop duo, Slow Club. It would become the first release of her full-length 2019 album, Compliments Please.

“Creating the album was unbelievably liberating, though it presented its own types of challenges. Before, it used to be about trying to find creative ways to get my point across. Not having to compromise with another person, I found I almost missed the fight; the little hits of dopamine you get from battling against a co-collaborator created its own art in a way.” Little hits of dopamine aside, Taylor is more than happy to be going it alone. “Creating music like this, as Self Esteem, is way better – but it has been a very new way of working.”