Molly Hocking was the winner of The Voice UK 2019 and I had the chance to have a little chat with her about her new single “After the night before” and much more!
I have a short question that I would like to start with, and this is going to be about The Voice. Obviously, that happened, and you won, congratulations on that by the way, so could you share some of the most special moments from the show that you’ll never forget?
Yeah! So, obviously the whole experience was special, it was just a special kind of memory that I’ll treasure forever in my life. Well, I went into the show as a really shy 17 year old girl from Cornwall, never been to London before in my life, didn’t know how to use a train, didn’t know how to hail a cab, so I was like “Oh my God, I don’t know what I’m gonna do in the big city, this is not for me.”
But, as soon as I got on The Voice, the whole team was just so lovely and so accommodating to everyone’s needs and the most special moment is when I kind of connected with Olly I think. He turned out to be a big brother in the end, so that’s kind of my special moment.
I saw a post that you did on Instagram a couple of weeks ago. You posted a video of you singing and the caption was like “I was 6, sang in school and decided I wanted to be Beyoncé”. Did you know that you wanted to be a singer since you were that young?
Yeah. So, I think that was kind of the point that I realised that I wanted to never get off stage ever again, because I’ve played the main role when I was 6 years old and I just loved all the attention you know, as you would when you’re 6 years old. So, I sang that song and then loads of people came up to my mom, telling me that I can hold a tune, so I just kind of grew on that. I never really stopped singing and performing since I was 6 years old.
That’s amazing! I feel like it’s very rare for a child to know what they want to do in the future from such a young age.
Do you know what? I think that’s where I’m so lucky, cause so many of my friends in school, as children, didn’t know what they wanted to do, and I’ve known what I want to do since I was that age.
So, moving on to the good news, your brand new single “After the night before” was released last month! Congratulations on that, your voice is just incredible. So, tell me about the song, what is it about?
So, I know this sounds cliché, but I had a breakup about 2 weeks before I wrote that song and I went to the studio, wanting to write about a breakup, but also wanting to make the song relatable to everyone. Not just about a breakup, but just about the feelings that come with it, so hopefully I’ve done a good job in conveying that within the song.
You did! We love the song! So, do you want to continue going towards this direction or do you want to try new things and new sounds with your music?
Well, obviously, the music industry changes every single second and so do the musicians in it. But to be honest I’m still working out what kind of paths I wanna take and what sound I really, really want to kind of carry on with, for the rest of the career.
I feel like it’s a great experience to experiment and stuff. Obviously, you are very young and you have a nice future ahead of you.
I know that you have an EP coming up soon. What should we expect from your EP and can you tell me the inspirations behind it?
So, we haven’t really discussed whether we want to actually release an EP or just release a single every 6 weeks in the new year. That’s kind of the discussion that we are having at the moment, because obviously everything is changing and we don’t know what’s gonna open or close down next year, you’ll never know. Basically, I kind of got one song that I wanna base all my songs around, so I’ve got about 12-15 finished demos. It’s almost like remixed ballads, which I’m really excited to show everyone.
That’s great, we can’t wait!
Who is your biggest inspiration in music? Are you getting inspired by people in the industry?
So, not so much from the industry, but from a young age, my grandad was my biggest life inspiration. He played for a big band and I spent so much time with him when I was young and his kitchen, listening to jazz, Amy Winehouse and all the old jazz singers. And then I got into listening to artists like, Aretha Franklin and then finally, probably my biggest inspiration, Eva Cassidy. So, that’s kind of where I based all my music of now.
Do you have any dream collaborations for the future?
I would love to collaborate with Clean Bandit or Sigala and Gary Barlow is one of my big kind of dream collabs as well.
Well, I really hope these wishes come true one day for you.
Aw, thank you! Fingers crossed, you’ll never know.
I know that at this point we don’t really know what to expect in the future, but do you have any ideal plans for next year? What would be your dream for next year?
Yes. So, obviously, I’ve got some things coming up. I’m singing with Jamie Cullum and Sophie Ellis-Bextor on New Year’s Day Parade and then I’m singing on Olly Murs’s tour next year, so that’s kind of where we are at the moment. It’s all looking good.
That must be amazing, are you excited for that?
Yeah! Honestly, I can’t wait to get back on stage and sing in front of a live audience, finally!
I can’t wait for that either. Concerts and gigs are one of my favorite things, so hopefully we will have the chance to experience that soon again.
Yes, and honestly, I feel like we will appreciate it so much more than we’ve done in the past.
Definitely agree. So, with your success, you know have a platform, you have many people following you, so how do you handle all that?
Do you know what? When I won The Voice, my followers went from 2.000 to 36.000 over night and I freaked out. I didn’t wanna look at my phone, I just thought, “You know what? I’ve got this platform and I can’t throw it away.” So, I’m still not used to it, I’m just grabbing everything I can at the moment to share my music to the platform and the followers that I have, because it’s a great platform.
I can imagine that that was a big change for you, cause all of a sudden you have so many people knowing you.
Yeah, it was really strange.
Yeah, cause I feel like every people can react differently to that. Maybe it’s gonna be a great thing for someone but, maybe other people wouldn’t like that.
Yeah, well, I just thought if I’m in this competition, I’m in it for the long run and I won it! So now I’m in it for the long run and that’s fine, I love it.
How did you find lockdown by the way?
Do you know what? I found it really difficult, I really wasn’t productive at all. This is an honest experience but, as soon as it lifted and I was back up to London, it created a spark and I’m back writing and I’m back being creative again. I needed that rest in reality.
Well, it’s been very strange for everyone so, hopefully this will end soon.
So, for my final question, from your experience, can you give your fans one advice about personal life and one advice to those who aspire to be in the music industry like you are?
So, I think my best advice would just be: “If you have a dream and if you really, really, really wanna do it, you’ll do it, you’ll get there, but a lot of people say to me that the harder you work the luckier you become.” So, it’s all about that hard work and just making connections and you will get where you wanna be.
Yeah, I agree, we all have to believe in ourselves and work hard for want we want and it’s great to hear that from you as well.
Make sure to stream Molly’s single “After the night before” and stay tuned for more music and updates!
