Unlike most artists, Mollie Simpson didn’t grow up wanting fame and fortune. “I wasn’t one of those kids who bounced around their living room, microphone in hand and performing to their family,” she says. “I was a quiet kid, and it wasn’t until secondary school that I actually came out of my shell.”
Throughout her childhood, she listened to bands like S Club 7 and McFly, but never girl bands such as Spice Girls. “I hated when my friends would rant on about how amazing the Spice Girls were. Sure, they were good but I was never into them,” Mollie said. “I used to sit in my room with my tape recorder, listening to S Club 7 with my headphones in.”
Growing up in the small town of Cobham, twenty miles outside of London, Mollie never expected to be releasing her first album by the young age of 18. “Honestly, I never actually thought about going after those dreams because I was a realist, and therefore to be a Cobham Loser for the rest of my life. There’s a guy who sits on a bench every Thursday morning and rumour has it, he has been doing so for the last fifty years,” she giggles at the memory.
At 15, Mollie’s mother moved up to the north-east of England, it left her with her father back in Surrey. During the few years she lived with him, he worked a majority of the time and it created the strong, independent woman we all see today. “I didn’t mind being on my own, to be honest. Most of the time I preferred it because it would leave me alone to write out my thoughts,” she continues, her eyes clouding with nostalgia. “It seems kind of depressing when you actually think about it, but it’s just things went. I always had plenty of friends, my social life was buzzing the majority of the time, but when I was left alone, I really was alone.” Sensing the subject was touching a nerve, she starts laughing, “It’s alright though, my past led me to be the person I am today.”
Mollie is probably from the most un-musical family around, despite her harmonious alto and knack for heart hitting lyrics. “My family isn’t exactly musically talented – they’re more agricultural. My dad works for the environment agency, my mum now lives in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms and my sister is obsessed with horses!”
Much to our surprise, Mollie has a twin sister and an older sister! “Oh, yes! I do have siblings! I’m not that surprised no-one knows about them, though. Allie (her twin) and Gabby (elder sister) do support me, but they like to keep out of the limelight because they like to do their own thing! I don’t mind, I understand where they’re coming from. To be honest I definitely miss my old life, where I could be a complete dork and no-one would know about it. I do so many stupid things, and back before Mercury Records signed me, and Landslide came out, only my friends would laugh at me – but now it’s pointed out to the public! It’s so embarrassing!”
We then asked her what she would classify as ‘stupid things’ to which her reply had our interviewer laughing hysterically. “Oh, well, my stupid things aren’t typical stupid things. For example, back when I was in college, my friend had this pot of homemade pasta, and it had ‘blackberries’ written in marker pen on the top – long story short, her mum freezes blackberries to make jam.” She explains cheerily, “Anyway, I tried to read it, and for some reason when I read it, it didn’t seem to make any sense, and so I asked her if it was in French and she just burst out in laughter. The entire common room fell into a giggling fit and I went so red I was called tommy (short for tomato) for a week.”
“Only last week, I went to Halfords with the same friend, and I was so caught up in staring at something in the shop, that when I turned back to guy holding open the door for me – bear in mind this is a complete stranger – I yelled hello! In a really cheery voice instead of thank you,” she squeezes her eyes shut at the memory like she’s trying not to remember it. “And he just smiled at me weirdly and walked by. That was pretty bad too.”
Mollie’s friends are a big fan and great supporters of her music. All the way through secondary school and the beginning years of college, her best friends - a group of five girls, two of which don’t go to college - helped her with difficulties in her life and even suggested she write the song about a specific time in her life. The result of which is her number one hit Landslide!
“Did they influence me?” She repeats the question, eyes glazing with thought. “Oh, definitely. If it wasn’t for them I doubt I would’ve ever even considered writing a song. My college wasn’t exactly a lot of help seeing as we our college director was all about academia, but they managed to help me.”
The Surrey College Mollie attended presented great challenges when pursuing her dream, on account of the fact it was purely academic and the music department was limited to a single teacher. However when visiting London on a spur-of-the-moment trip, she was singing out loud in Oxford Street with one of her best friends, when a rep for Mercury Records spotted her.
“It was literally insane,” she explains, smiling widely. “One minute Anna and I were singing along to Usher’s Without You and the next this guy pops up and says my voice is label material,” she quotes. “Obviously my friends and I were a bit wary, I mean a guy talking to a group of seventeen year old girls in the middle of London was pretty strange – but then he presented a card and told me to ring the number when I got back home seeing as it may have looked a tad strange. I got home, rang the number and everything kicked off from there.”
However, due to Mollie’s age, there were certain restrictions to her career because of college and coursework, as well as people criticising her ‘lack of life experience’ in reference to her lyrics. During her first year of college, she dropped out of college to pursue her dream – however she is planning to get back and finish coming out with three A Levels. We asked her why she thought it was important to come out with qualifications.
“I could get to twenty and my music career could be heading down the pisser,” she laughs at her language, saying she would apologise but she’s not going to hide herself for an interview. “That’s what interviews are for, to get to know the artist, right?” She says, shrugging. “Anyway, yeah, it’s definitely important to keep track of qualifications and not give it all up for one dream. That dream may not be all it seems and if I don’t finish school, then I could end up working in the back of McDonalds, spreading mayo on hundreds of burger buns. No offence Ronald!”
Anchoring all of this information together, the interview decided it was time to delve into the deepest crevices of Mollie’s life and the back story behind her album ‘Love is a Losing Game’ and number one hit Landslide. “For me, Landslide symbolizes my realization that time makes you bolder, which I turned into ‘time makes you bolder; children get older” in my lyrics,” she explains, carefully. “It’s about realising that it’s finally time to look in the mirror and decide who you are, and where you want to be in life. It’s about finding the courage to make changes and leave behind a love that may not be giving you what you need. It won’t be until later in life that you’ll find joy in your heart at having found the courage to do that.”
“Landslide is about being afraid of the change that you go through in life and that when you get to the end of it and look back, you can be proud of the changes you made. But also accepting and acknowledge all the difficulties you faced to get to that proud moment, as well as being okay with the fact it’s scary to change.”
Mercury Records was quick to promote Landslide, and make it the sole focus of the album. As amazing as the rest of the hits on Love is a Losing Game are, Mollie made sure Landslide was to be the first song to be promoted as it was the one that meant the most to her, as well as being the one she spent the most time writing – even at the tender age of 17. “As soon as I put the pen to paper a day after my 17th birthday, I knew that this song was going to be the hardest to write, but also the most emotional. It did take a hell of a lot out of me, and not to embarrass myself or anything, but I did spend a lot of time crying when writing it.”
Despite appearing guarded about the subject, Mollie just takes in a deep breath and continues. “A lot of people will criticize this song after I say this, but I’m not ashamed to tell them where the inspiration for the lyrics came from. You win some, you win some!”
“During primary school, I met this guy who turned eventually became my best friend. We stayed close for a number of years, fifteen, I think? Anyway, we went to the same school, and spent so much time together and he was without doubt the best friend I’d ever had. But of course, it only took a while to realize that there was something more than just friendship between us, and we started ‘going out’”, she smiles, “as we used to say, back in year 8. Of course, being 12, a lot of people will say how stupid it was – but instantly I knew that he was something special. Over the years we grew closer and had all of our firsts together, like concerts, kiss, holiday and other things - which we won’t delve into – and I think it was 16 when I realized I was in love with him. It came to leaving secondary school and moving on to a college or sixth form, and we went our separate ways – him to a school on the other side of the country, and me at the same place, and something just happened. We were getting older and we just started growing apart. Daily phone calls became weekly texts, weekly visits became bi-monthly and even then they were limited to a day or so.”
“Just before Mercury signed me, we decided to split up after five years of being together, because we just realised that we were different people and couldn’t be together. It scared me because I was struggling to manage life on my own because as I’d grown up, I’d kind of moulded myself around him – see “built my life around you”. Landslide was my emotional outing, where I vented my feelings and wrote explained how utterly terrifying it was so try and become myself, instead of relying on him. I did doubt myself on whether I could make it alone because he was always there – not only was he my boyfriend, but he was my best friend as well and my entire life included him. There was barely a picture of me without him since my family practically abducted him! He had more possessions in my room than I did!
“’Can the child within my heart, rise above?’ refers to the dreams and fantasies children have because they have a unique way of believing anything is possible, and can do anything they want with their life. They’re not so worn down and disappointed by the trials and tribulations of life yet and during the aftermath of the break-up, I really wanted to hop in a time machine and go back to when things didn’t hurt as much.”
The signing of Mollie was the beginning of her happiness. Not only would she go on to relieving herself through lyrics, but she got to influence and help thousands of people around who went through similar things. “One thing I love about Landslide is that the theme is transcendent and ever-changing. Several people have written me letters to say how much they the song has helped them through pregnancies, their children leaving to go to University and even deaths of loved ones! It means a lot to me that they can relate, it allows me to have an intimate connection with them. If I could I’d meet every single one of my fans!”
It’s still early days for Mollie, but she has a bright and promising future ahead of her already. Such lyrics as “Oh, what are we doing? We are turning into dust, playing houses in the ruins of us” in her collaboration of ‘Broken Strings’ with James Morrison, have also opened the opportunity to follow the path of becoming a lyricist if she ever gets fed up with the celebrity life. “I get bored quite easily, so I wouldn’t be surprised if having my pictures in magazines eventually pissed me off enough to make me want to ditch that life!”
Mollie’s debut album Life is a Losing Game is certainly a heart-wrenching album and delves into the territory of a teenage girl’s love life after a rocky road. “I guess there really is light at the end of the emotional tunnel.”
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