INTERVIEW
Alice Gee | 14/04/2026
Away in the Cotswolds for a relaxing weekend, REIGNS checks in with me - open, grounded and vulnerable. With her music known for blending pop sensibilities with deeply personal storytelling, her music straddles the line between empowerment and vulnerability. Emotionally rooted, each song is a vessel of uplifting anthems and heartbreaking ballads, with authenticity at its heart. For REIGNS, it’s not about the streaming figures; instead, it’s about those who listen, loyal fans or new faces, feeling seen, heard and deeply connected. Her songs don’t just tell a story; they are strikingly sincere. Therapy, release, evolution, our conversation is one that is as honest as her music.
Alice – A great place to start is to discuss how your sound seamlessly blends pop with emotional storytelling, honesty, and authenticity. How would you describe your musical identity?
REIGNS - I would say my musical identity is very much about empowerment. There’s a lot of my music that’s very empowering. Growing up, I would say I grew up with friends who did totally different things from me, and my music kind of reflects that in the way that it’s always about just being your true, authentic self. It’s really important to me, I think it also reflects in my fan base, because there are so many different people from different places and different identities. My musical identity for me is just all about knowing that it's coming from the soul, no matter how that may form itself. You know, I’ve got uplifting songs, I’ve got songs that make you cry, but they are all from life experiences, and they’re all, I would say, authentic.
Alice - Do you think there’s been a difference when you look back at older music, do you see a contrast? Maybe you feel more confident, and you can see that?
REIGNS - You know what, looking back at when I was a lot younger, I think I always knew that I wanted to follow this path. But I think I can definitely hear in my songs there’s a different confidence. I think that comes with both age and experiencing more in life and things like that. But I think the actual core of being authentic has always been there. When I listen to old music compared to the stuff that I’ve got now, I think what the difference is for me is that I don’t shy away from things. I’m not afraid to explore new sounds. But I know what my core artistic sound is, so it allows me to have that freedom, as long as the message is coming from somewhere real. Growing up, when I listened to my old music, I was kind of always told by different people that you’ve got to be one sound, and that’s it, and you have to speak about one thing. Now I know I can speak about multiple things, as long as the core of it is still who I am as an artist. So I think there’s definitely a bit of a contrast, but it’s been more of a natural progression in terms of experiencing more, and maybe even being a bit more raw in my lyrics compared to when I was a bit younger, when I had a few more defences up.
Alice – I imagine in your music, if you’ve got that safe space where you know who you are and you know you’re authentic to yourself, I imagine that makes being vulnerable slightly easier, knowing you trust yourself with the process and finding comfort in knowing who you are in doing that?
REIGNS - Definitely, 100%. I think one thing that I always say to my fans is that I feel that music kind of speaks where sometimes words fail. So for me, when I’m in the studio, it really is kind of like a therapy session in a way. You know, I’ve cried, I’ve laughed, I’ve gone through all of these different emotions. I could go in the studio having just come from a really rubbish date and had a rant about it, or, you know, most recently, my next single “Everybody Falls Apart” came from losing someone close to me, and the session happened a few days later, so I was still in the kind of pits of grief where I didn’t really know how to navigate it. This song came, and we were all just crying in the studio, because it was just words that I hadn’t actually said in a conversation.
I think being vulnerable can be hard, but with music, it almost feels necessary. Especially when I hear people listening to my music and relating it to their life experiences. It kind of makes those moments of laying it all out there feel good that it’s going to bring something to someone else. A studio session can really leave you feeling lighter.
Alice - Have you found that the way you approach songwriting and stylings has changed over the years?
REIGNS - I think you hit the nail on the head. I think it evolves as everything does, but for me, there's not really a recipe for success with it in one way, you know? It can come from so many different experiences. Sometimes it can start with a storyline, or sometimes it can be that I’ve been messing around on keys and I’ve got a few chords that I like, so we build from there. I think when it comes to my approach, I would say I’ve never really had a straight and narrow approach. I don’t know how to explain it. I almost feel like a vessel when a song comes, because when I talk about songs, I say, “Oh, the song was born from this”. It feels like it was almost meant to be written that day. There’s definitely been a change in the sense that maybe I’m not actually afraid to just go roll with an idea, as opposed to having a set sort of thought of “What should we write about today?” I think now it’s about really trusting my instinct, going with that freedom and seeing what happens at the end of the session. And most of the time, like I say, that’s where the most authentic songs come from.
Alice - How do you balance your artistic authenticity whilst being aware of the industry and its expectations, as an independent artist?
REIGNS - I think that’s the aspect I love as an independent artist. I think in being independent, I’ve dealt with people in the industry as many artists have, where I’ve been told to sort of fit into a box, or been told: “You need to lose weight to be a success.” There’s a lot of pressure. I mean, there’s still a lot of pressure, but I think that’s why, for me, authenticity is important because it doesn’t matter what the outside source is, or what’s happening around me, I have to kind of just trust my lane and where I’m at.
I think balancing it comes with experience. It’s not putting pressure on something to be a success. Of course, it’s amazing to have a song that gets put out, and it gets a lot of streams, which is obviously something that artists like, but there are other important things. For me, at the same time, if I, especially when I’m doing my TikTok lives, for example, if I reach 10 people who say “that song changed my life” to me, that outweighs the pressures that come with numbers and figures. I think it’s about choosing what you want your mind to focus on.
Alice - I think there’s a freedom in knowing there’s a choice of freedom, and exploration is the best thing in the world.
REIGNS - I would say as well, without the record label life, I feel like I’ve definitely gained knowledge on more of the behind-the-scenes stuff. You have to learn about the figures. You have to learn about promotions and stuff like that. But I think being able to still put on headline shows and having fans that really believe in my music is incredible. It’s all about finding the right balance.
Alice- When writing Love languages, what was at the forefront of the conversations you wanted to maybe have or maybe needed to have through it?
REIGNS - I would say I think that Love Languages takes you on a journey. For me, if someone said to me, “What’s Love Language about?” I’d say just because I called it that doesn’t necessarily mean romantic. A thing that I say about my music is that quite a lot of songs can be taken in different ways, in the sense that it’s not always about a partner. Sometimes it could be about loving yourself. It could be about loving your best mate, and it also, of course, could be about a romantic interest. I think for me, when writing the album and sort of the conversations that were had, it was more that I wanted to create a body of work that people could just listen to. I always say to my fans, there are songs that make you want to just get up and knock the door down, head held high, your shoulders back, but there are also songs that I think are really important, that do just make you cry your eyes out. It goes back to the therapy aspect of it. I kind of want my album to almost feel a bit like therapy in the best way. It resonates in so many different ways.
Alice - When writing the album, have you found it’s made you look back at music you’ve written and being vulnerable, or has it helped you feel like there’s rites of passage when it comes to artists who are so willing to be emotional, or vulnerable in their writing?
REIGNS - I think when recording, especially going back to my next single that’s coming out, there are different moments where you go “whoa.” A lot of people say to me, “How do you know when a song’s finished?” and I think for me it's just a feeling. It’s not just limited to one thing, like you said, whether it is just a lyric or a melody, sometimes there is a feeling. So, for example, my next single, we had some beautiful live strings put on it, and I just cried my eyes out. It was almost like a gut kind of reaction, where it portrayed the emotion that I felt when we were writing it.
When I think about past music as well, I always say that music is ever-changing, in the sense that a song can stay the same, but the meaning can change. So for me, especially, my last single “Closer Than Your Shadow.” That was a song that Dee played to me when I was 18, and I recorded it, and it was just like, “Oh, this is a really cool song.” I think when it comes to listening to old music, it’s quite cool because we’ve actually ended up releasing songs that maybe sat in a folder for a few years, and then we listened again. I think that would be a big difference in listening to old music compared to new stuff, but when I listen to old stuff, I can go, “oh my god, that really applies to something that happened the other week that when we wrote it originally.
Alice - We’re living in a world where people essentially have access to you through social media all the time. I know being open is extremely important for you, and is extremely helpful for you. Do you ever think about kind of the other side of it, and where the boundaries lie?
REIGNS - It’s a really interesting point. I think for me, it goes back to me being very open with my fans, and I tell them about different experiences that led to the songs being created. But I think an important thing for me is also coming away and spending time with friends and things like that. I think that’s also really important to balance being so open.
But with the songs, with them being open, I naturally will share where they’ve come from. I think for me to be releasing the songs has become my default to be open. When it comes to social media and things like that, growing up and being told I had to look a certain way, speak about certain things, I went through a lot of that self-doubt. And I think because my music is so much about being empowered,I always say to people what’s really important is that I won’t always just tell them about my good days. I will tell them about the days that I’m down, because that is where people relate to each other the most. I’m the most open with my music, and maybe even a little bit more closed off when I’m not in the studio. So for me, those moments when I’m open, I kind of just let them happen and relish them. this is maybe a little boundary for me, where I’m allowed to keep a little bit of myself to myself.” Sometimes that comes with having a few boundaries and going, “you know what, I’m going to keep that thought for me and myself.”
Alice - I think it’s important to keep some things back for yourself. I think it’s important to take care of yourself, whether it’s performing, recording, or especially things that come from a heavy place.
REIGNS - Yeah, definitely. Before a headline show, one of the non-negotiables for me is always to have like 10 minutes just to myself before a show. I need a moment with me and myself, whether that be to breathe for a minute or to have a little moment in my head.
Alice - Has being vulnerable in your own music ever changed how you process your own emotions?
REIGNS – Yes, without a doubt, I think the big thing was when I was younger, sometimes it could be really easy to put up a wall and just say, I’m fine, especially the message behind the last single, “Closer Than Your Shadow.” It’s what happens after the conversation where you say to someone, “Are you really okay?” I think for me, my music has obviously taught me to be more open, but it’s actually taught me to process things without saying I’m fine. I think that it is allowing those walls to come down and feel what I feel. There's a lyric in one of my unreleased songs, and it says, “You’re not defined by how you felt.” We have ups and downs, and that doesn’t define where you’re going to go next. I think my music has always given me like a level of emotional maturity that I didn’t have before, because I’ll get in the studio and where I would not normally talk about something, I can there. All I can say is that it’s just made me not scared to feel what I feel and to know it’s okay to be happy, but it’s also okay to be down.
Photographer Chloe Maylor @chloemaylor
Styling Natalie Fajer Wood @nataliefajerwood
HMUA Kristina Pavlov @kristina_pavlov
