Len Blake
Len Blake speaks eloquently. She has a calm and cheerful nature that instantly puts you at ease. At one point, I forget who is interviewing whom, as she gives me space to gush over her music in a disgusting show of fan-girling. “When ‘Warmer’ came out, and I heard the vocal run towards the end of the song, I was genuinely so happy,” I tell her, “it’s the first time in a while that I had felt actually excited about music.”
And how could you not be thrilled by Blake’s soft pop tunes? Every track is intimate, and contains a warmth that envelops the listener. They uniquely describe people and events with enough emotional clarity to feel as though you are sharing the experience with her as it unfolds.
Her stage name comes from the back half of her first name, Helen (He-LEN), and Blake? Well, “the ‘Blake’ is a family name, actually on my Tongan side. My aunt is an actress, and her name is Mia Blake, so I thought I’d just take the family stage name, and continue the Blake legacy.” Speaking of stage names, Len says that she was considering the name ‘Margot’ briefly, but was glad that the moment passed, as her current stage name feels more appropriate for the music that she is making.
Len’s lyrics are built upon by melancholic instrumentals, courtesy of producer Nikau Te Huki, who helped to flesh out her world and make the Honey Bones EP feel cohesive. The 5-song extended play was written in fragments over a number of years, beginning when Len attended high school in Dunedin. Many of the older lyrics lay dormant until she moved to Wellington and met her soon-to-be producer, she says “[In 2021] my friend recommended to me a guy in his band, who was Nikau. I hit him up and we met the next week. The same day we met, we jumped in and started on Paperglass.”
Blake speaks highly of her producer and friend. It’s clear just from talking to her that they have immense respect for each other and work well together. She praises him for “the continuity that [Nikau] brought to the songs, giving them a nice flow-on effect,” as well as bringing the “…magic and embellishments…” each song contains. This includes the atmospheric ambience that can be heard on multiple tracks, as Blake explains, “It was recorded in a caravan, so occasionally we’d do it when there was extreme weather. The caravan, as robust as it is, it, uh- that’s why there’s a lot of rain noise in my songs. It’s because often, it’s real rain that we had to make a feature.” She says the words with pride, appreciating the memory of their shared creative process.
Len Blake by Beau Jarvis-Child
Beyond that, she credits Nikau with the ability to maintain the meaning, emotion, and feeling of a song, even when the released version is completely different from the initial vision.
When asked what song had changed the most since its first conception, Blake immediately says “Buttercup. It got a little more hopeful. It was pretty emo when I first wrote it. We picked it up a little bit, because it’s a really emotional song.”
Additionally, Blake highlights ‘Paperglass’ when she talks about the process of her music changing as it is made, noting that it’s a “very old song.” She thinks about her words carefully as she explains, “you talk to a producer and collaborate and it’s nice, because you get a bit of distance from the song. It changes, and the meaning is the same, but it develops into something that you can be really proud of. It’s a cool way to shift a negative or intense experience, and transform it into a project. Having that time to let it rest and then work on it makes it easier to release.”
Because Len’s music stems primarily from personal experience, she feels that it’s particularly prone to analysis by her past and present peers. She makes a point of saying “I was worried about the people that I know, mainly. If someone you don’t know is listening to [my music]…when I listen to a song, I listen to the lyrics first. I know a lot of people don’t, but I’m like ‘I wonder who it’s about’ and ‘I wonder what the message is.’ So you feel very vulnerable when you put work out that is personal.”
To combat that scrutiny, Blake’s songwriting has been focussed on the “little aspects of the human experience; tiny things that are very relatable, to definitely ensure that people could relate to it and feel it.” The deeper messages coming from her personal experience are “based around something small that [she] saw, or smelt, or felt in that moment.” This style of song-writing feels meditative; grounding oneself in a moment of strife. Unsurprisingly, Len has already considered this. She speaks quickly as she explains the importance of staying level-headed under heavy emotional distress.
“There is a big thing about mindfulness at the moment, and a lot of the techniques people use to be mindful involve narrowing it down. I guess when you’re feeling emotions very strongly, you want to write something but the feeling is too intense, and the best way to handle it is to go right back down to basics, so it feels more manageable.”
Beyond the base vocal tracks, Blake’s music floats due to her harmonies. “We do a lot of layers.” She notes, “the number of stems in those tracks, it’s just like, scroll, scroll, scroll. Then [Nikau’s] like, ‘let’s just do ten more.’” She’s just thankful she doesn’t have to do it by herself. Prior to meeting Nikau, Blake was struggling. “I got Ableton, and I was like whoa, no. I tried my very best, I watched hours and hours of videos on Youtube, and after having a crack at it, I was like “nah, I’m not doing this. This is really hard.”
Looking forward, Len comments that the most recent songs she’s been working on have been written fairly quickly. “There’s the idea, or I would have had the idea a while ago about a melody, then something inspiring happens and then I just brwahbrwahbrwah,” she mimics writing frantically, “and I’m like, look at it - there it is.” I ask how that compares to her previous writing style of sitting on the lyrics for a long time. She argues that there is a healthy medium somewhere in between.
“A lot of people do the notes on the phone. I think that’s so personal; I’d be scared to go on someone’s notes on their phone. Some people record themselves talking or singing. I think getting it down quick is good…then I’ll come back and finish it later.”
A new songwriting style suggests that new music is on the way. Len promises that a new track is coming “…soon; well, not that soon. Soon enough that I need to get my A into G and sort it out.”
Len Blake’s music can be found on Spotify and Apple Music. Stream the Honey Blood EP now, and keep your eyes open for new music coming soon! Well, soon-ish.
