George Pringle
Her MySpace headline is “posh girl moans” and she calls herself a “diseuse”, a French term for a female entertainer who performs monologues. And that’s exactly what she does - witty wordplay set to music she composes herself using basic home recording software such as GarageBand.
The 23 year old’s first EP Poor EP, Poor EP Without a Name introduced George Pringle as a dry, melancholy young lady who delivers her observations in a semi-monotonous, almost nihilistic fashion. The music is simplistic, and her voice is nothing special, however the main appeal lies in her lyrics, which speak of the ups and downs of modern life with heartbreaking honesty.
It’s an original idea, and one that has already polarised opinion. Firstly, the music is distinctly amateur – it sounds like it’s been made in her bedroom. Secondly – and unfortunately – the general British public have a tendency to pass judgement on someone with the slightest hint of a clipped accent pretty quickly, particularly if they’re female. Having attended boarding school and grown up in the safety of Chelsea, Pringle ticks all the wrong boxes for someone who wishes to be taken seriously in the music business.
Looking past her background and education, Pringle has a way with words that takes things further than the Mike Skinners and Lilly Allens of this world. “I climbed the scaffolding and lay on my stomach and I took pictures of the debris and felt nothing. We walked until we couldn't. Until your tin hat hurt your head and my pigtails no longer seemed ironic” she says on SW10, a song written about her old neighbourhood.
With song titles like Bonjour Tristesse and‘Extremely Verbal after Midnight’ it’s clear that Pringle has a lot to say. Having studied piano and taught herself guitar as a teenager, she is actually an accomplished musician, who claims to have chosen a very basic home recording set up as a response to over-produced albums and the growing obsession with all things computer-related such as blogs and social networking sites. To her fans she is an ironic genius, to her detractors she is overpriviledged and under-talented.
Her penchant for controversy adds fuel to the fire; her new single is named LCD I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down as she laments they’ve taken a more commercial route of late. Is she brilliant or simply opportunistic? As she says on We Could Have Been Heroes: “You don’t have to work at HMV, when you write so beautifully”.
George Pringle’s new single ‘LCD I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down’ is out now on Trouble. To listen to her music go to www.myspace.com/georgepringle
