Baby Queen: "My mum made me change the name of my debut album"

Baby Queen's debut album sounded very different at first. 

The South Africa-born, London based alt-pop artist had originally broken through with a series of buzzy EPs and a mixtape, The Yearbook, of pop music that was multi-faceted; a dreamy synth-pop aesthetic matched with lyrics that both dissected their artist's own neuroses and hit shots at the current socio-political climate. Basically, Lily Allen for the TikTok generation. 

But as Bella Latham tells it, her vision for her debut album strayed away extravagantly from everything that had come before. She made an album full of hard-edged 90s rock ragers. Until suddenly, she didn't. 

"I initially tried to determine exactly what kind of album I was going to make before I made it," Bella explains to us via Zoom after releasing Quarter Life Crisis, which definitely isn't the 90s scuzz record she imagined. Instead, it build steadily on the dream-pop foundation, while also taking it down surprising new sonic roots; to more straightforward commercial pop (Dream Girl), hectic New Wave (I Can't Get My Sh*t Together) and devastating 80s-like synth laments (Obvious).  

"I'd been writings songs for three years," she continues. "I was trying to fit everything into that one sphere. I wrote about 100 songs and we started to just pick the strongest ones. That's when things began to change."

And change they did. Quarter Life Crisis seems to bottle up that feeling you get when you hit your mid-20s - when suddenly you don't seem invincible or immortal anymore, when you realise you're technically an adult while still feeling like a child - and runs with it. 

"I've always felt like my first album is going to be the proper introduction to me," Baby Queen says. "I'm excited. I've definitely got more albums in me. This is not my best album. For sure. I'm going to get bigger and better. But we'll see. I could flop!"

We won't think that's likely.

MORE: The Official Top 40 Biggest Songs of 2023 so far 

Hi Baby Queen! Amazing news that your debut album, Quarter Life Crisis, is heading for the UK Top 10 - how are you feeling?

I mean, I feel super overwhelmed, really! It's just crazy to have something that you've worked so hard on to have it all pay off. To have people respond to it and receive it and really get behind me is just insane. It's quite hard to comprehend really. 

[The chance of getting into the Top 10] is completely surreal. It's really easy to get caught up in the moment, but today especially I'm just taking a moment to think about where I came from and what it means to be here now. 

That sentiment is very representative of the album as well, I feel - the point of a quarter life crisis is that you have to take stock of where you are, right?

It does feel like a full-circle moment to me. Everything that was going on when I was writing the album, it feels like I've sort of found peace in those feelings. I'm kind of now able to close the book on this part of my life and start fresh, I guess. 

[Your mid-20s] is a really confusing time. And it's really weird how many people actually react to that sentiment [of having a quarter life crisis]. You don't even have to be in your 20s, you could be in your 40s and still remember what it felt like. I always thought people would relate to it,  but it's really surprising to me how personal these songs seem to them too. 

Ever since I started writing music, with songs like Internet Religion and Buzzkill, they felt so particular to the situation I was in at that moment. I was feeling very isolated, and it's crazy that when you're being tremendously honest, people respond to that so personally. 

kid genius is one of my favourite songs on the album, I can totally see how this was the original title

That song...that song has been through the wringer. There's been so many different versions of it, but I just loved the melody. And the name, too. Kid genius. I love it. I had a lot of fun writing it. I think it's quintessentially Baby Queen in the wit and the satire. It just makes sense, you know?

And yes, it was going to be the name of the album except my Mum said to me; well, I don't know if you're a genius, but you're definitely not a kid. Thanks Mum. 

And the thing is, Bella, you only get one debut album...

It was honestly really scary. I've had so much music out before this, so while there is this pressure of making your debut album, it did feel at points like I was going through second-album syndrome. I was under a lot of pressure, like, f*ck, I have to follow [all this prior material]. I'm just really glad [it's over].

I've already started the second album. I'm gathering things together. Hopefully, I can pull my shit together. Infamously, we know I can't. 

Self-deprecating humour has always been part of the Baby Queen brand, but my favourite song on the record, Obvious, is where that all drops away for a second

Yeah, the facade has dropped there. I was actually really worried about putting that on the album because I felt like it wasn't a Baby Queen song. It was Bella. They are two very different things. Baby Queen says sincere things, but they're coated and glazed in satire and wit. It's trying to be intelligent, but it's almost like a pseudo-intelligence. I really exposed myself there. It seems really weird, still, to play that song live. When I play it, feels like Baby Queen fades away for a second, and that's actually quite scary.

I'm also a massive believer in the brilliance of Dover Beach, so very happy that made it to the deluxe edition

It is on the deluxe! And, honestly, I had the most surreal experience of my life writing that song. I actually read a poem in school called Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, so I always wanted to go there. I've always romanticised it, and I actually got my label to send me there, to Dover, to write. I was staying in this house that was almost Victorian. I knew I was going to write a song at Dover beach called Dover Beach. 

I brought it back to the studio and it was just missing something. That's when we thought of the..."it's deep! Red!"

Only the best part of the song!

Ed [King Ed, producer who has worked on all of Baby Queen's material] wanted it to go much bigger there. But, I knew that was going to be a big song. And isn't that funny? I knew it was going to be a big song, and I spent one and a half weeks writing it by the sea. Maybe I need to go to another beach soon...

If Quarter Life Crisis becomes your first-ever UK Top 10 album, how are you going to celebrate?

I have no idea, I will be honest. I'm going to go out after the show. Probably on Friday I'll be sat with my sausage dogs, smoking a zoot, playing Pokemon. 

Quarter Life Crisis by Baby Queen is out now via Polydor.