In conversation with Alt-pop Icon Alfreda 

Words by Kate South

Alfreda is a London-based alt-pop phenomenon. Making waves as a pop star and cabaret artist, Alfreda has recently released “STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN”, the third single of her new conceptual world, TEASERAMA! This era is made up of several standalone songs, with each single forming part of a theatrical world that never quite made it to opening night. Written and produced alongside Sophie Galpin and Cecil Bartlett, Alfreda’s new offering cements her growing reputation for sharp, hook-driven songwriting combined with cabaret melodrama.  Previous releases include “DOLLY THE SHEEP” and “PINK ELEPHANTS”, with each release being accompanied by stunning, cinematic visuals to build the behind-the-scenes spectacle. 

To celebrate TEASERAMA! Alfreda is taking her satirical alter ego on a ‘World Tour’ to Manchester, London and Bristol. We managed to catch Alfreda before she jet-sets to Manchester, and spoke about her style inspirations, wigs and what to expect from the unfolding TEASERAMA! universe.

KS: I love your latest single. In fact, all three of your latest singles are bangers! Talk me through the inspiration behind “Stairway to Heaven”.

Alfreda: Lyrically, it began with a friend and I just having a late-night chat. The title stemmed from this visual of me sitting on the tube minding my business commuting, when some kind of perv stares at you from across the carriage and looks at the ladder in your tights and imagines what might be going on ‘up there’… It stemmed from that and all the ways we can use that imagery and play with it. It was very playful.

KS: Speaking of the visuals, you recently dropped your “STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN” music video – what was the process of filming the music video like?

Alfreda: It came together at quite the last minute! A lot of the things we do sometimes are quite last-minute. Georgia Small, the director, had sketched out all of the shots that had all been prepared, but then it was just classic me changing my mind quite a lot at the last minute. Nothing to do with my team, always me being quite indecisive.

KS: You have such a distinct style. Personally, when I think Alfreda, I think: Wig. What are some of your style influences? 

Alfreda: I love Betty Boop and Bettie Page. I love Divine, John Waters and all those films. Isabella Blow was a huge inspiration for me as well. Grace Jones. A lot of pop art too: the colours, the themes of Andy Warhol and stuff like that. Big hair…it’s interesting, my grandmother used to wear a lot of wigs, and I grew up knowing this. She was notorious for it, so as a teenager, I just became obsessed with that. That obsession snowballed into what Alfreda is today, and now it’s kind of a defence mechanism. In a way, it’s like a shield.

KS: Is Alfreda, the mononymous artist, a character for you?

Alfreda: Yeah, definitely. It’s like a caricature of myself.

KS: Let’s circle back to your music. What is the genesis of a song for you? How does it begin?

Alfreda: Typically, in my notes app. It will start with a title. Sometimes I will start working on an instrumental with a producer, or me and one of my collaborators, who is an amazing pianist, he will start playing all these mad chords, and I will start coming up with melodies on top of that. Then I’ll go into my phone and find there’s a concept waiting. One of the concepts I’m about to release – I don’t know if I should be talking about it, but whatever – You know the Donna Summer song? “Enough is Enough”. It’s a bit like that. The song is called “The Man at the Door”. At first, you think it’s a love story about this man you see at your door, but actually, he is the man at the door of the nightclub, and he’s not letting you in. It’s the “Frankie” 2.0 of my music. 

KS: When did you get started in music, what age did the grind begin? 

Alfreda: The grind began when I was 17 or 18. I went to Berlin to work with different techno producers in Berlin. Yeah, I had that era!

KS: That’s so chic! You can really hear it in some of your tracks, especially ‘DOLLY THE SHEEP’. How would you describe your sound? Do you see yourself under any particular genre umbrella, or do you traverse lots of genres?

Alfreda: Playing around with genres has always been the way. I think it’s one of the reasons it took me a while to figure out who I was and my branding. I’ve worked with different managers, I’ve played around with different sounds a lot, but what I have found is that I am the through line. It’s me, it’s my storytelling. It’s always a bit pop, but I have played around in Jazz, music theatre or electronic music, and now it’s even a little bit more rocky and indie. I like to play around with all of it. I think it’s about the theme, and if the theme is really strong and it knows what it is and what it’s saying, then it’s good, and it doesn’t matter as much.

KS: I think all three of your latest singles come from different musical worlds, so it is interesting to hear how you like to play around with genre. Speaking of the new era, talk to me about TEASERAMA! What can fans expect from this new era?

Alfreda: It’s bombastic, mysterious, it’s a little bit ambitious. The visuals are striking. The idea behind it is that it’s this show that has stopped production midway through, so there’s tons of sets and props and looks, but nothing is ever really explained. Like “Dolly the Sheep”, I’m wearing a sheep head and reading a script. I think the main thing to take away from Teaserama is just this epic production. Which to me reflects the way I really feel about everything I do. Which is putting a lot of work in, but not ever really being able to see things through because of a kind of deeper feeling of a lack of self-belief. 

KS: One of the many interesting facets of you as an artist is that you have a cabaret residency at the House of Koko, which is one of the chicest things I have ever heard in my life. How did you get into being a Cabaret artist?

Alfreda: It was by performing in these underground nightlife concerts – I remember there was one called Dangerous Kitchen. My friend was also putting on poetry nights, and one night I was playing some of my songs with my pianist, including “Guest Room”, and I ended up meeting someone who worked at House of Koko, and they said they’d love me to curate a cabaret show there. I was then given complete creative reign, which was CRAZY. I was writing, producing, directing and then starring in it. It was mental. But so much fun! Each production of that cabaret was kind of like a mini musical. I would perform all my songs and create a narrative. I mean, people never really understood what was going on because there were so many different performances that took place in between the story. But it was called ‘Bedroom Tales’, and it would start in my bedroom, but I would want to find love, so then I would sing “Frankie”. Then I’d be shoved in the “Guest Room”. It was a lot of work. 

KS: It sounds fabulous. Did you do a lot of musical theatre growing up? 

Alfreda: No, just a frustrated musical theatre lover. I was never really a theatre kid. I think I wanted to be, but I never really had the confidence to do it as a kid.

KS: So how do you have the confidence now? Where does it come from?

Alfreda: Maybe it just took me longer to see it through. But I just thought, fuck it. This is me. I am this person, I’m a bit weird, maybe I’m a bit cringe, I’m a bit out there, and I’m not going to try to be this other version of myself anymore.

KS: I think that’s really inspiring. You got your feet out at the George Tavern – have you no fear?

Alfreda: I got my what out? 

KS: Your feet!

Alfreda: Yeah, I did! Actually, to be honest, I perform without shoes regularly. Because it’s the look, the whole outfit, the wig and heels, but it will get to the point where I actually can’t perform. So they almost always come off. I think that at the George Tavern, I took my socks off or my stockings off, which is even more intimate, and I forgot that people sexualise feet.

KS: I saw it and thought it was so iconic, because there’s music in the background, it’s like a whole interlude of you just taking off your socks.

Alfreda: Yeah, that was improvised, I think. Maybe I should be a bit more careful about the feet. 

KS: Maybe you shouldn’t!

Alfreda: Maybe this is the thing, yeah… There was another performance at the George Tavern, where I started smashing up my phone. That was fun, that’s on YouTube.

KS: Is that your performance artist side coming out?

Alfreda: Yeah. There was a point where I was performing my song “Nude”, and then during the electronic breakdown of my song, I would do something unexpected. There was one time I was wearing a plain white dress, and everyone started signing my dress with a Sharpie, and the next show was the gig where I smashed up my phone with a hammer. It wasn’t a real phone, but it looked like it. I shouldn’t tell you that.

KS: Thank you for the peek behind the curtain! You’ve touched on John Waters. Are you inspired by Drag a lot? 

Alfreda: I am inspired by drag. I have always watched Drag Race and became obsessed with a lot of the people on there, like Violet Chachki, Bianca Del Rio, and Adore Delano. I watched a lot of that when I was younger. I am still doing my drag research, but I am quite a camp person in the way that I dress. I always have been! Even before discovering the world of drag, I was influenced by pop culture and music videos of the 2000s. Colour, big hair, crazy, messy make-up and big dresses have always played a role in my life, so it made sense for me to get into people like John Walters.

KS: You are about to embark on a huge world tour. What is next for Alfreda, and are there any particularly exciting songs, events or projects in the pipeline?

Alfreda: Yes! Expect many songs. Teaserama has just begun. We are deep in creative production and art direction of all the Teaserama archives. There will be a drop each month, and I’ve created little videos for things. I just directed my own video for a song coming out soon, and I am doing a couple of festivals: Dot to Dot and Alt Great Escape. Stuff like that! I am going hard on live performances. I’m working on a series, which I won’t say too much about, but will be very fun.

KS: How exciting! Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. I have one last question: are you a star, or are you a freak?

Alfreda: I am a freak.

KS: Love it! No hesitation – got it in one. 

Make sure to check out Alfreda’s stunning “STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN” music video and get tickets for her upcoming World Tour to Manchester, Bristol and London.

Ticket link: Alfreda Tickets, Tour and Concert Dates – www.livenation.co.uk

Photos by Stanley Dunmore