Heidi Curtis’ destiny is intertwined with guitar music: “It’s a craft that has to be chipped away at”
Imagine if you told teenage Heidi Curtis, as she learnt Florence & The Machine’s Dog Days Are Over on guitar, that she’d be announcing tour dates with Florence a few hours before having coffee with Guitar.com.
Having already played with Ben Howard and Paolo Nutini, Curtis’ list of co-signs is already undeniably stacked – despite having just three released songs to her name. Across the hour we spend with her in Newcastle city centre, we learn how her story is six years in the making.
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“I was doing mic nights at Lola Jeans for £40 a week, I was buzzing!” she recalls, running us through jobs at Newcastle United and a Mexican restaurant. “I stayed at home, I honed my craft… my mam and dad are really supportive. It’s good to see artists put out music [quickly], but I also think it can be dangerous, the change of pace in how music’s released. It takes so long to actually perfect your live performance. It’s a craft that has to be chipped away at.”
After multiple iterations, Curtis’ live band has been solidified for three years, a constant while her songwriting took many shapes and sizes in her background life in North Shields. Raised on piano, which she learnt mostly by ear, she was soon ‘borrowing’ her older brother’s Telecaster and amassing guitars of her own, notably a 1978 Gibson Dove acoustic, which reminded her of the “white-winged dove” from Stevie Nicks’ Edge Of Seventeen.
Disengaged with the Ableton-heavy music production course at Newcastle College, Curtis was instead drawn to the “privacy” of playing guitar in her room, the playing style of Johnny Marr, and the purity of live production with her bandmates. “It’s a puzzle – and I love puzzles,” she smiles. “I never have that tyrannical leadership… I want my band to have the same status as session musicians in the 70s: very revered and honoured. I want to preserve that, because their musicianship is incredible.”
Image: Jay Davison
Bide Your Time
In November, the mystical, heart-throbbing riff of her debut single Undone revealed what she’d been building. Next came the magical duality of Siren – a modern-day successor to Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain – before the raw downstrums of What Am I Missing? announced her debut EP, Hollow Heart (due 29 May). She has two albums’ worth of music ready to go. While Curtis tugs at folk-rock, indie and grittier rock threads, it’s evident that the guitar is at the centre of her identity.
“I can’t believe how much love that Undone riff got!” she beams. “Originally, it had this massive Tube Screamer on it, and it was a bit ridiculous. It’s the rumble and hit of the strings, everything about the guitar gives so much life to a track. I’ve been able to manipulate guitars to work with me, via going down an alternate tuning route. When I came back to standard, I knew what my style was. Trying to find your own style in standard is tricky.”
That case study, surrounding DADF#BE and DADDAD tunings, exemplifies the crux of Heidi’s songwriting journey. Before she could share her music with the world, she had reach a level of self-assurance in her artistry, taking no shortcuts. While many artists wrestle with that in the public eye to feed the music and content machine, Heidi was determined to do it her way.
She was afforded that space after her talent was spotted by Owain Davies, who, in tandem with her older brother Tom, co-manages Heidi alongside Ben Howard and Sam Fender. Hailing from the same town, Curtis has watched on in real time as Fender shot to fame, now arguably the biggest British guitar act of the decade.
“Being around him, and that level of quality, made me dedicated to stick with this process,” she says, pointing out how he also started releasing at 24, having written since the age of 16. “I’m in a really privileged position in that regard.”
Trusting the journey, Curtis learned how to channel her gut instinct and write with a degree of self-assurance. “You’ve got to meditate on the practice of not allowing others’ opinions to get involved,” she says. “Have you ever played Zelda? You’ve got to tame these horses. I see songs as these spirit-like pieces. You’ve got to really tame [them], ‘No, this is going this way.’”
Particularly after an active year of gigging in 2022, the self-inflicted pressure to ready her music did weigh on Curtis, “but it made me dig so much deeper,” she continues. “When my nana passed away. I would have never reached that point of emotional depth if I hadn’t [felt that] genuine heartbreak. You’ve got to dig for those [moments], to be honest with your emotions. It’s definitely made me understand and honour the time and the effort.”
Image: Jay Davison
One Step Back And Three Steps Forward
In 2023, What Am I Missing? catalysed the wave of songs we hear on Hollow Heart – and beyond. Frustrated by writer’s block, she turned to her guitar, on holiday in Cyprus, and allowed the truth of feelings to come to the surface, instead of aimlessly seeking out answers. You can feel the urgency of her predicament in the track, a headspace she had to re-enter when it came to recording.
“It’s exactly the same as acting,” she suggests. “Every song is a lesson. If you don’t confront those issues, it blocks the other ideas from being able to migrate. As an artist, you’ve got to be on the move… mentally. Writer’s block is a sign that you’ve stood here for too long. The patch of sun has moved, and you’re still standing there. I now know whenever I get writer’s block, I’m not confronting something properly.”
Although Curtis is finally emerging into the public spotlight, behind the scenes, she’s always been on the move. Her taste has changed – from Bob Dylan to Girls Aloud to Metallica and Hendrix – and so has her live show, a muscle she’s kept strengthening, “like going to the gym”. Now, there is room for ambition to enter the fray, as the fruits of her labour finally come to life, proving that the long, old-fashioned march was the right course of action. While she’s watched from the sidelines, the success of guitar acts like Fender, Fontaines D.C. and Wolf Alice “gives [her] so much faith” in her methods.
“Now, people will sniff around and I’ll think, ‘You were at my gig four years ago and had no interest,’” she laughs. “It takes a bit longer to get people knowing you, but when the moment happens – and I believe it will – a really solid fanbase that are buying tickets and invest in your art [is important]. I see artists with thousands of followers that are struggling to sell out an academy show. If the music is good enough, and your artistry’s good, it’s gonna be fine.”
Hollow Heart is out 29 May via AWAL
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