Talking to Anna Appleby, the creative force behind Norrisette, is a giddy delight. Arguably Manchester’s most distinctive electronic pop artist, her conversational synapses trigger firework connections of illumination and digression. In the best possible way, it’s hard to keep up.
There was a time, not too long ago, before Appleby was Norrisette. Although the way Appleby narrates the story of Norrisette’s emergence makes me wonder if she was there all along, just biding her time, waiting for the right catalyst. Or catastrophe.
She explains: “In 2020, I was supposed to be composing an opera for the BBC Philharmonic. That was pretty exciting, but then obviously there was a pandemic. And I didn’t know what to do, so I thought, ‘well, I’ll do some of my own stuff’.” There was one snag, though. “I also kind of had stage fright.”
Norrisette by Kate Leather. Usage rights: Norrisette.
As fortune would have it, there was a solution close to hand. “One of my colleagues was researching how alter egos help people perform. Our egos are too invested in reputation and saving face to do anything particularly wild generally. But if you create another ego that doesn’t have that at stake, then it can be a sort of a reset, and you can have permission to be all kinds of things. And I thought ‘maybe I should try an alter ego and that’ll cure my anxiety’. And it worked.”
The most obvious question is where the demarcation line lies, what separates Appleby from Norrisette. The answer, of course, is anything but obvious.
“I’m quite a loud person and I’m very talkative and confident in that sense,” she says. “What I wasn’t confident with was performing in that way of really just like letting everything go physically. The funny thing about Norrisette is although I’m louder than my normal self, like physically and performatively, I’m actually happy to be quiet and more feminine and delicate with what I do as her.” Over time, ego and alter have moved from eclipse into alignment. “I think I’ve become more integrated now.”
And more distinctive?
“Oh yeah, definitely. I think it sounds weird, but I’m not hugely influenced by other music. The artists that I cite as being influences – singular performers such as Björk and FKA Twigs – their music has influenced me, but, as you say, I don’t think I sound like them except one of my songs really does sound a bit like Kate Bush. That’s the one called All The Same, and it’s a sort of a tribute to her.”
All The Same anchors her new EP, while its title track Manchester is a delicate appreciation of her adopted city, wide-eyed and romantic, as though viewing it from the crest of Winter Hill. For Norrisette, as with so many who have found their way to the city, it sounds like a case of love at first sight.
“So, I moved here ten years ago because I wanted to do a Master’s at the Royal Northern College of Music, and I liked that it’s a northern conservatoire. I’d never been to Manchester before, and when I set foot here, it was a beautiful sunny day. I had this really weird sense of ‘oh, I feel I could belong here’ and just never really stopped feeling that way ever since.”
As Norrisette has remained and evolved, so has the breadth of her lyrical palette.
“I’m a very emotional person, like most artists, and I used to only write songs about my feelings. I’ve kind of got that out of my system now.”
Norrisette by Kate Leather. Usage rights: Norrisette.
Pausing, she reconsiders, recalibrating the reflection. “I mean, I write angsty stuff still, but it doesn’t have to be about me. It can be about stuff hopefully that people can relate to on a more personal and conceptual level. I think I’m more influenced by environmental themes. My whole life I’ve had this sort of awareness and anxiety about it.”
Appleby clearly devotes a lot of thought to her visuals, a process most apparent in her videos.
“I always put a lot of time and effort into everything, but I wouldn’t necessarily need it to look perfect. I get quite irritated and frustrated by an industry that’s so dominated by image in a way that’s just like advertising. I don’t want to be a brand.”
Indeed, her presence is too quicksilver for engraving, too restless for any laurels bestowed on her to gather dust. “I always feel like I’m just trying to get better at something all the time.”
Somehow or other, she is.
By Desmond Bullen, Chief Arts Correspondent
Main image: Norrisette by Kate Leather. Usage rights: Norrisette.
The Manchester EP by Norrisette is out now
