INTERVIEW: Reija Lee talks new collab with ShockOne 'Hardwired'.

Drum and bass artist ShockOne recently released the single ‘Hardwired’ which features his sister Reija Lee on lead vocals. A classic dancefloor banger, the track is also tinged with electronica with Lee’s vocals riding majestically over the top.

Lee has regularly featured on ShockOne’s releases and in 2018 she launched her solo career with the single ‘Love Nobody’, an 1980s inspired synth-electro track. Not long after she won a Triple J competition to perform at Listen Out festival, and has since performed at BigSound and opened for acts such a Kira Puru and Luke Million. We recently caught up with Reija Lee to find out more.

Hey Reija! Thanks for doing us on Women In Pop. How is life treating you at the moment?
Life and I are getting along quite well at the moment. She is my friend for now! 

Congratulations on the release of ‘Hardwired’, a ShockOne track that you co-wrote and are also the featured vocalist on. Can you tell us how this collaboration came about?
Somehow time had completely flown by us and we’d almost reached 4 years since our last collab ‘A Dark Machine’ - so we just knew it was time!

ShockOne is of course your brother. You have featured on his singles and albums before, when did you first decide to collaborate?
Our first collaboration was Polygon back in 2009 - which kind of ended up being Karl’s breakout hit when Annie Mac dubbed it her ‘biggest drum n bass tune out’, thanks Annie!

What is it like working with a close family member? Is it easier because of your shared history and relationship or does that actually make things a bit more stressful?
I’d say it’s 99% easier and 1% more stressful ha ha. Our extreme closeness does allow for very frank communication with one another, ultimately leading to the best possible outcome. For example, Karl will always know when I can do a better vocal take. He knows what I’m capable of and isn’t afraid to tell me when something needs more work. If any other producer was as harsh with me as Karl is, I’d probably run home crying ha ha!

You have done a number of collaborations in the past as well as releasing your own solo music. How do you find the creative process or vibe changes when you are collaborating with another artist as opposed to creating your own music? 
I definitely prefer working with others - I’m a collab fiend! There’s an energy when working with others that I really feed off, where ideas bounce off each other and snowball into something amazing. As much as I love being alone, writing and finishing full tracks by myself often becomes quite a lonely process for me and I don’t enjoy it as much. 

What part did music play in your childhood, and did you and your brother have similar or different tastes? 
Yes we had all the same tastes - Karl listened to Hanson and the Spice Girls with me constantly! Just kidding ha ha. There’s six years age difference between us, so obviously we were exploring different things at different times, but ultimately he ended up being a bit of a musical mentor - I would go on the family PC and burn CDs of all his music having no idea what it was, and be exposed to a lot of crazy drum and bass and electronic stuff that none of my friends were listening to. We also did (and still do) share a love of metal and rock music - anyone who’s witnessed one of our drunken ‘nu-metal YouTube spirals’ at a party knows this well!

How did you make the step to making music your profession? Was it organic, or something you studiously set out to achieve? 
With musicians as parents and a father who’s also a sound engineer, we lived and breathed music as children. As much as I always said as a child ‘I want to be a famous singer’, I think the universe chose my job for me more than I did. It was definitely an organic thing that just happened. I always played in bands throughout my younger years, but actually chose to do a visual art degree instead of music - I just took opportunities that came to me such as working with Kito and doing vocal features for producers, and it all kind of took off when I decided to move to London.

The music industry has been decimated over the past 18 months of the pandemic. What do you think we need to do - both as fans and also as a nation - to support music and musicians?
We definitely need more support from the government. Jobkeeper / Jobseeker is good (not great considering how many sole traders slipped through the cracks) but what I think is more important is actually letting us do our jobs again. There’s too many double standards when it comes to capacity restrictions - as usual, sports events are prioritised and arts are completely ignored. I’m hoping that once enough vaccinations have been done we will finally be allowed to do full capacity shows and tours. But in the meantime, you can buy our merch and stream the heck out of our songs. I also think TV stations should scrap their ‘blanket licenses’ that allow them to use music without any licensing agreements, and start paying Australian musicians to use our music in their shows.

The music industry has traditionally never been a particularly safe space for women, thanks mainly to the fact it, and the media that promotes it, has been run for decades by older white, straight men. What are your thoughts on gender equality and sexism in the music industry? 
As a survivor I am 100% behind the movement to rid this industry of abuse and exploitation. Thankfully for me, none of my experiences have happened within the music industry - I can only imagine how it would impact my relationship with music if I were to suffer trauma in the one environment I derive most of my identity and joy from. I am very lucky to be surrounded by men I wholeheartedly love and trust in music - and that’s the way it should be for everyone. Anyone who is in this industry with the wrong intentions or abusing their power needs to be outed. And on a side note, to all the male producers out there, unless we ask for your help, please, PLEASE stop mansplaining production to us! It just makes us not want to work with you at all!

What’s up next for Reija Lee? 
I’m actually in one of the final tracking sessions for my first solo album while I answer these questions - so there’s that!

‘Hardwired’ is out now via Dark Machine Recs. You can download and stream here.

To keep up with all things Reija Lee, you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.