“I really love this artist and this album. Reminds me of a young Kate Bush, whom I never thought anyone could come close to. But Linzi does! Check it out. This is the start of a beautiful career!” Actress Daphne Ashbrook

Everyone who hears Linzi Gold’s music is wowed by it, but who is this 23-year-old girl from Manchester with a voice which can span the octaves and summon up echoes of classic Kate Bush and Sarah Brightman? Blazing Minds finds out.

Linzi is only 23 years old, and yet has been singing nearly all her life. Her mother, the author Sam Stone, remembers playing Musical Theatre CDs to her as a child, and she especially loved Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber. “One day,” says Sam, “I was cleaning up downstairs, and heard the familiar music from Phantom coming from upstairs – and I’d always loved Sarah Brightman’s voice. So I called up to Linzi: ‘You’re listening to the CD again!’ and the singing stopped, and she called down: ‘No, mummy, I’m singing!’ She must have been about six years old, and yet could sing as well as Brightman already, hitting all the top notes!”

“I first started singing when I was a kid,” explains Linzi. “At first it was singing along to Disney films, until my mum brought home the original cast recording of Phantom of the Opera. I fell in love with the story and the characters. Particularly the Phantom. One day my mum heard me singing one of the songs upstairs and thought it was the CD playing. She enrolled me into singing lessons and I started classical training at the age of six.”

Despite all the musical training, Linzi chose to focus on her other artistic abilities, and studied Animation and Design at Bolton University, going on to gain a Degree in Animation and Illustration. Indeed, she created the cover for HEROINES OF FUTURE PAST herself.

It was on Boxing day 2014 that Linzi was at a party, and after dinner, everyone started to do their own little ‘party pieces’ and so Linzi sung, acapella, a selection of Kate Bush’s songs. This blew away the small audience, and one of them, 60’s drummer Alan Whitehead, suggested that Linzi take it further. Linzi then met with Alan Glass, an award-winning record producer, and they have collaborated on her music, with Alan Glass finding inspiration in her lyrics and ideas, and Linzi giving voice to the themes and concepts suggested by Alan’s music.

“Collaborating with Alan Glass was amazing,” says Linzi. “I was really nervous the first time we went up to the studio, but he’s really easy to get along with and straight away we had three songs planned. Alan really pushed me to get the best out of my voice and I think I improved a lot throughout the duration of our partnership.

“What I love about singing,” she says, “is being able to express myself, to sing songs I love. Singing always cheers me up and I love pushing myself to improve, as well as exploring different ways I can use my voice. I especially love singing high notes.

“I’m inspired by a lot of things: books, history, other artists, dreams I’ve had, colours, paintings. Whatever gets me thinking. A lot of the music on my Album is based on stories I love, but there are also historical figures and dreams … I think each song is probably a product of all of these things with one theme shining through particularly.”

The result is HEROINES OF FUTURE PAST, an album which celebrates strong women. “Throughout history, the consensus was that the worst thing to be was a woman,” says Linzi. “Of course, there were some cultures that were an exception to the rule, but for the most part women were less people and more items you could barter. When I say I love strong women, I don’t mean the terribly written action women you see in films. There are so many different types of strength and I’d like to think the album portrays that. Strong women inspire me because they’re not afraid to question and shrug off any expectations placed on them by society.

“For example, I wrote about a real historical figure called Julie D’Aubigny, also known as La Maupin. She was a 17th century opera singer and swordswoman who was openly bisexual. Her exploitations were the subject of much gossip, but she seemed very confident in who she was. D’Aubigny dressed in men’s clothes without concealing her gender and was tried for arson in absentia, among other things, for stealing her girlfriend out of a nunnery and setting it on fire. When I first read about her I sat back and thought: ‘life goals’! But going back to my main point, you don’t have to be proficient in sword fighting to be strong: emotional and mental strength are equally as important.”

Also on the album are ‘Twisted Smile’ and ‘Killing Kiss’ which were both inspired by Linzi’s love of folklore and vampire fiction. “I’ve always enjoyed reading Norse mythology and I particularly enjoy the stories of Loki. ‘Twisted Smile’ uses the idea of the trickster as a faithless lover,” Linzi explained. “‘Killing Kiss’, on the other hand, was a tribute to the campness of vampire movies in general. I had a lot of fun writing and performing it!”

As for a favourite track: “It’s a toss up between ‘Strange Beauty’ and ‘Through June’. ‘Strange Beauty’ was written based off a dream I had. I was a priestess in a real time strategy game played by two Gods. At the end, for my team to win, we had to take over an ancient city, and I sacrificed my physical form to my God, marrying my soul to him. I remember he was pure white with black and gold eyes. As Alan and I discussed it, the God became the city itself and the song got a lot more spiritual. I play too many video games, so my dreams take a lot of those elements.

“‘Through June’ was written in memory of Tanith Lee after she passed away last year. She’s one of my favourite authors. I based the song around a scene in her novel, Biting The Sun. The nameless narrator ends up in a desert with her pet and they’re caught in a surprise storm. As the rain comes down, flowers blossom and reproduce as quickly as possible, while wild animals dance around and celebrate. The narrator gets as caught up in the moment and runs through the flowers. I wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the scene and inspire the same emotions I felt when I read it. The song makes me cry when I listen to it.”

Indeed, Lee herself cried when she heard the track ‘SILVER’, based on her novel The Silver Metal Lover. As she wrote at the time, around the start of 2015: “WONDERFUL!  Beautiful melody, lovely voice, faultless backdrop of robotic yet musical sounds, that are also like rain and tears … Made me cry!” Lee unfortunately died in May 2015.

Coming back to the distinctive album cover, it’s something of a surprise to have a cover which isn’t just a photograph of the artist, and more so for it to have been created by the artist themselves. So how did this come about?

“I knew straight away, I had to make the album cover myself. There were some talks of alternatives, photos of my face, etc., but I wanted to at least attempt the cover myself. I’ve always been personally drawn to art on albums and I thought it would be more eye-catching than say, a photo of me wearing make-up and staring at the viewer. Everyone and their dog has done that.

“I mainly drew inspiration from the Kate Bush album Never For Ever. I loved how all these fantastical creatures were flying out from under her dress and I wanted to put my own spin on it. So I painted the faces of some of the characters in my songs and connected them to me through my hair. I was trying to convey that, while I was telling these stories, these women were alive in me as well. That they were real and that they were singing through me, hopefully inspiring other people.” Linzi laughs. “I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious. I just painted what I felt. The cogs in my chest were supposed to symbolise that I’m some sort of machine for them, like a phonograph, recording and repeating their words.”

With a voice and vocal range which echoes that of Kate Bush and Sarah Brightman, and lyrics which engage through visual and auditory imagery and which tell and weave stories, Linzi Gold is already enjoying airplay in the UK, and has appeared live at events as diverse as the Lincoln Steampunk Festival in 2015, and at the SciFi Weekender festival in North Wales in 2016.

What other music does Linzi listen to? “Off the top of my head, Saltillo, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Dead Can Dance, Enigma, Porcupine Tree, Janelle Monae and Gorillaz. I’m quite eclectic with my music taste, but the things that usually influence me are esoteric and have a narrative.

“Not all the music I listen to needs words, sometimes pure instruments or vocals can inspire an image and help me to write or paint.”

Although she is currently unsigned, it’s obvious that Linzi loves making music and as well as promoting the album, is currently working with a band in Manchester.

To listen to three tracks from the album, check out Linzi’s Soundcloud page here: https://soundcloud.com/linzi-gold

To purchase a CD copy of her debut album: HEROINES OF FUTURE PAST, then head to Linzi’s pages here: http://linzigold.blogspot.co.uk/p/linzis-shop.html

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