Leigh-Anne on building her own support system

HEADER IMAGE Leigh-Anne wears dress: SUSAN FANG, gloves: T LABEL, earrings: ALEXANDER MCQUEEN VIA THE OUTNET & shoes: STYLIST’S OWN

PHOTOGRAPHY & CREATIVE DIRECTION Tom Johnson  
PRODUCTION Chiara Maculan 
STYLING Baillie Jones 
MAKEUP Hila Karmand via Arch The Agency 
HAIR Jaz Lanyero 
NAILS Brixton Klaws, Vanesa Ademi 
SOCIALS Richie Barker 
PHOTO ASSISTANT Dali Ughetto 
STYLING ASSISTANT Georgina Lunn 
SPECIAL THANKS TO Satellite 414 

For Leigh-Anne Pinnock, the past few years have not just been about going solo, but about learning what it means to have your own back. Turns out, leaving a decade-long stretch in one of British pop’s biggest-ever girl groups to take on a solo career not only provided a completely new sound, but a brand-new definition of what supporting yourself can look like. Without the mechanics of a major label and bandmates behind her, independence has pushed her to lean into her instincts, invest in herself, and trust in a team that believes in her vision. 

“I remember the phone call I had with my manager, when he told me Warner wasn’t getting the music. The first thing I said was ‘We’re going.’ That was it, I didn’t even hesitate, I just said bye,” she asserts. “I needed to make that decision for myself.” Pinnock is not alone in her distaste for the outdated power dynamics controlling the music industry – from Taylor Swift’s well-documented masters retrieval to Chappell Roan’s plea at last year’s Grammys for improved mental health protections, a growing number of women artists are reclaiming ownership of their artistry and rewriting the terms of their careers.

Pinnock dropped her debut solo album, My Ego Told Me To, on 20th February. Across an ambitious 15 tracks, the album defines this new era – from her newfound creative control to the sound she wants to build and the artist she wants to become. The record feels intentionally personal, both musically and culturally, rooted in the Caribbean influences she was raised on. Family and memory shape the emotional core of the album, from the voice-noted words of encouragement from her grandparents woven into the ‘You ARE a Star’ interlude, to the lullaby-like tenderness of the album’s closer, ‘Heaven’. 

This introspective approach has translated into the Buckinghamshire-based artist reexamining her experiences in music thus far, and has led her to become a public advocate speaking out about the experiences of Black women in British pop. Outside of the studio, she has released a 2021 BBC documentary, Race, Pop and Power, added her vocals to Together For Palestine’s charity single ‘Lullaby’, and co-founded The Black Fund, later receiving an Honorary Doctorate in recognition of her work on racial equality and anti-racism. She has consistently used her platform to talk about representation, industry inequality, and the importance of creating opportunities for the next generation of pop stars. In doing so, the 34-year-old has become not just a successful solo artist, but a visible figure for younger Black girls entering the industry. 

Few people understand her career trajectory better than British singer, songwriter and producer MNEK. Both artists had to navigate the same corporate pop world in the early 2010s, coming up through the same management system and eventually collaborating while Pinnock was in Little Mix. He helped craft the group’s sound on some of their biggest tracks, including ‘Touch’, ‘Power’ and ‘No More Sad Songs’. Since then, he has built a reputation as one of pop’s most in-demand songsmiths, releasing his 2018 album Languages, while lending his lyrics to an array of industry-leading artists across genres, most recently on the remix of global hit ‘Stateside + Zara Larsson’ by another notable Black British pop artist, PinkPantheress. Also a keen advocate for amplifying underrepresented voices in music, MNEK founded Proud Sound, a writing camp supporting queer songwriters in a safe, nurturing environment, in 2019. Its graduates include Tom Aspaul, Jordan Mackampa, Lozeak, Låpsley and Shura. 

Now, both find themselves at similar crossroads in their careers: harnessing their narratives, building their own teams, and redefining what support looks like outside of traditional industry structures. 

MNEK: This issue is the ‘I Support You’ issue of BRICKS. We’ve been in the industry for the same amount of time. We were in the Modest! Management group, where it was peak “support”, or peak the idea of what support looks like, to now being in situations where we’re having to reimagine what support looks like, and even be self‑sufficient. How has that transition been for you, from the start of your career until now?

Leigh-Anne: Being in this industry for 15 years now, and coming into it via The X Factor, then going straight to Syco, being signed, and then to Modest!, I felt a bit like a baby, and that weirdly carried through. Being that young and getting into this crazy industry is not something to take lightly. It was an absolute whirlwind. 

Fast forward however many years, and I’m here now as an independent artist, it’s very different. I’ve got all of this experience I can now use. If I hadn’t had that, I’d have been a lot more scared about being independent. It’s been a bit of a crazy ride, to be honest. I think there is something a bit scary about not having that support system and network. It is hard, being independent. As much as I have experience, it’s still a very different journey. Now I’ve got to trust my gut a lot more. I’ve got to use my own money; my hard‑earned Little Mix money.

All you really need is that belief in yourself, and no one’s going to back you like yourself. You really have to trust in what you do.

MNEK: You come from a situation where you are around people who are willing to invest in you, and so you think, I’m set, it’s fierce. But then investing in yourself is actually so much more of a big move, where you say, “Okay, I believe that this is enough, and I’m going to invest in myself.” I’m about to begin my next album, I’m about to go independent, and I’m about to really invest in myself, all my hard‑earned Little Mix money, into myself. 

I’m used to the support system [of a label]. This is the support system you’ve known from the start, and that has now changed. Now you’re looking outward as far as people who, without all of that stuff, without Modest!, without Syco. Who is supporting you and thinking that your shit is fire now?

Leigh-Anne: To be honest, there is a difference in being with a support system that actually supports you. When I was with the girls, we went straight in at number one [with the] first album, everything was an overnight success. That’s what labels look for; they love that. Then I was signed with Warner, and it felt like it was going okay for the first year, and then it got to a point where that support was just not there anymore. Imagine being stuck in something – which I think a lot of artists have experienced – and they don’t see a way out, and there is no support, even though you’re signed. It’s a crazy place to be. There is no better feeling than to come out of that and be able to do your own thing. Yes, it’s hard being independent, but you run the show now. All you really need is that belief in yourself, and no one’s going to back you like yourself. You really have to trust in what you do. I definitely think, personally, this is the best place for me. How do you feel?

MNEK: I’m scared, it’s daunting, but at the same time, it’s really exciting. You’re not having to measure yourself next to someone else’s metrics, only your own. You’re being more reflective of what is real to you. I’ve been keeping up with your album, and by the way, congrats, I’m really happy for you. I really love ‘Tight Skirt Up’ and ‘Heaven’. Who are the people that you feel have supported you through this independent era, actually conceiving the album you had in your head and putting it out?

Leigh-Anne: Obviously, myself. I genuinely bet on myself, and there was no hesitation. I also have Sairah, my sister, who manages me. That support has been priceless, to be honest, because I think you need at least one person in your corner who just gets it and sees it. As much as it’s important to believe in yourself, it also takes a tribe. We couldn’t do this on our own; there are so many different facets to putting out a record. I’m at Virgin Music now, they’re my independent label, and they’re incredible. It’s a different world to be with people who understand and love what I’m doing. It feels really good. I always said I needed to find my tribe and the people that really believed in me, and I really feel like I found that now.

MNEK: That must feel like night and day, because you can always tell when the people behind the scenes just aren’t feeling it, and this is just a job for them. You want to have people behind you who are as excited about it as you are. I’m in the middle of building that team for myself, where I can look to my left and to my right and feel that I’m very much supported and understood and that we’re aligned, we’re all reading from the same hymn sheet. That’s a priceless feeling. 

I’m about to navigate this new era as a Black, gay man, but the story of the Black girl in pop music is a tale as old as time. That’s another nuance of support, recognising that there are other girls experiencing the same thing, or who have done in the past, and there will be more who experience it in the future as well. How do you navigate being a Black girl in pop music? I say pop music in the most general sense, because people say pop music as in stylistically, but then it’s also pop as in the desire for it to be popular, big budget, and mainstream.

Leigh-Anne: I’m up and down with it. There have been so many times where my fans have come up to me and said, “You’re such an inspiration, keep doing what you’re doing, you’re a voice for the Black community.” Every time I hear that, it gives me an extra boost to keep doing what I’m doing. Even to get a top-three album and make history as the first Black member of a British girl band to chart in the top five, it’s wild to me. Big things like that make me believe I’m here for a higher purpose. If you can open more doors for the next Black girl in pop, then just keep doing what you’re doing. Even when I was in the group, I always wanted to use my voice, and that’s why I did my documentary, Race, Pop, and Power. I want to keep advocating, but it does weigh on me sometimes, because I think to myself, “Why am I not there? Why am I still here? Oh, that’s because you’ve got to work ten times harder.” It does get exhausting, it really does.

Sometimes I think to myself, should I have taken an easier route and made music that was more similar to the group instead? But then I think to myself, you probably would still be in the same place that you are. I’m really proud of myself that I’m making music that I love, and I feel like myself. The music that I’m making is more rooted in reggae, and I feel like Caribbean music deserves to be celebrated and to be in the mainstream. If I could be the artist right now who is merging reggae and pop and creating my own thing, then I’m just gonna keep going with it. The reaction to the album has been incredible, and I don’t take that lightly. I held onto this album for so long, and to see how it’s touching people and how it’s making people feel is really special. It’s those reactions that motivate me to keep going.

MNEK: 100%. I understood the desire to want to touch on your Caribbean roots in your music, and I think that it holds up, and it sounds great. You sound fresh, you sound like yourself, and it means something to you. It’s interesting, because there might be people who think it’s inauthentic, and that always comes from our own people – people who are Black, British, Caribbean – who are like, “Oh, that’s not authentic.” But this is your first album, it’s the first time that anyone’s been able to see your vision, just by yourself, of what you want to be doing. It’s also the first time you’ve had a chance to make what you want to be doing. When I was seeing that – obviously I’m in the industry, but I’m also heinously online – and I thought, I wish people would lay off you a bit and just let you experiment and have a good time in the studio and make the music you want to be making.

Leigh-Anne: It got to me a little bit, because in the same breath, someone would say, “She should just do pop music,” or, “She shouldn’t be experimenting with things like this,” and, as you say, “inauthentic”. Then, in another breath, they’ll say, “Where are all the Black pop girls?” You can’t see us because you’re tearing us down. You’re not allowing us to thrive and are not supporting us. They did the same to Chloe Bailey and Normani. It’s a vicious cycle, and it gets so frustrating. Can you imagine if everyone just supported us, how uplifted we could all feel and be, and we would be in those same spaces as the others?

MNEK: White artists are allowed to do different things; they’re allowed to experiment. They’re not put in a tight little box. It’s never about being inauthentic; it’s just about, “this is pop music.” I think it’s great that you’re able to enjoy the people who are supporting you. I know when I put out my first album, I was so focused on those who didn’t, or the people that I was hoping would support me, and that held me back from enjoying the good things that were coming out of it. I was talking to my true tribe, queer Black kids. I had an album coming out, and they were saying, “Okay, I actually feel seen, and I feel heard.” 

I have Proud Sound, which is a writing camp I hold for queer songwriters and producers that lets them feel seen and heard in rooms they probably wouldn’t have access to by themselves. You co-founded The Black Fund with your sister. What does creating something like that mean to you?

Leigh-Anne: I remember even before I did my documentary, I wanted to have some type of foundation, because I felt like all I was doing was talking about this issue and not taking enough action. I wanted to create The Black Fund, which is a bank of money that gets distributed to Black charities and different organisations that are doing work for Black communities. We’ve done some great work over the years – we worked with Grounded Sounds and put on a showcase for young musicians; they worked with different producers and songwriters, and then we held a showcase for them all to perform, which was amazing. There’s so much more that I want to do. I’ve been thinking recently, I really want to highlight Black women in music, and anyone in my situation: Black female pop stars. I feel like there’s a lot to be said around that; we all think it, but there isn’t enough action. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately and what I can do.

MNEK: I think that’s great, but I imagine that it’s a blessing and a curse. It’s fantastic that you have this baton that you can hold and can recognise as something bigger than music, bigger than even just you. But then, of course, you’ll also just want to be able to exist and do what you’re doing, even if it’s just for you. People like myself see it, and I say, “Leigh‑Anne has always been true to this and not new to this.” I’m always gonna rate it, and it’s amazing seeing you stay consistent with it. Do you see this as what support in the future, supporting the future generation, looks like? We saw what you said to Manon [from Katseye] and all of this. Is this what the future of supporting Black girls, Black people in this industry, looks like?

Leigh-Anne: For sure. Sometimes I underestimate the power that I have, and everything that I’ve achieved in Little Mix and being that Black member. The fact that I did speak up about my experiences, I really do feel like that is helping people without me even knowing. I know that it is going to help the next generation. I’ve had young Black girls come up to me who are in the industry, and they say that to me, and I’m [taken aback]. Without thinking about it, I’ve already helped so many, and that’s such an incredible thing. That spurs me on to just keep going. I do feel like things will get better. The fact that we’re even talking about it – imagine, six or seven years ago, we weren’t talking about it. This wasn’t even a conversation. At least we’re here having this discussion.

Sometimes I underestimate the power that I have, and everything that I’ve achieved in Little Mix and being that Black member. The fact that I did speak up about my experiences, I really do feel like that is helping people without me even knowing.

MNEK: It’s an ongoing conversation, and it is the willingness to talk about it and the willingness to give support, to receive support, to be there for the new generation. Watching your documentary, I saw that Raye was there and Keisha Buchanan was there, and various people who have had that same experience. That was also a beautiful thing to see, to see several generations of Black pop stars together saying, “I hear you, I feel you, and I see you.”

Leigh-Anne: Honestly, those moments, I take so much comfort in. Even recently, when I was at my album launch, I was speaking to Cat Burns and Bree Runway. We feel like there’s so much still to say. I cannot tell you how good it feels to be able to relate to each other and talk to someone who gets it. I don’t often get to do that, so when I do, it really helps.

MNEK: I’m really proud of you, and I’m always going to be in your corner. You’ve always got a fan here. Many people support you, and for any person that’s here saying this or that, there’s a million other people saying, “We support you, and we hear you.”

Leigh-Anne: Thank you, and congrats on your work on PinkPantheress’ ‘Stateside’ remix with Zara Larsson, it’s epic. I’m so proud of you.

MNEK: Thank you.

Leigh-Anne: I appreciate you. Keep killing it.

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