On the Rise
Pixey

From Parbold in Lancashire, Pixey – whose real name is Lizzie Hillesdon ­­– now lives in Crosby, Merseyside. She is very driven and focused on her goals now, but she wasn’t always like that. Having overcome a battle with a serious viral illness, which nearly took her life, she returned and came out on the other side with a fresh mindset.

Brimming with novel ideas and melodic compositions, Pixey’s new record is immensely celebratory in spirit and style, and is a contemporary series of snapshots that showcase her distinctive music brand, whilst also, in parts, echoing iconic groups such as De La Soul, The Prodigy, and The Verve.

When illness struck in 2016, she was in the middle of her English Literature degree at university. Surprisingly, music didn’t feature heavily on her agenda at the time: “I wasn’t even really dabbling in music,” she confesses. “It wasn’t something I thought I was going to make a career out of. I don’t know what triggered the illness, but I was really stressed out and it all just hit me like bricks for nearly two months.”

The first symptoms resembled a bout of gastroenteritis, which she usually is prone to, but things took a nasty turn, her symptoms got worse, and hospital admission became an urgent requirement. “I literally woke up one night and I couldn’t see anything,” she says. “My head felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat; as if I had a crack on the head. I was delirious, I was hallucinating. From then on it was all a bit of a blur...They thought I had a brain haemorrhage, so they sent me to a specialist, which was terrifying.”

As if this wasn’t enough to deal with, things reached a pivotal new point when her hands turned blue and her temperature started to climb. “That was when I thought I was probably going to die – even the nurses looked freaked out.” Her parents weren’t allowed in the room and were told to prepare for the worst. It was a touch and go moment.

The experience of serious illness has truly shaped her. Facing death had acted as a reminder that life is short and precious. It made her realise what her priorities really were, and what she wanted to gain in life. She started getting into music, and soon realised that this was where her focus should be.

Observing feelings of frustration in members of close family who hadn’t followed their hearts, made Pixey even more determined to pursue her ambitions. From a young age, her mother dreamt of becoming a writer and journalist, but without the network and support she needed in the shape of mentoring and encouragement from family or friends, a qualification or placement opportunities; she didn’t have enough courage to follow her dreams.

Pixey had always been curious about music production, so she downloaded Ableton and got a guitar. “I had never played live on a guitar,” she reveals. “All of that had still to come, but it was a good place to start. It’s great to think how far I have come from that. It’s really mad.”

Rather than signing up to do a standard Music Technology diploma at college, she took matters into her own hands and made sure things were managed in expert fashion by diving into the world of music production, learning a number of skills, building knowledge, and generally thinking outside the box.

“It’s funny. I’ve always been the sort of person, if I really want to do something and put my mind to it, I [just] go ahead and do it,” she reflects. “Until that point I just hadn’t ever found that thing, but music was it. I remember the moment when my first song was written. I listened to it over and over again, I was like, ‘that’s mine!’ I always knew that I loved music, but I never thought I’d be able to write my own.”

Even if the idea of making music in her bedroom wasn’t an actual decision Pixey took at the time, it has undoubtedly become her preferred environment for composing, recording and producing. It has been a niche method of working for some artists for years, and trends show it is now becoming a more broadly recognised method, which some artists swear by.

“Bedroom musicians weren’t as prevalent as they are now,” she maintains. “It was weird because in 2015 it was mainly people like Mac DeMarco, who was doing it. I remember thinking it was going to be my unique selling point, but now so many people are into it. When you do it yourself at home, you tend to make mad, different stuff that doesn’t get made in studios.”

Pixey’s combined qualities of being a fast learner who is adept at problem-solving came in handy. She got used to dealing with questions as they came up and constantly found creative solutions. For example, she didn’t have a bass guitar in the beginning, so she would use the E string on her guitar. This same adaptability counts for her production methods – she taught herself how to use sampling and looping

Even if it represents a different entry to music production, as that becomes less important, it is her way of doing it. “It definitely wasn’t the standard way of getting into it. I suppose it gives me an extra edge: a sound and a way of writing. I make music that stands out. It’s actually cool because my music has still got those DIY elements, but it’s evolved into this thing that’s truly mine.” She is definitely still an Ableton user, but “I can play now,” she says, smiling.

Being uncritical and just blindly accepting status quo isn’t Pixey. Instead, she believes in constantly re-evaluating how to improve and move things forward as a music professional, and she has long been keen to add drums to her skill set. “I started to use a drum kit during lockdown,” she tells me. “Which probably pissed everybody off. I literally played at least four hours a day, I just kept going over stuff. I was determined to do it. It was the same with production, I wanted to learn more about that. It definitely took off.”

The songwriter has now found the perfect home for her music. Chess Club thinks 2021 could be a breakthrough year for Pixey. She is very prolific and her songwriting has been going from strength to strength, as has taken it to the next level in the past year. Founder Will Street is aware that the label is dealing with a very special artist who is adaptable, and someone with a fierce mind of their own.

As comfortable “shredding guitar as she is smashing out killer breakbeat drum beats,” is how Street describes it. “If you look through our label roster you’ll see that Pixey ticks several boxes for us. On a human level, she has the enthusiasm, confidence, ambition and drive that makes working with her a genuine pleasure.”

Her newest demos showed how Pixey had redefined her sound, demonstrating a clear vision of who she wanted to be as an artist, and Chess Club saw no option but to sign her on the spot.

Depicted in her self-choreographed video for “Electric Dream”, Pixey depicts the darker sides of social media and tackles the idea that “You can feel swamped online; like you have no voice. In real life, everybody has got an aura and a personality.”

Online social environments are known to create anxiety and inequality. She tells me she prefers to be in a room with people as opposed to spending too much time on the internet: “On social media, there’s a number next to your profile, and it’s like some people are worth less and others are worth more, which I don’t like.”

Pixey feels there is too much emphasis on social media, and perhaps not enough focus on the quality of music and lyrics, as lyrics just so happen to be really important to her music. Literature and poetry studies at university had given her reference points and a confidence in her own writing, and despite her illness and the passing of a relative, she enjoyed her course. She had always been into poetry anyway, and wasn’t going to let her dyslexia prevent her from getting her degree in 2017.

Having found herself gravitating toward the works of authors such as T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath, she came to discover what resonates with her. “Many people despise poetry, but I love it. I enjoy using words. I studied some avant-garde literature as well. It helped when I started to write and influenced the way I put words together, for songs and soundscapes.”

Education was never going to be what makes Pixey jump out of bed in the morning, and there is a noticeable shift in attitude between her time at school and the years she spent at university. Speaking of her experience at a boarding school, she says: “I absolutely despised it; hated it. It was the worst thing in the world, and so strict. I remember wanting to leave very early on.”

She even recalls the pupils being asked to walk with books on their heads : “That scarred me for life,” she says. “I never wanted anything to do with formal education. I liked university because it was quite free, but education was never my favourite thing, which is partly why I have chosen the career I’m in now.”

A connection between her career choice and early childhood memories demonstrates her instincts, and what made her tick. There is a video recording of her, at the age of nine months, where she is trying to sing a Queen song. More broadly, childhood drives around town with her parents, where she listened to The Beatles, also had an impact.

“It’s funny to think that this is just the beginning of my life in music because of what’s happened before. There’s so much more to do, so much more to come, I can’t wait to show everybody. This EP is a great introduction into what I have to offer, and I hold it very close to my heart.”

She is constantly evolving: writing in new styles and honing them. “It’s fantastic. I already know that I want to be a go-to person for young women who are struggling to start out, andhelp them discover how they can make music.”

It feels as if the next chapter in Pixey’s career has kicked off during this conversation. She really is thinking ahead and trying to visualise how things might pan out, and she is working out exactly what she is going to need along the way. Music is clearly the only thing she really wants to be doing, but there is no desperate rush to achieve instant success.

“Everything has taken so long in my life,” she concludes. “So, even if it takes a couple of more years, that’s perfectly fine. As long as people are enjoying it. Even if it’s the longest time coming, I don’t care because I love doing it. It’s the best thing in the world.”