Interview: I Can Take The Blame With Will Linley
Interview by Lindsey V. Britt
South African singer-songwriter Will Linley is taking over the world one pop song at a time. Known for his songs “miss me (when you’re gone)”, “Gracie”, and “Last Call”, Will started his music career by posting TikToks of the songs he’d written during the pandemic lockdowns, which has now gotten him from playing gigs in his hometown of Cape Town to opening for artists such as Tors, OneRepublic, and Em Beihold, He’s had his own headline tours and performed at music festivals including Beats In The Bush, Calabash South Africa to Lollapalooza later this Summer.
What inspired you to get into music, specifically the pop genre?
I think I’ve always loved music; I grew up in a musical household, my Dad was always listening to John Denver and Billy Joel when I was a kid, my Mum was big into The Chicks, and I think that music was such an integral part of our upbringing, I’m one of four boys, in and of itself us boys loved music. When it comes to actually doing music as a career, I wasn’t even expecting to do music, I wasn’t anticipating to do music, when Covid hit I was studying a BCom in international business at Stellenbosch University, so I was doing finance, accounting, investments, all of those types of things and never for one-second thought that doing music could even be a possibility, then with Covid when we suddenly had the lockdowns and you’re not allowed to leave the house or anything like that, I started writing a lot of music, for me, my love has always been pop music, I’ve been inspired by artist like Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, so when it came to writing music I think pop was just natural thing to go to.
Your first song “miss me (when you’re gone)” blew up on TikTok back in 2020 and now you’ve gotten a record deal and performed at several music festivals and concerts since then, what has this experience been like over the past four years?
It’s been an absolute roller coaster. I think when releasing “miss me” I don’t think we ever expected the response we got, and I think honestly, it’s just been one of those things that you’ve got to take day by day because I think a lot of the time artist or people can get in their head about oh, what’s the next step? Or awe man, if we’re doing this festival what is it going to be like if it doesn’t go according to plan? And I think at the end of the day it’s just about taking it day by day and enjoying every little experience that happens. You know the fact that we are doing shows on the other side of the world, on a totally different continent, is ridiculous. I think that I used to be much very in my head, very stressed, and very anxious and I think that now I’ve managed to find a better space of like, oh wow, what a blessing, what a gift this is to be able to play shows, and if it were to end tomorrow, I’d be so, so, so happy with this journey.
You grew up in Cape Town and that’s where you’re based but I’ve seen that you go to London and L.A. a lot for work and to collaborate, what about each of those music scenes is different?
The difference in the music scenes is, I think in South Africa there’s maybe not as big of a pop scene, for someone like myself there are a couple of really cool young pop people, but there’s not a lot of people to collaborate with. And so, what I’ve really loved about spending time in London and spending time in L.A. is it’s allowing me to collaborate with really cool artists, producers, and writers that I have admired for so long, that is the biggest difference. Cape Town is bustling and there is a music scene for a lot of different other genres, but I think for pop there’s still some growth to be done but it’s going to happen.
We’re doing this interview at the Atlanta stop of Em Beihold’s Maybe Life Is Good Tour, how has it been opening for her so far?
It’s been amazing! Em and her team are really awesome people. Just before we got on this tour, we were chatting to the artist who opened up the first half of the tour Madelline, and they were like, it’s going to be a breeze, it’s going to be such fun, you’re not going to have to worry about a thing. Em herself is such a good performer, I’ve been able to sneak out for one or two gigs and it’s been so cool to just like watch her performance and see how she interacts with her fans. I think her fanbase is some of the kindest fans I have ever performed in front of so that’s been amazing. I think the city that I’ve loved the most has been New York, I loved playing at The Bowery Ballroom and hope to come back and play a show there one day.
You’ve just had a headline tour in Europe/UK and played shows here in the States last Fall along with your shows in South Africa, can we be expecting another headlining tour later this year?
We’ve potentially got a tour happening mid-year, just a couple of shows, nothing too big but you gotta start somewhere.
On Instagram I’ve been seeing you tease a new song “Blame”, when can everyone expect it on Spotify?
April 5th “Blame” is yours!
You released two EPs “kill all my feelings” in 2022 and “Magic” in 2023, Do you have plans to release another EP this year or even an album?
You know I think we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to try and take the next steps forward. I think we’re definitely going to take the first step with “Blame”, and we’ve got some songs that are coming with that. I think for me when it comes to doing a bigger project, I want to really make sure that I do it right and ensure that the fanbase gets something that’s thought through, that’s specific, that really feels like a statement, so it’ll come.
I heard you’re a huge Ed Sheeran fan. What about him inspires you the most?
I think it’s his commitment to the craft of writing songs. I think he’s someone who takes it so seriously and is such a good inspiration to young artists like myself. I remember watching a video of him performing when he was young, probably like sixteen, seventeen and it didn’t sound great at all, and he was like guys, let this be an inspiration, and now he’s selling out stadiums all over the world. So, I think the thing that really inspires me the most about Ed Sheeran is just his commitment and serving his fanbase and really going about doing it properly.
Do you have a favorite Ed Sheeran album or song?
I love the “Divide” album. Song-wise, I love “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” from his “Plus” album, and I love “Don’t” from his “Multiply” album. “Shape of You”, “Castle on the Hill”, all those songs are just amazing. Man, I could just go on and on and on.
In your song “Last Call” you have a lyric that goes “We started dancin’ to ABBA”, which ABBA song was it you were dancin’ to? Because I’m a huge ABBA fan and I love that song and I’ve been wondering
I love that you just said you’re a huge ABBA fan, the one for me was “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”.
My last question is, do you have any recommendations? It can be anything, a movie, book, place, activity, anything.
My favorite movie of all time is a movie called “About Time”; it always makes me have a completely different outlook on life.
After the interview, I stayed for the concert and Will was amazing! I was so excited to finally see him on stage performing his songs which included “Magic”, “kill all my feelings”, “Tough (The Girls Song)”, and his new song “Blame”. Don’t forget to check out “Blame” on April 5th, and be looking out for more shows this Summer.
Stay updated with Will Linley!
Instagram –
https://www.instagram.com/willlinleyy/
Will’s Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/3xnCBQeZDec3FFo8vUSt4N?si=kBvIqgtjR2WdOybnPIF6PA
Apple Music –
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/will-linley/1591950331
Website –