Belle Harmonie Exclusive Interview

Belle Harmonie aka Lauren Mcdonell – 16, Molly Homer – 16, Rachel Fisher – 16 and Eleanor Jackson – 14; are a four piece girl harmony group from Warwickshire. The girls formed the group when they met at school and went on to perform at the finals of ‘Warwickshire’s Got Talent.’

The ‘Belles’ have just released their first EP called, ‘First Breath’ and plan to come to London very soon in their quest to take on the music world! MarkMeets music reviewer Hannah Fuller caught up with the girls to find out more.

When did you girls form the group? How exactly did you meet?
Originally, Rachel, Ellie & Molly auditioned for USU, a charity event at our school which raises money to fight poverty in Africa. We all got put together in a group with another girl called Beth, who then left, so we asked Lauren to join and that was nearly 3 years ago and it went on from there. We didn’t even know if Lauren could sing! And Ellie was only in year 8 at the time, so we’ve all grown up with each other all our secondary school life.

Belle Harmonie is a pretty name, how did you come up with it?
We always get asked this! Well, we were on Google Translate and thought French would be a cool language! We didn’t want it to be too gimmicky and we thought if it was in French it would be a bit different. People mis-spell Harmonie with a ‘y’, it’s ie! And there’s a ‘e’ at the end of Belle.

You performed on Warwickshire’s Got Talent. How was that?
That was the first time Lauren ever performed with us. Although we were so young and our performance wasn’t great, it was a very exciting time. It gave us a massive boost of confidence. When we look back on that video now it makes us laugh, we were just stood there staring at a wall!

You did a cover Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and Firework – 2 very different songs! What made you choose these particular songs?
We came up with the idea for Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy when we got asked to perform at Swing Night, a vintage themed charity evening at our school. Our parents and grandparents really liked it so we thought we’d carry on performing it. People really seem to like our version! With Firework, that was Lauren’s idea and it was one of the first songs we fully worked on together to make it ours with the way we do our harmonies. It took us ages!

How would you describe your musical style?
We’re trying to be different to other girl groups, obviously we do tunes like Boogie Woogie which isn’t like modern pop but then we also do Pumped Up Kicks (originally by Foster The People) in a chill step style! We love our version of that song! It’s all about how we arrange our harmonies; it makes what we do unique!

Any musical influences or icons?
[Rachel] Jedward!! My musical influences are a bit different to everyone else’s! Actually I like screamy people, that’s how I’d describe it.

[Molly] I like Passenger; he’s very inspirational & a very nice guy. He sings the truth about a lot of things that you probably wouldn’t normally put in a song. And he’s very down to earth and I just like that about him. We’d love to meet him! He’s a very good songwriter.

[Lauren] I’m quite a typical teenage girl, I like Justin Bieber, One Direction, Miley Cyrus. But then I like some different stuff as well, like Marina & The Diamonds, Zendaya Coleman, Kina Grannis, Daniel James.

[Ellie] I don’t really know how to answer this because none of them are going to be similar to each other! Nina Nesbitt, Dexys Midnight Runners, some older bands like that but I like pop as well! Just whatever songs appeal to me at the time.

Your song, ‘Something I’m not’ a track written by Olivia Broadfiend and Josh Crocker – tell us about the track and why it means a lot to you?
We like it because it relates to people our age. It’s about not changing yourself for someone else & not giving in to peer pressure. It’s got quite a good message. It was the first song we ever recorded and it was originally written for Paloma Faith, so that was quite a big deal for us! Loads of people can relate to it, no matter what age and when we got asked back to perform at USU people that saw us there were singing it after! Its soooo catchy and we’ve put some good harmonies in it as well.

What’s been the highlight for you so far as a girl band?
Being with best friends! We love spending time together. We went on a caravan holiday together which was so much fun! We loved going to London to meet our Lawyer (Victoria Wood at Statham Gill Davies), her office was amazing! We also got interviewed by Vic Minette on BBC CWR radio. People ask us why we hang out together when we’re not singing and we say because we like each other! We’re friends as well as being in a girl group!

What’s next for you?
We’re going to release Boogie Woogie as a download single! We’ve had some wristbands made with Belle Harmonie printed on them (blue & pink for both genders!) which we’re going to give away at gigs. We just played Warwick Rocks Midsummer Night Festival to a 1,000 people and also Warwickshire Pride Festival. We’ve been asked to perform at the Victorian Evening event in Warwick and also the Christmas lights switch on in Leamington Spa. Hopefully we’ll be getting signed to a label this year! If you want to keep updated follow us on Twitter & Instagram on @belle_harmonie or like our Facebook page (Links Below)! That’s what we’ll be doing in the future – updating our Twitter! Also, further in the future we’ll be buying an apartment above The Almanack pub in Kenilworth & putting our Christmas tree in the window!

Anything us you’d like to tell us?
Ellie has exceptionally long arms! Actually she doesn’t, she just thinks she does. She’s quite a tall person & so all of her is long! We’re a very interesting group of people; we’re very close knit & tell each other everything, sometimes a little bit too much information! We used to make hilarious videos of us just hanging out together; we’d go places and film ourselves then go home & edit it all together.

Belle Harmonie’s EP, ‘First Breath’ has just been released and will be available to buy soon.