The internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble, House Gospel Choir, is celebrating a decade of groundbreaking music with the release of their highly anticipated second album. Leading the charge is the uplifting and soulful track "GLOW," featuring collaborations with Rudimental and Afronaut Zu. Released today, August 9th, under the newly launched label Swear Down Music by the Choir's founder and Creative Director, Natalie Maddix, "GLOW" exemplifies the group's signature blend of beats and bass with powerful vocal harmonies.

Since their debut at Glastonbury Festival in 2014, House Gospel Choir has been a beacon of musical excellence. With today's exciting new release, we had the opportunity to sit down with the group and delve deeper into their journey.

• 1. Hi! You’ve just released your single ‘GLOW’ featuring Rudimental and Afronaut Zu - tell us how this collaboration came out?

Rudimental are a huge inspiration for me personally, so when they asked us to record some vocals for their track ‘Keep Your Head Up’, I literally jumped at the chance! From there we just got on really well and they agreed to do some writing sessions with us. ‘Glow’ was created on the first day we worked with them.

• 2. Your new album “Love is the Message’ is out today as well - how did the album come about and what inspired the album title?

One of my favourite writers is the late Bell Hooks. Her suggestion that love is a combination of six ingredients: care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust really struck me as worthy of exploration. As such, ‘Love Is the Message’ is a celebration of love in all its forms – radical love for community, romantic love, platonic love, self-love – and the profound impact it has on our lives. The album is an exploration of the need for liberation found in the human voice, the unifying sound of dance music, and the universal language of love. Each track is an invitation for the listener to join us on a journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and celebration with the ambition of it being a testament to the transformative power of love in all its forms.

• 3. Which track on the album means the most to you - and why?

This is a bit like asking a parent to choose their favourite child lol! I love them all equally, but I really enjoy the track “Fire” because we wrote it in 2020 during the BLM protests and we wanted to make a song that could help spread the message of love, peace and unity “just like fire”.

• 4. There are some classic covers on the album, like Promised land’ and ‘Optimistic’ with Beverley Knight - how did you decide what tracks to cover?

During lockdown we were creating these videos covering our favourite songs, where the choir would self record at home using an app call Sing Acapella and our MD Harrsn would mix the vocals in Logic and then piece them together in Final Cut Pro. We did a cover of Promised Land during the BLM protests that was widely viewed and then asked Janice Robinson of Livin Joy to be involved in our version of ‘Dreamer’ and Beverly Knight to sing ‘Optimistic’ and graciously they both said “yes”! All of the videos got loads of views and were shared thousands of times, so it felt right to create official HGC versions of these beloved songs. 

• 5. You were founded in 2014 - how have you seen the choir grow and change over the years? 

We went from 12 friends learning the harmonies to Barbara Tuckers ‘Beautiful People’ in April 2014 and through word of mouth became a choir of 30 vocalists performing at Glastonbury in June of the same year. Since then, we have performed all over the world and have had over 400 members in our Monday night sessions and closer to 1,000 if you include all of our online members from outside of London. It gets a little harder each year to remember everyone’s name but the fact is people love singing, they love house music and human beings are social creatures that need each other.

• 6. Which artists inspire you? 

Our society is kind of obsessed with the idea of musical genius and loves to act like individuality is the most important thing, but great music is always created with the input of others.I really love artists that collaborate and showcase the power of community. Ezra Collective, Rudimental, Louie Vega’s Elements of Life and Sault. I’m also still a soul-jazz girl at heart so I love listening to the voices of Kyra, Cleo Soul, Samara Joy, Yasmin Lacey, Jill Scott & Shay Universe.

• 7. You’ve also collaborated with Nile Rodgers, Rudimental, Ella Henderson - who else would be a dream collaboration? 

I’d love to collaborate with Ezra Collective. I love their music and the whole ethos. They’re just dope!

• 8. When can we next see to play live? 

We have a couple of festivals left this summer and then we have some tour dates for our HGC & Friends DJ Set Tour. It’s a proper rave vibe with around 4 vocalists and our DJ Harrsn. We’re also planning a tour of the full choir show in 2025.

Thanks House Gospel Choir - All the best for the future!

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and Managing Director of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.