Gabrielle Aplin

Gabrielle Aplin is an English singer-songwriter, and has been described as “an ambassador for plant-based living” owing to her vegan cookery series on YouTube called #FoodWithFriends, and by working with H&M to create a more sustainable and environmentally friendly fashion line.

Aplin made a name for herself by posting acoustic song covers on YouTube, which caught the eye of Parlophone Records. Her big break came when she was selected to record the soundtrack for a John Lewis television commercial with a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “The Power of Love”. In 2013, she released her debut album, English Rain, which debuted at number two on the UK Album Chart and has since sold over 100,000 copies. Aplin’s second album, Light Up the Dark, was released in 2015, followed by Dear Happy, in 2020. Her fourth album, Phosphorescent, was released in 2023 on her own record label and reached 15 in the UK Album Charts.

I’ve been with Viva! for only a few weeks and almost T my first task was to go to London and interview one of my favourite singers – pianist, guitarist and songwriter Gabrielle Aplin. How lucky can you get?

Maybe without knowing it, millions of people will have first heard her beautiful voice when she produced a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s, The Power of Love, for the iconic John Lewis Christmas TV advert in 2012. She was then just 20 years old. It was released as a single and went on to reach number one in the UK. The video which accompanied it (and can still be viewed online) is a beautifully produced, moody, atmospheric film that juxtaposes the old and the new, the past and the future.

“In fact, I’ve been vegan for about five years now and veggie a bit longer but I can remember clearly when I turned veggie. I was working on my album on an old dairy farm that’s now a studio and made friends with a little lamb who’d got lost. She stayed with me and was screeching, thinking I was her mum. We returned her to her field the next day and weeks later, that lamb was plonked down in front of me in a shepherd’s pie and I just, thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore, she was just a sweet little baby!’ 

“I started learning more about the issues related to animal agriculture, like the dairy industry, and realised that eating living things affects everything – the environment, health, poverty. It’s just nice to be living consciously – it makes me feel more ‘at one’. It’s not just food either for me. I’ve stopped using a lot of skin care products and make use of oils and vinegars and things that I already had. It just feels fun – I really enjoy it as a lifestyle.”

I don’t try to hide the fact that I feel inspired by the massive upsurge of the younger generation, driving protests and marching for the climate, demanding system change and veganism as a way of reducing our impact on the environment. Has any of it had an effect on Gabrielle? There’s no hesitation in her answer.

“Greta Thunberg is a brilliant activist and is really inspiring for me. The way she connects veganism and environmentalism kind of reminds me that I’m doing my part. There are so many motivational people now and it’s not weird anymore – it’s cool! “We’re not taught awareness, we have to discover it for ourselves. I don’t think people who go out and buy meat and fish or face wash or shampoo that’s been tested on animals are doing it to be cruel. I’m sure if they knew, they would think twice and that’s why it’s important not to shame but to give information.”

“I’m an independent artist and so these sorts of opportunities don’t usually happen for people like me. It came through my label partner, AWAL (an alternative kind of music label that offers support to independents). I was a bit hesitant because I’m an advocate of sustainable fashion so I thought, ‘What positive impact can I have?’ I wanted it to be in line with me no animal products and they were really great about not using GM cotton. We agreed on organic cotton, which was brilliant, and they were up for using things like recycled plastics. I was really happy. They’re such a huge organisation they could’ve just told me to ‘do one’ but they really were open to listening!”

I want to get back to animals and show Gabrielle Viva!’s new Hogwood leaflet, which depicts some of the very distressing images from our investigations. I have to declare my own position of having worked in the pig industry as a vet for the last four years and as a result, pigs are incredibly close to my heart. They have been shown to be as intelligent and emotionally complex as a three year old child and are the fifth most intelligent animal on Earth, far higher in cognitive ability than dogs, who we revere and place on the pedestal of ‘man’s best friend’. 

But it’s not just about intelligence; every animal is as sentient and able to suffer as we are yet many people find it difficult to make that connection. Gabrielle’s response is strongly emotional.

“Read this Viva! leaflet and watch Charlotte’s Web and you’ll never eat bacon again. It’s horrendous! For me, pigs are so like humans it’s basically cannibalism – I find it really weird. It’s just nasty! It’s incredibly inhumane. You can see they’re so sad!” 

So what else angers Gabrielle Aplin?

“It takes me to some wonderful places but I can find it difficult because I love routine. I love the hour and a half on stage every night, that’s brilliant and that’s what I’m there for, but otherwise it’s a whole day of waiting around and travelling and that can be quite isolating. I try to make it fun and create challenges for myself. So, every day, when I get off the bus, I try to find the best vegan breakfast I can and I mark them all on my map so when I go back to that city I know exactly where I’m going.

“And importantly, I’ve learned the word no – I don’t feel I need to say yes to everything anymore. I know what my limits are now. To be able to do my job to the best of my ability, I need to have all these things in place. But I still get scared when I go on stage absolutely sh*t myself until the third song – then it’s fine.”

I know Gabrielle does vegan cooking videos on YouTube and that they’ve been really well received so I presume she’s a crack cook so maybe that’s part of the answer?

“I was really bad at cooking, and being vegan has taught me how to cook I had no choice because I love food. I do really enjoy cooking for my ‘meaty’ friends – it blows their minds! ‘Wow mac and cheese!’ It’s like, ‘YES, calm down, it’s the future!”

“I never told my partner he had to go vegan, I think he just enjoyed having food cooked for him, and now it’s seeped into his consciousness.”

As music is Gabrielle’s life, I want to know about her latest work and her answer shows me just what an extraordinarily talented woman she is. She has already produced two albums so what about her new (third) one? It’s on her own record label (Never Fade Records), is called Dear Happy and will be released on January 17, 2020. The singles from it are called Kintsugi and Like You Say You Do.

“I personally think it’s really good!,” she giggles. “It’s the first time I’ve made an album all over the place as opposed to in one studio – it’s taken a long time. I did it independently and it’s nice to not worry about the production and feel like I have to have an acoustic guitar across everything and talk about fairies. I’m able to have full control over my artwork and videos and it’s great.”

That really is independence. Gabrielle will be touring in March 2020 and I really do suggest you try to see her. She’s superb!