The musician talks about her work with the Alexander McQueen maison, her relationship with fashion, and her upcoming album.

Isobel Waller-Bridge might just be a musical genius. The 36-year-old Brit, perhaps best known for composing the music for her sister&rsquo;s cult-favourite, hit TV show, Fleabag, has had huge success in the music realm, and now the fashion world is taking notice. Waller-Bridge studied music at Edinburgh University, going on to King&#39;s College London and the Royal Academy of Music. She recently did the soundtrack for the movie Emma. (2020), as well as an episode of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/madison-bailey-netflix-outer-banks">Netflix&rsquo;s</a> Black Mirror.

Waller-Bridge composed the music for the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/alexander-mcqueen-fragrance-collection-2018">Alexander McQueen</a> Spring/Summer 2020 women&rsquo;s show that took place in Paris this past September. &ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t have any relationship with fashion before McQueen,&rdquo; Waller-Bridge tells L&rsquo;Officiel USA. &ldquo;It was exciting seeing behind the scenes, and the artistry that goes into a collection and making a show. I think since working with them I&rsquo;ve definitely started to understand the role of fashion in art.&rdquo; She mentions that McQueen also gave her a beautiful suit. &ldquo;I feel strong and powerful in it. I&rsquo;m grateful to have found a bit of style that works for me.&rdquo;

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McQueen has recently started an initiative called #McQueenMusic, allowing for fans to listen and download the music from McQueen shows and events in their own homes. For #McQueenMusic, Waller-Bridge created an exclusive new score for the house, &quot;Suspended in Air,&quot; which was performed on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Rz6qpT3YM">YouTube</a> by Robert Ames and Galya Bisengaileva. She has also curated a playlist, &ldquo;Energy and Rhythm,&rdquo; on the McQueen <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2x51gUM1p5rpZ69N3o3Ocg">Spotify</a>&nbsp;Channel. &ldquo;I wanted to curate a playlist for a positive mood, for peace and hope, and for strength,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I look around and I feel the need for community more than ever. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/black-lives-matter-fashion-beauty-brand-donations">Community</a> is a word so deeply associated with McQueen, and I wanted to reflect that connectivity with diversity and energy.&rdquo;

The sense of community is one of the things Waller-Bridge loves about McQueen, she says it&rsquo;s inherent to their work. &ldquo;The outreach, and creative community projects that McQueen produces that aren&rsquo;t necessarily front-page news all the time, are astonishing and very inspiring. It really feels like Sarah [Burton] and the whole team are listening, all the time, to people all around them. It is reflected in the opportunities made available to people who don&rsquo;t naturally have the advantage, but have the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/men/christian-combs-making-the-band-reboot">talent</a>.&rdquo; The musician admires how Burton discovers creative people all over the U.K. and provides them with opportunities; that the diversity of talent is not just an idea, but something she believes the McQueen house actually puts into practice.&nbsp;

Waller-Bridge recently signed to Mercury KX, a label known for their genre-defying, diverse collection of artists, and is working on her first album for them.&nbsp;&ldquo;It feels really good to be writing without a brief,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s drawing me into a place in my mind I&rsquo;ve not been in for a while, and creatively there&rsquo;s lots in there to unpack. I&rsquo;m finding it really inspiring having the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/tory-lanez-quarantine-radio-new-album">independence</a> and the freedom to do what I want.&rdquo;

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Robert Ames and Galya Bisengaileva perform "Suspended in Air"

But Waller-Bridge also made a deal with herself to not feel pressured to write music during this time. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not someone who likes to write when I&rsquo;m feeling depressed or low. Some people find being in that place can be creatively quite good, but for me, it&rsquo;s not a fruitful place,&rdquo; she says. She&rsquo;s been using quarantine to flex her &ldquo;imagination muscle&rdquo; in a way she hasn&rsquo;t for a while and finds herself inspired by things that aren&rsquo;t necessarily music-related: books, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/categories/film-tv">movies</a>, paintings. She believes she learns as much from things she doesn&rsquo;t like as the things she does.&nbsp;

With all of her success thus far and an album on the way, Waller-Bridge tells us what she wants people to know about herself and the music she creates. &ldquo;My music is rarely political,&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;my music is about <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/charli-xcx-new-album-how-im-feeling-now">feeling</a>. I don&rsquo;t like to try and predict what people want to hear&mdash;I&rsquo;ll just do what I feel and that is always what I know to trust. I always try to make honest music.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Her album is slated for release later in 2020.&nbsp;

Meet Isobel Waller-Bridge, Fashion's Favorite Musical Composer

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