In Conversation with Cortney Dixon: Finding her voice (and turning the volume up).

2025 has been a hell of a year for South Shields born Cortney Dixon – from flying out to Austin to perform at SXSW, to playing three sets at Glastonbury and releasing her debut EP on October 17th. ‘Hazard A Guess’ consists of six tracks, each with high-energy, gritty guitars and the pop-punk power of Blondie, proving that Cortney Dixon is not just an artist, but also a guitarist, producer and 80s enthusiast. Wearing blue eyeshadow and leopard print, with big hair and an even bigger smile, she tells us all about the process of making ‘Hazard A Guess’, revealing her favourite song on the EP, as well as the most troublesome track, this year’s most memorable moments, and more.

Emma: You’ve been making music for years, was there a defining moment or memory that made you want to pursue a music career?

Cortney: Um, nothing specifically but I’ve just done it for a really long time, ever since I was a kid. I just feel pretty crap at everything else [laughs], I just feel like it’s always been my escape. I was always really invested in writing poems and stuff as a kid, and then I didn’t know what type of music I wanted to pursue, I just knew that I wanted to do it and be a part of it in some way.

My mam and dad sent me to a drama school, stage school thing near where I live, and it was really obvious that I wasn’t musical theatre at all but I just enjoyed being a part of people doing music. I started playing guitar as a way to accompany myself and have some form of control of bringing music into the world and my lyrics to life. So yeah, I started playing acoustic guitar and writing lyrics and moved away from all of that musical theatre stuff, and wanted to start being a part of bands. 

Emma: You said it was like an escape, were there any particular songs you listened to when you were younger that were like your escape?

Cortney: My dad was a big part of me getting into music, and he was really into punk stuff and was in a local punk band back in the day. He started to take me to all those concerts, so I really got into The Specials and Stiff Little Fingers and I just love going to concerts. I remember being like 12 and being like ‘Dad, can I go to the front and jump about with all these old men!?’ I always had big hair and he’d stand at the back and spend the gig watching my hair bounce from one side of the venue to the other. And, I found that so much fun and carefree and that, in itself, is like an escape, and I just thought if I could stand on stage and recreate that feeling, that would be really cool.

It took a really long time to get there, because as a young girl at the time, I found it really difficult to find people to play with because lads always had their little laddy bands. I found it hard to find players who wanted to play with me so I just kind of did acoustic stuff for a really long time and then started to find players to form a band, which is way more my thing. 

But yeah, when I was younger I just started really getting into Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac, Cindy Lauper, Madonna. All very eclectic stuff but mainly very eighties.

Emma: ‘Hazard A Guess’ is coming out in October, what was the process of writing and recording this EP like for you?

Cortney: It was a great experience, it was very long. It took me a long time to do, and was the first thing I produced and recorded myself. I wanted to do something where from the start to the end was something I was in control of the whole way through. I just wanted to do something that was totally me without having outside influences. Previously, I always worked with other producers and mix engineers and stuff, which is amazing and collaboration is a great thing, but for this I just wanted to do something that just totally felt like me. 

It was a bit of a challenge, a bit of an experiment. I have a studio in Newcastle, and we recorded all the drums in that studio. My best friend Rob has all the drum mics and stuff so I got him to help me engineer it, and set up all the drums and record everything, and then I produced everything and me and him mixed it together. 

It took a really long time but I loved it and I’m really proud of it. It’s coming out on vinyl really soon. It feels like a real full circle thing.

Emma: How long did it take?

Cortney: About a year.

Emma: What sort of music were you listening to whilst making this EP, and do you think it influenced the end result?

Cortney: I went back and started to listen to a lot of stuff with really nasty guitars. A lot of The Strokes, Blondie, St Vincent, that kind of thing. I think my main thing was just kind of really nailing the guitar sounds, so I just kind of listened to those tunes and was like ‘alright, how did they do that.’ We listened to some of The Clash and figured out how they recorded some of their guitars. We really experimented with putting things through shitty amps and playing around with pedals and really fucking stuff up, getting a bit of a raucous sound. So I’d say that type of stuff really influenced it a lot. 

Emma: Do you have a favourite song from the EP?

Cortney: I definitely love them all for different reasons but one that I feel most connected to at the minute, which might be because I’ve just released it as a single, is the one about my sister called ‘Little Big Sister’. It’s just a song I’ve really wanted to figure out how to write because growing up with Toni was such a big part of my life, obviously. It was just figuring out how to do it in the right way because I didn’t want it to be a sob story, I wanted it to be a celebration of her and how resilient she is and how much she pushes through anything that she’s had thrown at her. And, not to blow my own trumpet, but I feel like I nailed it in the end, but it took a really long time to figure out how to do that. But yeah, it’s had a really nice response and I feel like I hold that one really close to my heart.

Emma: Was there a problem child on this EP, one that took a bit longer to perfect than the others?

Cortney: Yeah, actually there were a few. They all took a while, especially the first couple we recorded, they took a little bit longer because it set the scene for how we were gonna do the full EP so it was really important that we got the first couple right. ‘If You Love Somebody, Don’t Fuck It Up’ was my biggest battle, mainly because I recorded it twice before and it just wasn’t right. It’s a difficult song because the production is quite simple, it’s literally just guitars, vocals and drums. It’s a super organic track and if you try to over produce it, it just loses what it’s meant to be about. It just needs that slightly punky vibe and I think I was just overthinking it for a really long time. In the end, I just had to stop overthinking it and record it live and be a bit more flippant about the takes and don't overthink them. So, I think that was a big learning curve on that, just don’t overthink it, just feel it and go for it. 

Emma: If you could choose one of the songs on this EP to have a collaborative re-release, which song are you picking and which artist would you want to perform on it?

Cortney: Oh, oh my god. That’s a hard one actually. I think, when I did ‘Life Goes On’, I had ‘Heart Of Glass’ on repeat because I just love how that was produced and how it sounds, having that slight disco element. So it would have to be a collaboration with Debby Harry on ‘Life Goes On’. 

Emma: Do you have any live shows planned for after the release of ‘Hazard A Guess’?

Cortney: So, we’re doing two EP launch shows at Little Buildings in Newcastle on October 17th, they’re both sold out. Then I’m going on tour with Du Blonde in Europe and around the UK in November. I’m supporting them and also playing guitar for Beth in the set as well, so that will be fun. 

Emma: Which show are you most excited to play, is there a venue on that tour you’re looking forward to the most? 

Cortney: I’m really excited to play in Amsterdam. We’re doing Amsterdam on Halloween. 

Emma: Are you going to wear a costume?

Cortney: I can’t decide what. We definitely have to do something, it’s halloween!

Emma: I’ve always been interested in what artists do during the days when they're on tour, before their shows, because obviously it's in the evening. Do you just mill about the cities when you’re on tour?

Cortney: Yeah, it’s weird, your days just kind of get eaten up really and before you know it, it's show time. Obviously a lot of it is travelling between gigs and then you get there and you’ve got to load in which is normally not glamorous at all. Then you have to find food somewhere and by the time you’ve done that and gotten ready, it’s like alright, show time. So your days just kind of disappear. 

Emma: So there’s no time for sight seeing or anything I’m guessing?

Cortney: No, you never really really have time but I always do a quick google search for the nearest vintage shop. I’m normally happy if I can hit up at least one good antique or vintage shop somewhere. 

Emma: Is there a song from the EP which you’re most excited to play live?

Cortney: I’m most excited to bring out ‘Little Big Sister’ because, as I say, we’ve not gigged that one. The rest we’ve gigged all year which has been really fun, it was really fun to do ‘If You Love Somebody Don’t Fuck It Up’ at Glastonbury, it’s one you can really get people singing along to because it’s easy to pick up. But, I’m really excited to bring ‘Little Big Sister’ out the box and play that one. 

Emma: You’ve had a pretty wild year, releasing these songs and playing them at Glastonbury. Do you have a favourite memory of 2025 so far?

Cortney: I feel like so much has happened this year which has been great. I think SXSW for me was just amazing. I think Glastonbury was class and so unexpected, but SXSW, I think because we were there for a long period of time, we had nine shows in five days or something. We were just really able to sink our teeth into it and graft our arses off and play as many shows as possible. Some were just like, we turn up and there’s not enough power for our gear. I just like problem solving, the high-stress scenarios where we're like ‘let’s figure this out’. Very DIY and fun. Normally, they’re your best shows and we had a few of them at SXSW. We were playing in the corner of a mexican restaurant and they didn't even have enough power for us to play, so we were unplugging the lights to plug in our equipment and I just think that was the best show we had and it was all down to the audience.The audience were just proper up for it and that was really fun. 

Getting to go to Austin, which I love as a place anyway, it's just so cool and I think the vibes there are mint. I also just feel like you can wear what you want there and no one bats an eye. So just going to America and getting the opportunity to do that and do so many shows there was so good.