Assistant: Mateusz Theo Frolenko

With Hard Gloss, Beks is done with playing it safe. The Australian-born, London-based pop provocateur makes a fierce statement on her debut EP, blending club-ready bangers with raw lyricism and unfiltered emotion. Speaking exclusively to FAULT Magazine, Beks opens up about leaving behind writing camps, shedding creative filters, and stepping into her most confident, empowered self yet.

Beks: My goal is to make confident music. I set out to make this EP without compromise, without lyrical negotiation or bending the sound to follow what’s trending. It was a risk, a leap of faith I had to take to find that confidence in myself and in my ability to create an EP that I would want to listen to over and over and over. Collaboration will always be a big part of my music, but personally, this solo project was important for my own identity.

Beks: Having written songs for a lot of other artists’ projects, I’ve become conditioned to work as a writer in a somewhat diplomatic way. However, when it’s all your own work, there’s nowhere to hide. That was both challenging and liberating. I had the freedom to fully indulge my imagination, using lyrics to paint an abstract visual to tell my stories, but no one to validate those ideas.

Beks: Hard Gloss is being two things at once. The “hard” being the grind, the grit, the hustle—and the “gloss” being the glamour, the glitz, the IT girls and shiny top coat.

Beks: I bring depth to my work, but my work shows my vulnerability. I balance this by delivering my message with conviction and strength on stage. I use fashion as my armour, so when you see me in an oversized jacket and a blowout to the roof, just know I’ve said too much.

Beks: The lyrics speak to an inner confidence—that even in a moment of setback, what’s meant to be yours is going to come back to you.

Beks: You can see that this EP is distinctly different in sound from anything else I’ve released. I think it’s different because I really focused on making songs for myself, making music that I really want to listen to, instead of what was trending.

Beks: Now that I’ve found my autonomous creativity through this EP, I’m excited to bring that energy and confidence back into a collaborative environment—not just in the studio, but also live. I like to think of my fans as collaborators in a way. How they react to new songs on tour provides me with amazing feedback, helps drive my decisions as to what to release next. There’s nothing more exciting than writing, producing, and performing a song and seeing my fans singing the words and sharing in the joy of this journey with me.

Beks: I agree, queer joy and queer pain coexist in pop music, as they do in real life. Track 4, “I Knew A Girl,” is a perfect example of that. It’s a song about a girl who I caught sleeping with my boyfriend. What I set out to do was get revenge on him, but where it led was actually to the potential of pursuing her.

Beks: Perhaps my biggest fault is my tendency to normalise my life experiences. I’m starting to learn that not everyone is as open or willing to share the intimate details of their lives as I am. Despite this, sharing my stories, guts and all, has also been key to unlocking some incredible friendships.