As the voice of British metal band, Defences, Cherry Duesbury has helped carve out a space in the UK’s modern metal scene for woman of colour. On stage, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Offstage, there’s an openness and sharp self-awareness that makes her just as compelling to talk to as she is to watch perform. It was a pleasure to sit down with her and talk about her journey so far, the realities of building a career in metal as a woman of colour, and the person behind the powerful voice.
How did you find your way into music?
It goes all the way back to be honest, I've had a love for music since I was a young child. I was dancing to Mariah Carey with my Mum when I was like two years old. I did Stagecoach in my early youth which was singing, dancing and acting, so I got some exposure to that and started to learn dance routines, and how vital rhythm was to most creative arts. I started to realise that anyone can sing. I think it all really kicked off when I finished my GCSEs, because everyone was figuring out what they were doing, and my natural course was to go on to sixth form. I did that, to study biology, chemistry, sociology and psychology because I wanted to become a forensic scientist. I just kind of fell in love with forensic science and I've always been a bit of a science nerd, but my other main passion was always music and so there was a moment where I had a bit of a toss-up in my head between “should I try and pursue this forensic science career or should I try and do music?”. I thought let me be sensible and try to do something where I’m going to end up in a high paying position, and I'm still doing something really cool. I made it about a year into sixth form before I was like “this isn't for me” (laughs). It was just a bit too much, mostly chemistry, there was way more math involved than I thought there was going to be and I don't like maths! So in the end I dropped out of sixth form and went to college instead, to study music performance. It was there I had my first experiences of performing in a band setting, working on my own material properly, and it kind of all blossomed from there.
So when did you become part of the band that we know as Defences now, and how did that come about for you?
So that came about in 2013, I had just come back from living in America because my Mum and my sisters were out there, I went and stayed with them for a while and then I came back to the UK. The idea was to come back, go to Uni and find a band, because I really felt it was time. I was at the height of my obsession with Memphis May Fire and Sleeping with Sirens and they were at their peak of that era, like early 2010s era, and I just thought “I need to be doing this”. So I came back to the UK, went on joinmyband.co.uk and put up an ad with a link to my SoundCloud that had a few Memphis May Fire vocal covers that I'd done. Calum and the other original, ex-guitarist Ed, found that ad and invited me along for an audition. We got on really well, they initially said yeah you can be in the band and then they changed their mind and were like actually we're going in another direction! But then a month or two later came back and were like “actually no we do want you in the band” (laughs). That was towards the end of 2013, and then we put out our first EP in 2014.
So you've been going over 10 years. The band are growing with success at the moment, you seem to be on a real upward trajectory which is brilliant, but clearly it does show that these things do take time.
Oh yeah, definitely. These things definitely take time.
You’ve previously described the band as ‘self-acceptance core' - would you still say that’s a good description for you?
We've actually had a lot of conversations about this recently because we're trying to really figure out who we are as a band. The self-acceptance core I think is a funny little tagline that summarises certainly our last release and the message that we were pushing out quite well. Looking a bit more broadly at our entire discography, what we want to be talking about, it’s not quite just that, but self-acceptance and understanding yourself, sticking up for yourself, learning to love yourself, those are running themes throughout pretty much all of our music.
You’re predominantly the songwriter for the band, and it seems like you use your own personal experiences for the majority of your lyric writing. What led you towards writing more in this way?
I think probably just because I've always been most inspired by artists that do that. We were talking about Hayley Williams earlier and she is probably one of my biggest lyrical inspirations, because her writing comes from a very personal, vulnerable place, and she manages to say things so beautifully that anyone can relate to, and kind of see themselves in her words which I really, really love. Lynn Gunn from PVRIS is another one who does a similar thing. I feel like music is a really expressive form of art where you can be quite direct with how you're expressing something, or you can choose a more poetic route, and being able to do both is really interesting, and making it more personal to you often results in others being able to relate to it more.
And I suppose it’s nice that it connects you with your fans then, as I'm sure they at times feel it in themselves, what you’re expressing through your songs.
Yeah I've gotten some lovely messages, I've had fans tell me that, and it's so touching because that is the most important thing at the end of the day, that we are actually connecting with people through what we create.
Cherry Duesbury, 2026 © Alia Thomas - www.aliathomas.com - please do not use without permission.
Absolutely, we all use music in different ways don't we, but it's a big way of helping people, healing I suppose, in some sense so it's nice that your music can do that for people. Do you find the songwriting process cathartic?
No not really! (laughs) I can find it quite stressful, because like I said I see it as an art, and I see it as a challenge to try and say something in an artful way that also takes into consideration rhythms and melodies and what the rest of the instrumentation is doing, and everything else you have to consider when creating a song. So I wouldn't say I find songwriting cathartic really. I would say I find performing incredibly cathartic! When it's at the point where I actually get to belt out the lyrics that I wrote in front of people who understand them, and feel them too, it’s the most cathartic thing in the world to me.
Before we go into more depth, if you could choose one word to describe your time and experience as a woman in the music industry, what do you feel it would be?
Challenging is the word I would choose for sure. Challenging. We can talk about it more but there are certainly ways in which I feel like me being who I am has made it quite challenging for us to progress and do some of the things that we want to do, and you know, succeed in ways that bands want to succeed. Yeah it's been challenging. I feel like in the early days I was intentionally ignorant about it, and I think that was because I felt that if I let myself really, really assess everything that was going on, it probably would have made me freeze, too much to really do anything. Plus, you know, times have changed a lot, and they're continuing to change in a very, very positive direction in that regard, and even back then around the time that we started, things were starting to get better. So I think my very young naive self was kind of just like “it's all fine, there's nothing stopping us any more than anyone else, we can just do this”, but then it was one thing after another of no, no, no, no, and so eventually I thought, okay this is still very much a thing that we have to fight against.
Okay, we’ll go further into that later on, but first, you describe yourself online as “an introverted AuDHD emo.” As someone who is introverted and neurodivergent, how have you found navigating an industry like the music industry, and also experiencing increasing success with the band?
It's definitely been something that I’ve had to get better at over time. First of all, just understanding the way that the industry works and, I guess, how I’m perceived in it. The introverted side is kind of no different to me doing any other activity in life really, in that afterwards I need to rest… I need to rest and I need to massively reduce contact (laughs). I love the music, obviously. I love the industry, and being a part of it, and getting to do all the things, but when we get back from tour, or a big event, and the bags drop, the phone does too. I’ll be a bit slow to check messages and I'm not really on social media much. I'm resting my brain! I had to find a rhythm with that and understand that that's what I need and then not feel guilty about it. That took time too, and took learning to understand myself better.
I appreciate you’ve mentioned that when you get back from touring you need a lot of space and time to yourself, but as an introverted person, how do you deal with the touring itself? As when you’re on tour I suppose you don’t get much of this, and your environment is changing all the time going from place to place. Are you in a van or do you get hotel rooms now? Have you learnt to adapt and take time for yourself when you need it?
We get hotel rooms now, if we're not staying at the house of someone we know. A couple of fairly cheap rooms, enough so that generally it can be the girls, which will be me and most of our crew, and then another room or two for the rest of the guys is generally how it works, but it used to be that we would sleep in our van. Our girl Vicky, she used to have six bunks in her. We mostly did that all ourselves. That was Kyle and an ex-member who put that all together. We would drive all around the UK and then just find somewhere nice and quiet, and safe, to park up and sleep in the van. Go to a service station, get washed up, you know, so we were living that life for a long time. Which I didn't hate, because it was one of those experiences of being a musician that I always loved the idea of, and always wanted to do! So I was honestly fine with it (laughs). It's not the easiest, but it’s always an adventure. We're all good friends so it’s always quite wholesome. The bunks were fairly cosy, and the van has a fan so we could keep it fairly cool in the Summer and, you know with five bodies in there it stayed warm enough in the winter haha (laughs) so yeah we made it work. It's only in the last couple years that we’ve stopped van life and we're actually getting hotel rooms. But it’s definitely taken time to adapt to tour life generally and still be comfortable. A game changer I now cannot live without, are my Loop earplugs. They block out everything (or seriously mute and dampen if things are really loud) and just allow for a bit of mental space. I’m lucky in that I don’t have to drive on tour, so there’s opportunities to rest, take some time to just be still and silent. They’ve become quite important for me to keep my sanity, especially on longer runs.
You mentioned most of your crew are women too. Was that something that was important to you, to have other women on the crew with you, or did it just happen to go that way?
It mostly just happened, as time went on and we met more people in the industry. We’ve been lucky to work with some incredibly talented female photographers and sound engineers that we get on with really well. So when we’ve been able to, we’ve chosen to work with them because we know it’ll be a strong, fun group, we’ll end up with great photos or rest assured our live sound is polished. Having other women around has definitely helped tour feel a bit more balanced, though! Maybe that was a subconscious, collective decision over the years.
The way music is now promoted is very different to what it used to be, with social media being a massive part of how people promote modern music, and to some degree how they also gain success. What's your relationship like with social media, and your thoughts on the part it plays in the industry?
I think the part it plays in the industry is unfortunate. It’s hard because things never used to be that way, and I remember that time. I wasn’t in the industry then, but I remember it. It’s difficult, because the two don't really go hand in hand for a musician; there is a huge difference between just being a “musician” and being a musician / content creator / influencer. It’s kind of crazy that the industry expects musicians to be everything at once these days, but that is the world that we live in and so I have kind of just accepted that we have to do what we have to do. The best way to get in front of your audience is to be present on these platforms, and we've had success with it. Just before the Shadowlight campaign it really kicked off, we started to get serious about it, and over the course of that campaign our socials have skyrocketed because we've just stayed consistent with it. That’s the main thing about it, it's being consistent. I was joking the other day saying I wish it hadn't worked because then I would have been like “see, we don't need to be doing this” (laughs), but we've proven that if you do it and you do it to a high enough quality and you're consistent with it, it is going to work and you are going to grow your fanbase that way. You know these last tours that we did at the end of last year, we had new fans that we didn't recognise, who had found us on social media and decided to buy a ticket. So I've come to accept that it's a crucial part, it does work and we have to just do it… but I don't like it (laughs).
Cherry Duesbury, 2026 © Alia Thomas - www.aliathomas.com - please do not use without permission.
I suppose a lot of it does fall on you for it too, as the frontwoman, lead vocalist so it’s unfortunate that you don’t enjoy it, but you’re clearly very good at doing it and keeping up with it!
And there are people that do enjoy it, and honestly props to them because I wish I loved it, but, luckily I can not like something and still be good at it basically.
Of course! You've been known to be very open and vulnerable online with some of the mental health struggles that you’ve experienced. What led you to share like this? Particularly last year, when you were going through a rough time, you were very courageous with being vulnerable online and sharing your challenges with your audience, your fans, which of course is not at all easy to do. Do you feel like that helped not only yourself but other people and perhaps increased your connection with your fans?
I did yeah, I think my reason for deciding to post in that way had come from understanding that people do want to see more of you. More of me. They want you to be open and honest and vulnerable, and yourself, and it comes back to this whole thing about connection which is what it's all about, right? And feeling like you can actually connect to another human, even if they are just on a screen in a video that you're watching. I mean if I’d had my way, and kind of my old way of thinking, which wasn't the healthiest, then I would have shut myself away from everyone and everything and just tried to get through it all myself, and suffer in silence. That's kind of my forte, but you know, we had a lot of conversations in the band over the year about how we need to open up more and be a bit more personable and show people a bit more of us rather than just focusing solely on the music, and so I kind of just did it. I was really going through it, and I did have a lot of people message me just to show support and give me love and say that they understand, and also have people say that they related to what I was going through. It just helps you feel like you're not alone with any given thing.
Absolutely, and it’s a 2-way thing for sure. It seems that metal is perhaps one of the lesser diverse genres in music, as there seemingly aren't that many women of colour, certainly, if not people of colour generally in metal. Why do you think that is?
That's a difficult question to answer, because I kind of only have my own very, very limited perception of it I guess, and, like, history of what's happened… and it's weird. Rock and Metal music was born from Black music, way back when. But I don't know. Thinking of my own experience of growing up, like the 2002 to 2007-8 era, that was the crux of it, you know; Myspace, scene kids, and being an emo was… well, it wasn't cool back then, but there were a lot of us. Predominantly white kids, so you were kind of strange if you were a black kid trying to fit into that scene. It was so uncommon, especially in my area, and people were generally just a bit confused as to why I was there. It’s funny because I feel like a lot of the musicians that ended up being in bands, or being artists that made that kind of music, and the music that it’s evolved into now… they were all those little emo white kids from 2002. And the few and far between black kids that were in those emo/goth scenes, we were just trying to be accepted full stop at that point, so that probably affected how many of us ended up trying to actually pursue any kind of musical career. We were just trying to reach the point of being accepted in the scene, generally, let alone be the scene.
How important do you feel your role is, not only as a woman, but a woman of colour in the metal scene?
The level of importance of it, to me, grows constantly. It's been increasingly growing over the years, because like I said, when we started I didn't want it to be about that at all. I didn't want it to be about the fact that I’m Black. I didn’t want it to be about the fact I’m a woman. I was just a person in this band with four or five other people, and we were just doing something that we loved. So I didn’t want to ever have to think about it. But I am who I am, you know? As the challenges and struggles started to come to light that we had to kind of overcome, and as I was kind of thrust further into the industry and was opened up to more of how it actually works, I realised that I'm kind of in a special position and it is important that I use that position, however I can. One of the most amazing things that happened over the last couple of years was that someone shared one of our reels, and they put as the caption “this was the band I needed growing up.” It was a young black woman that shared it. And I thought, “you know what, me too.” This is the band that I needed growing up that I didn't have, and I never saw.
Absolutely. You referred to challenges and struggles that started to come to light as you progressed further into the industry. Do you feel then that who you are has had an effect on the opportunities you have, or haven’t, had as a band?
It's very hard to know. You know, no-one’s come up to us and said “you're not getting this opportunity because you're a Black woman” (laughs). It's never been that in your face, but you kind of get an idea about certain things, right? And there have certainly been times where I've felt like we hadn't been considered in the same way as some of our peers. We've always very strongly believed in the music that we make. We think it's good, people have told us it's good, and so you know - it’s not good to compare and we try not to do it anymore but - if we were to put two bands side to side, one of them being us and another being a band that makes similar music, of a similar size, but doesn't have a Black woman in it, and compare the successes or opportunities that each band got, it kind of became a little bit obvious. It's not quite so black and white anymore, and yes things are definitely improving a lot, but I did kind of notice that. And being a woman in general has been tough because, like a lot of other industries, it takes a while, and takes you getting to a certain level before you're respected or just taken seriously in the same kind of way. So it's been a challenge all around.
Cherry Duesbury, 2026 © Alia Thomas - www.aliathomas.com - please do not use without permission.
Touching on the challenges you suggested to. Have there been any significant things that stand out to you at all?
That’s actually quite tough, I’m not sure if I will actually be able to think of anything on the spot now as I did block a lot of stuff out. A lot of the bad luck we’ve had. I jokingly say it’s the Defences Curse, our notorious bad luck. I even wrote the song The Curse, about it. But it has mostly just been bad luck, I very much doubt it’s had anything to do with us specifically as a band or as people (laughs). So I don't know if there's really anything, maybe in the earlier days going to some of the industry events that we would go to and kind of just not really being acknowledged by anyone. But then, no one really knew who we were!
At the end of last year you toured with RORY and Sky Daddy. What was it like touring with them?
First of all RORY is one of the loveliest humans I've ever met and obviously I'd seen their ADHD videos on social media beforehand, and I'd kind of been following along their music journey but I didn't really know what they would be like, but honestly everyone was lovely, the whole crew, all of her band, everyone, and it was awesome because we got to play a lot of places that we’ve not played before around the UK. All of the venues were the biggest venues that we've ever played as well, so the stages were so fun. It was a dream, and her fans are all so lovely and welcoming and they really, really took to us, which was amazing. There was one show in Southampton at Southampton Guildhall, and there was a point in our set where we got everyone to put their phone lights up and the whole room just looked like stars. It was incredible. It was the kind of thing that you see of big artists, you know? Obviously it wasn't our crowd, it was RORY's crowd, but they were loving us and really vibing with us, and I've got that image ingrained into my brain. One of my favourite moments ever. And the best part of it was my Mum and my sister had come over from America and were right there in the front and center of the crowd! It was a special moment.
It sounds really special. And you said it was spanning over three weeks in which you had to take the time off work - does it work okay with taking that much time off work for tours and other general band-related things?
Luckily, I have been able to end up in a situation where I'm on a four-day-a-week contract, so I get an extra day off each week anyway, which has been the most useful thing I've ever done. It’s insane how much that helps with life generally. Then I manage a team of four really incredible people who are able to just keep the ship sailing, essentially, when I'm away. So, yeah, it's worked out well, and everyone at my work is very proud of me and, you know, excited that I get to go off and be a rockstar (laughs).
That’s lovely that they’re all so supportive of you and the band! Coming next you’ve got your tour with Mason Hill! What else can we expect from Defences this year? Any surprises?
Hopefully one or two! We've just released a new single, called ‘Metamorphosis’. It's all about growth, transformation and self-actualisation, the follow up and next step in the journey after Shadowlight. The focus is very much on new music this year, we’re writing at the moment and hoping to do something we’ve never done before for what comes next. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s going to be very cool. I can’t talk about it too much yet. We toured a lot last year, so there won’t be as much, but we’ll be making some special appearances! There’ll be a very exciting tour towards the end of the year, look out for that announcement soon.
We look forward to that! We need to mention your latest project too. Now you very recently brought out your first single as your own entity, clsr. (pronounced ‘closer’) which you released rather out of the blue! It’s very different to the sound of Defences, it’s more of a chill-hop sound, so what made or inspired you to create this sort of music, and then to release it in this unexpected way?
I've always loved rock and metal, but I've always loved music that you can chill to as well. Music that calms you, or that you put on when you need to focus. I’ve listened to that kind of music more than I listen to metal on a daily basis, probably for about a decade now. The music I make with the band has allowed me to really scratch the itch I’ve had since I was that emo teen, but I guess I kind of just wanted to see if I could make something different, completely on my own. I love being in a band, you know I love my dudes, but I do like the idea of having complete creative control over a piece of art. And so it wasn’t to be like, ‘I want to go and do a solo career’ or anything like that. It just allows me to experiment in a way that I don't get to experiment with the band, with a completely different genre. I’ve been secretly doing it for a really long time; I wrote my first song, strngs, in 2018. And pretty much always planned to release my own stuff, but the band has and always will be first priority, and the timing was never right. We’ve had an awful lot to navigate as a band, a lot of hurdles to get over to reach a point of knowing who we are, what we’re about and what we want to create, with the right people, and team involved. I’ve been telling myself “I’ll release something this year” every year since about 2020, but I think subconsciously I needed the band to reach that point of stability before I could seriously entertain the idea of it. When we got towards the end of 2025, I decided I simply could not have another year of saying that to myself, and not doing it. So I just decided it was going to happen. Picked a date, and uploaded a song. One of the ones I wrote when I dived a bit deeper into my own experimentation, in 2020, when everyone had lots of free time. We did also write an album that year, though! “strngs” will be the next song I release, in a couple months time. I’ve been listening to these clsr. songs on my own for so many years now, and in the meantime the legitimacy of the band has increased enough that I feel I can be way less precious about it than I used to think I had to be. I thought a lot of careful thought, planning and preparation would need to be put into sharing a solo project, like we do for the band. But now I’m really happy to just stick songs up, be like “here is something I made and enjoy, that isn’t Defences” and leave it at that. So that’s the plan, until I run out of songs I’ve made since 2018, of which there are a lot!
Cherry Duesbury, 2026 © Alia Thomas - www.aliathomas.com - please do not use without permission.
Is it a different feeling that you get from creating songs that are completely yours to creating within a band?
It is a different feeling, but I haven't quite been able to figure out, I guess, what that feeling is. I do feel a sense of accomplishment because I know that it is a song that I made completely from scratch by myself, and it’s cool that I’ve been able to do that. But I definitely put more emotional thought, or context into what I'm doing with the band. That’s like, that's at my core, the band and the metal music that we make. I see “clsr.” more as me literally just getting to experiment, try whatever I feel like trying and whatever comes out, needed to come out. When it started, I was writing a lot of sad songs, actually too sad or raw to be used for Defences if you can believe it (laughs). But it’s just that creative freedom, and autonomy. It can be whatever I want it to be, or I can discover what it is as I go along. It’s inspiring, getting to be free with it, and has actually inspired creativity for the band too. It’s my artistic hobby, and the band is my career. It’s like if a professional painter had a sketch book of stick figure doodles they did. Helps keep the creative juices flowing, in a different way. But they decided some of those doodles were worth sharing too, because why not! It feels like a way of sharing more of myself with people, even if it’s the same medium, and even if a lot of it has no vocals and lyrics. That’s why I decided to call it clsr. (“closer”), because I’m letting people get closer to who I am, with this other side of me and my creativity.
Was production something you knew before clsr. or was this something that you’ve taught yourself along the way?
Mostly taught along the way. I learned a little bit in uni, how to use programs like Logic and Adobe Audition and Audacity generally. But it mostly came from making music with the band, learning from the guys or engineers we went to for mixing. I started diving further into it for myself, and for making my own music in 2020, when I decided to get a MIDI controller and experiment with making my own beats from scratch. Completely self taught, I had no idea how to use one before that, but I understood the theory of how it worked.
This may seem like an odd question, but do you feel like a natural rockstar or, has it taken a bit of working at?
There is a natural rockstar in me and she's always been there, but it takes a while to coax her out, and it has taken a lot of ‘fake it till you make it’ to bring her out more. But it has also taken seeing how our art helps people, how they're able to relate to it, and how it's reflected onto their lives. That has definitely helped affirm that I'm meant to be doing this, you know, and that has brought its own confidence to bring her out even more, but yeah, she's always been there! I was two, maybe three years old, jumping all over my sofa, singing along to Disney films like Pocahontas, etc., and performing them for my parents, so, like, I've always been doing this.
So, thinking about that little girl then, reflecting back on everything that you've experienced in your musical career so far, if you could give your younger self some words of encouragement, some advice, what would you say to her?
Just try not to be so shy. Try not to let your shyness stop you from actually having experiences and seizing opportunities. Because the opportunities are there for you, and there are many incredible experiences to be had, and the only person stopping you from having them, really, is you! That's what I would say to her.
I’m sure that’s something that will resonate with a lot of people too. So, you've spoken to your younger self now, but to any other girls, and women, currently aspiring to be in the music industry, whether that’s as a singer, or another role in production, behind-the-scenes, anything, what words of wisdom do you have for them?
It might sound a bit cliche, or cheesy, but believe in yourself, genuinely. Because you might come across people who affirm your fears, and you might come across people who tell you no, but if you believe in yourself and what you're doing enough, something will happen. You do have to just keep going, even when you might want to stop. There have been many times where I've wanted to stop, but I just keep going, and I keep getting to have amazing experiences, and that stems from belief in myself, that I'm meant to be doing this. So you have to just believe in yourself, that’s kind of the crux of it. But it’s also a lot of what our message is about, which is loving yourself, and accepting yourself, because I think to truly believe that you can be what you want to be, that has to come first. You have to believe that you're worthy. And that comes from a deep, very real love for your life and what it can be. So I think start within, and hold on to that belief that you can do it.
And lastly, if you were to picture the music industry in five or ten years time, what would you really like to see that industry to be like?
Well, first of all, AI music needs to disappear. There would be none of that, there would just be actual humans making music. There would be more people of colour generally in the rock and metal scene specifically, and there would be way more young black women as well. They don't have to be singers, they could be bassists, they could be drummers, they could be guitarists, they could be screamers… I’m just learning, and teetering around with it, but imagine if there was a badass Black woman in like, a fresh new metal band who just had an insane scream you’d never expect to come out of her, you know, how cool would that be? More of that, and just more diversity at shows, which is something that we started to see at the shows that we did at the end of the year, which I loved. I just want more of that. I want metal crowds to be made up of people of all colours, shapes, sizes and abilities. All having the time of their lives, being kind to each other, uplifting each other as well as the artists they’re there to see. Wholesome, loving fun, with mosh pits, circle pits, walls of death and stank faces, everywhere. And a whole lot of smiles.
Cherry Duesbury, 2026 © Alia Thomas - www.aliathomas.com - please do not use without permission.
It was such a pleasure spending time with Cherry and discussing her life as a musician. She’s a true role model for so many, and the openness and connection she has with fans is truly inspiring. Defences’ latest release, ‘Metamorphosis’, is out now, and you can see follow and see more from Cherry and Defences from the links below: