Green Man Interview: Rising winners tall child talk about kicking off the main stage at Green Man

Amelia Jones

London-based band tall child won Green Man Rising 2026, earning a place on the festival’s main stage.

Their music combines grungy riffs, melodic hooks and indie jangle, while drawing on vocalist Zha Gandhi’s experiences as a queer, disabled artist of colour. Themes of identity, growth and resilience run throughout their work.

The band’s name, taken from a Mitski lyric, reflects the idea of growing beyond the challenges that come with finding your place in the world.

Those themes are explored on tall child’s debut EP, Somehow You Grow, released last year, which charts experiences of change, growth and overcoming adversity.

Ahead of their Green Man performance on Friday, Zha Gandhi (vocals/synth), George Davies (bass), Maeve Henry (guitar), Osian Clifford (guitar) and Lucy Rushton (drums) spoke to Nation.Cymru about their music and the journey to the festival’s main stage.

Take me back to the moment you were standing waiting for the Green Man Rising result. What was going through your head?

Zha: So we were all, I feel like, huddled together and we kept being like it doesn’t matter if we win or if we don’t win, we’re gonna have a great time, it’s fine. 

Maeve: It’s also like, yeah, when you hear people say things like you never expect to win. Honestly, we were honestly gagged. I think especially with the rest of the other four acts were insanely talented.

George: There was a lot of discourse ahead of time like, Rising Stage is my favourite stage anyway. And walking up to the Mountain Stage today, we’re like, oh god, it’s so big, and we’re so small.

For anyone hearing tall child for the first time , how would you describe the vibe you create on stage?

Zha: The vibe, so I guess the kind of music we do falls under the category of like indie rock alternative vibes.  I think a lot of our songs cover so many different emotions that I just want to get everyone for the fun songs to be dancing and having fun. And then for the really like depressing songs, be like sobbing.

George: Yeah, we’re going to torture you with emotions. So the vibe is torture. Yeah, we’ve got that. Torture.

Who are your main influences? 

Zha: I would say Radiohead and Rachel Chinouriri. I love Mitski. I’m very excited to see Mannequin Pussy. They’re a huge influence.

I think all of us individually have quite different influences, which is why I feel like our sound is so unique because we’ve all kind of put our little bit of…

Me and Maeve are also in another band called Ghost Car, which is more of a punk band.  I feel like since Maeve has joined Tall Child, has given us this grit that I feel like Tall Child was missing.

George: Me and Luce and Osh have been playing together for a decade in one way or another. In different projects, yeah. In different projects, so it feels a little bit like, clocking in to work.

Osian: We love Anna Calvi, don’t we?  I saw her playing as well when I was like 17. On that (Mountain) stage as well. I was like, oh my god, I want to be that good at guitar. I’m doing it for you, Anna Calvey.

Was there a specific moment early on where you realised you had to write your own rules as a band?

Zha: With Rising, because you get such a short set. Yeah, we had to really think about what we should play.

We’ve got a couple sillier songs. Yeah, we were like, how many silly songs? One or two? No, two’s too much.

We’ve got to show the silly side, but we can’t be too silly. So it’s nice now being able to play Mountain Stage and have the full silly and  have the whole thing. Yeah, no more cuts. 

Which song completely transforms when you play it live compared to the record?

Zha: Orange. Yeah, because the outro, like somehow it’s so, um, there’s so many layers to it. And although the recording captures that.

I think, especially in the outro, like it all just gives us a chance to like rock out and scream and just have so much fun. I was like, I can’t really scream throughout the whole of the recording. People will just want to turn that off.

Yeah, with Orange, I think we’ve definitely transformed it into something completely different. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to playing that one live because George is playing a little mini Omnicord, which is just such a beautiful sounding instrument.

George: Actually, the record is like strings played by Osh and another friend of ours in like the basement of Abbey Road. Yeah, the version we’re going to play this time is on a weird little mini chord I bought on the internet that doesn’t have the right chords written on it.  I think that’s going to be like so perfect for the mountain stage.

What’s going to be the main difference between your set at Rising and your set this weekend? 

Zha: I think I feel more confident about it because we’re able to show like the whole of Tall Child, not just a small percentage. We’ve never played a big stage like this. So I’m thinking a lot about like how much can I run around the stage without tripping over.

George: We’ve all got our special sprinting shoes on.

Tell me about your song ‘Stupid Body,’ it’s always a stand out moment of your set

Zha: I think it just kind of came out like that. Obviously, yeah, the content of Stupid Body is something that’s really important to me as a disabled person. Like I wrote it when I was in a really bad flare up.

When I initially wrote it, it was just me on guitar in bed and it definitely sounded very different to how now we’ve made it as a band. But I love that version. I think it captures the actual frustration and anger. I think that’s a really important emotion that I used to see as quite negative, but actually it’s quite powerful to feel frustrated at the world and the government.

You are about to open the Mountain Stage. When that first note rings out, what will be going through your mind?

Zha: Even for the rising competition performance in Cardiff, I was feeling really confident. And it was as soon as we stepped on stage, or maybe 10 minutes before, where I was like, oh my god, really freaking out.

Maeve: There were some technical issues with the rising competition. But I think, to me at least, I think we got through that. And obviously, it didn’t come off badly. I think when that first chord comes in, I think it’ll be cemented that we’re here and we’re doing it.

You can listen to the band here. 

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