“We need to be accepting of other people’s secrets, and willing to share our own”: Normandie are turning childhood trauma into a message of hope
Normandie frontman Philip Strand reveals how turning his back on the church he grew up in inspired new album Dark & Beautiful Secrets
Words: Jake Richardson
Growing up in a church blighted Philip Strand’s childhood. Immersed in an environment which, throughout our conversation, he repeatedly refers to as “toxic,” the Normandie vocalist believes that the struggles he encountered later in life had their roots in the trauma he felt as a youngster.
“I didn’t fit in there, and I was better off without it,” Philip reflects with a hint of animosity. “The closer you are to a deity, the more aware you need to be of the people leading those religious groups and societies. My view of religion was ruined by those experiences, and it took me five years after turning my back on the church to comes to terms with every