| | | |  | Just over 2 years ago AMIEL’s solo journey began with “Another Stupid Lovesong” - a simple yet powerful love song by the singer / songwriter with the APRA awarded most played song on radio in Australia for 2003. Resulting in a PLATINUM Top 10 single...
more |
| Interview | Access All Areas.net.au: It’s been at least a couple of years since we’ve heard anything from you, how time flies, what have you been up to?
Amiel: I’ve pretty much been promoting the last one all the time. I had a great deal of success in Japan where I went there three or four times towards the end of 2003 and early 2004. I went to Germany a couple of times, and a couple of trips to the States and England and doing the rounds and also promoting it around Australia.
Amiel: In the last year I spent some time to do some writing, and then in August and September I wrote with my producer, Stephen Lironi, in London where I spent three weeks and then we had enough songs for the album and then I came back, it was quite a quick process but then what’s not quick is the rest of it that comes with it, the organizing of it all. But I enjoy the travel, which is great. And now I am back starting to get stuck in to it.
Access All Areas.net.au: You release your new album in October, how do you find it differs this time to your debut album ‘Audio Out’.
Amiel: I think the thing about this album was that I wanted it to be a lot more raw and wanted it to have sense of the natural side of Amiel, the side of Amiel that people weren’t familiar with with a more personal production and more open acoustic instruments. A production that’s not as calculated. I did that album [Audio Out] and explored that and the next thing was a live based record and to go raw, folky, old school, live, hip-hop beats and that was my initial direction and I guess its similar to ‘Audio Out’. I use my writing as therapy and that’s quite obvious and that’s pretty much Amiel. I think you hear a lot more of me on this album. It’s been a more simplified process compared to the last.
Access All Areas.net.au: Your debut album ‘Audio Out’ you described it as your weird take on the world", how would you describe the new album?
Amiel: I think, again, its just reflecting stuff I feel and have been going through, and all artists can do is to reiterate those experiences as we see them and learn from that. I enjoy that and watching others and how the way we are. This one is definitely a lot of me where I completely open up and it’s a challenge but I’m always going to continue. I hope it gets easier with each record you make… it was definately easier with this one.
Access All Areas.net.au: You had a huge amount of success with ‘Audio Out’ and your debut single ‘Love Song’, do you feel any pressure to follow on with your previous success with this album?
Amiel: I think there will always be that pressure but I also hope that it gets easier when you grow up and realize how to succeed and by succeed I mean having a happy life. You have to make music that is you and you’re always going to run up against that thing that the artist is a product and you have to sell that product and what comes with that is the criteria that has to be met. I think it’s just lucky that I have written material that is more pop and it’s “I do what I do” and people are inspired by that and they [record label] reckon we can work with this. I just make sure that I have personal satisfaction and explore myself the rest is kind of a bonus.
Access All Areas.net.au: You have a fairly interesting story behind your single ‘Be Your Girl’where you wrote the song in its entirety very quickly after having an emotional move to Melbourne away from family and friends and at perhaps one of the worst times of the year – new years eve. Have all your songs been a reflection of how you have felt then and there?
Amiel: I think a lot of them are, probably more so in the first person. I think there are also experiences with others or things I have witnessed and songs that are reaching out to other people like “this is what I see, what do you think about this?”. I’m interested in reflecting and am thought provoking and the artist is a friend to people and that we all go through these similar things and we go through lots in relationships and no one acknowledges these things or pretend that people don’t understand what they are going through but many people do understand. I’ve got a social commentary going. Ultimately, I like to discuss human nature and I end up the test in my songs- I use myself in that way.
Access All Areas.net.au: As a person and as an artist, how do you feel you have changed since ‘Audio Out’?
Amiel: I think it’s an age thing very much. Being a young woman or being a young anyone, I think you tend to be quite impressionable in the way that you want to be what other people say or do. I’ve had quite a few experiences where everything has been taken away from me whether it be through moving or through work situations changing. I got glandular fever when I was 20 and it’s then where you really rely on the closest people and forces you to become aware that what’s most important is your own happiness and your own satisfaction. After doing this for nearly ten years, you learn your ideas are good and you learn to value your ideas and where to go, you learn to be more assertive and I am now a bit clearer as to what I want and how to get it.
Access All Areas.net.au: To someone who’s lived under a rock and isn’t too familiar with you and your music, how would you best describe it?
Amiel: I think my music is a marriage of a whole bunch of different styles, I think it’s extremely melodic, very groove based, I don’t stray too far from a hip-hop loop, there’s a lot of guitar, it’s a bit of folk, hip-hop, rock, country even. It’s very much about the stories.
Access All Areas.net.au: You’ve drummed up some success in overseas markets, how have you found the audiences to differ in those markets to the one in Australia?
Amiel: Japan is biggest audience and they differ to Australia. Australia likes to see it authentic whereas the Japanese really respect creative integrity and they are so in to fashion and idealistic portrayal of artists. Japan has an inspirational view of who I am and I think that makes it really different. People are not so impressed by fame in Australia, Australia I think is impressed by integrity and putting in the hard yards and having a crack at it whereas over there it’s a bigger population and also Japan has a very small music scene domestically it that they’re popular music is from other countries, I think about 60% of it is and so if the album manages to get through all the domestic that comes out it comes quite special.
Access All Areas.net.au: Are there plans to release this album in other territories?
Amiel: Definitely! It’s just a question of when. We haven’t secured anything specifically for the US yet but we’re working on that. In Japan we hope to release it soon after Australia but that could change. I think the main focus will be on Australia for two months and then Japan after that.
Access All Areas.net.au: When a fan goes to one of your shows, what can they expect and will you be doing a live tour to support this release?
Amiel: I will definitely be doing a tour but not until later on but I will be doing a lot of acoustic shows and radio performances of about three or four songs but not like a full show.
Amiel: I think people say I am sort of very sincere, I do really feel strongly that I want to give a good show but I’m going to be particular about how I perform and that I hope the performance is the best. People think I am shy on stage but I really just concentrate, I do quite personal shows and I hope people feel that they get to know me a bit.
Access All Areas.net.au: Outside of touring, what is it that you like to do to just chill out?
Amiel: Watching films, I love to exercise when I have the time and energy to do it, I love cooking and I love talking to people with friends and family because I always learn a lot. Oh and I love to travel! |
| Biography | Just over 2 years ago AMIEL’s solo journey began with “Another Stupid Lovesong” - a simple yet powerful love song by the singer / songwriter with the APRA awarded most played song on radio in Australia for 2003.
Resulting in a PLATINUM Top 10 single with ‘LOVESONG’ and a GOLD record with her 5 times ARIA-nominated debut album, ‘AUDIO OUT'.
Age gaps and musical tastes were bridged as Australians embraced Amiel’s ‘Lovesong’ as their own, creating a phenomenon on the national airwaves and charts.
This support truly cemented Amiel as a well recognised and respected Australian solo recording artist. When asked at the beginning of 2003 to describe her debut album, Amiel replied, “'Audio Out' is my weird
take on the world".
So much has evolved and changed in Amiel’s world since the release of ‘Audio Out’. She returns with a triumphant new independence, ready to embrace the next chapter in her career.
‘BE YOUR GIRL’, the first taste of Amiel’s forthcoming album, ‘THESE TIES’ (released October 16, 2005), is a gutsy, honest and bold return to the airwaves. It features the driving strength of guitars coupled with Amiel's distinctly beautiful and tender vocals. The song was produced by Stephen Lironi at Rockfield Studios, UK, the birthplace of classic albums from Queen, Oasis and The Stone Roses.
Amiel penned ‘BE YOUR GIRL’ on New Years Eve 2003. Amiel says of that moment, “I left loved ones and family in Melbourne (for the third time in my life) on a journey I just had to make. While I was preparing for the move, packing boxes and crying for the changes I knew were afoot, I suddenly had a song come into my head. I quickly grabbed my guitar and recorded it. I still laugh at the dramatics of it all. Tears choked my voice but my writer’s opportunism made the most of my state. That was how ‘Be Your Girl’ was written. It was one of those lovely and rare occasions when a song just ‘comes out’ almost fully formed. As I sang I began to feel the strength of my independence shining through my grief at leaving the past behind.” |
|
