This past Friday, R&B/pop singer-songwriter, Alicia Creti released her first standalone single, “Strange”. Born in Montreal, Canada, Creti has recently been signed to Atlantic Records and since then has been on a roll of releasing powerful music.The talented 24-year-old has gained mass media attention within the last few years and has sustained an online presence through the covers of artists such as Kehlani, SZA and more. Alicia’s music is refreshing and vulnerable yet compelling with an edge.
Within the last year, Alicia has released songs such as “Congratulations,” which grew a media following, as well as “You Ain’t Sh*t,” before recently joining forces with Atlantic Records.
The Knockturnal had the chance to sit down with Alicia to talk about her creative processes, her vulnerability in music, and her artistic journey.
Alicia’s songwriting has seemed to appear as a therapeutic approach to healing past wounds and moving on into a growth period. “I’m in a growth period, and even though it’s hard, I’m recognizing my value and putting myself first… I think that this song is just a true representation of who I am through and through.” The songwriter noted.
Explaining how music has always served as a form of therapy for her, it allows Alicia to channel negative, positive, or intense emotions into something beautiful. It becomes her way of healing, free from unnecessary drama.
Alicia Creti – “Strange” Cover Art: Atlantic Records
Alicia mentioned various artists who influenced her passion for music in the first place. Beloved names in music, such as Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Christina Aguilera have inspired the talented songwriter. She gave a special shoutout as a massive influence to the late Christina Grimmie, a singer-songwriter who also similarly began her career in the music industry through online platforms such as YouTube. In terms of production, Alicia described her musical influences from beloved artists such as Drake and The Weeknd, with hints of Amy Winehouse and Toronto-born singer, Jonathan Sullivan.
A few artists Alicia has also dreamed of collaborating with include Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar, and more. Motivated by singers with impressive ranges, she was ambitious to push her vocal abilities and develop a unique style.
The artist carries over 900 thousand followers between the two social media platforms, TikTok and Instagram. When responding to the reaction of social media followers and others who connect with Creti’s music, it is evident that she has a deep-rooted desire to positively impact others, which drives her to share her music in the first place. “I’ve just always grown up wanting to save the world and help people; I’m very empathetic, and to be able to connect with people with music, which is something that I’m so passionate about, has been absolutely insane, and I’m very grateful.”
Before officially becoming a full-time musician, Alicia studied finance at university right before the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world when she downloaded TikTok. TikTok became a world where she began to post loads of covers before sharing her original and finalized music.
Growing up with social media such as YouTube, Creti was inspired by various covers and singers online. This eventually motivated her to write music and learn the piano. It became her therapy in life. Alicia describes herself as very sensitive, and how it took her a long time to build a tough shell in life. “It (writing music) was just infectious for me. I couldn’t stop, and it really became my therapy for everything, whenever I was going through anything.”
Alicia harbors aspirations of one day commanding sold-out arenas and winning a Grammy. Without a doubt, she is paving her way to a prosperous and successful future.
See our full interview with Alicia here:
The Knockturnal: How do you go about choosing a first single that you feel truly represents you as an artist?
Alicia Creti: This song I feel truly represents a cycle/ pattern that I have been able to analyze in my relationships, whether it’s friendships or romantic, I feel like I am always all in. I have a big heart, I love hard, and I’m a people pleaser so I can attract maybe the wrong people, and kind of get into this cycle of heartbreak, and ultimately neglecting myself in the process. Come this point in my life I feel like I’m in a growth period. I just moved to LA from Montreal, and it’s been it’s been hard if I’m going to be honest, but I do recognize that I’m in a growth period. Even though it’s hard, I’m recognizing my value and putting myself first. It’s just kind of odd how I felt this way when I was at my lowest point, and I’ve also felt this way when I know that I’m prioritizing myself and doing what I need to do to show myself that love that I was looking for in other people. I think that this song is a true representation of who I am through and through from before essentially writing the E.P. ,and even now once it’s done at this point in my life where I feel like I’m starting to really make good decisions for myself and put myself first.
The Knockturnal: What was the creative process like when you were crafting, writing the song and your music in general?
AC: I wrote this song with my little sister out here in LA. We met up when I was sleeping on my Andrew’s couch around a year and a half ago. I had just come here to essentially start working on the songs that became (apart of) the E.P., and it was really hard. I had no friends out here and neither did she, so both our managers kind of set us up and we’ve been friends ever since and it’s just really special to me that the songs coming out with her for that reason. I guess the creative process for me is really to just be the most vulnerable that I can be. With my first release, “Congratulations”, considered rewriting it when I had first originally written it, probably about five years ago, like right after that relationship because I felt bad. I actually had one of my good friends telling me “No, why would you do that? Why are you sacrificing your truth for the art to spare someone’s feelings who also essentially did this to you?” I think that it’s more so about being so vulnerable to create something beautiful. Music has just always been a form of therapy to me, and my way of taking a negative emotion or a positive emotion or just a great emotion in general and turning that into something beautiful. It’s my way of healing essentially.
The Knockturnal: You’ve grown an audience on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube, how has it been connecting with your through your music with audiences and hearing people’s stories and reactions to your music on these platforms?
AC: It has been the most life changing, and I don’t even mean in terms of where I’ve come like maybe physically and in terms of my own life, but I mean in terms of just being able to connect with people that come from a completely different background, different place, and different story altogether. All of us coming together and connecting for the same reason is what makes us human and what makes us alive. That’s truly what it’s all about for me. I’ve always shared my music… the little bit of courage that I’ve had to share. Music has always been rooted in my life, and if I could help one person, that would make me happy for the rest of my life. I’ve just I’ve always grown up wanting to save the world and help people. I’m very empathetic and to be able to connect with people with music which is something that I’m so passionate about has it’s been absolutely insane and I’m just very very grateful
The Knockturnal: Are there any musicians or artists that you’ve drawn musical inspiration, whether that’s lyrically or production wise when creating music?
AC: Yes! So I have a few different inspirations for different things but growing up I listen to Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Christina Aguilera, Christina Grimmie; a YouTuber, Christina Grimmie was a huge inspiration of mine. She started on the piano doing covers on YouTube. I just remember being young and in my YouTube days kind of doing the deep dive there and feeling so inspired by how real she was.
As for everybody else, I I grew up kind of listening to these singers with huge ranges that I didn’t have, and it really encouraged me to push my range and to practice my runs. I essentially kind of fell into my own type of style quickly because I was watching these YouTube covers. I always said
“Hey like I want to do that! I want to I want to make some of my own.” My mom quickly put me into piano lessons and the rest is history. I would say that in terms of the singing side and for production, I often draw inspiration things from The Weeknd, some old Drake… I can kind of hear in some songs, The Weeknd meets Amy Winehouse, in that darker bluesy-er type of sound, and also someone who comes from Toronto, Jonathan Sullivan as well.
The Knockturnal: Can you tell us more about your early experiences when you were younger with music and how they’ve shaped your artistic journey?
AC: I grew up kind of watching so many different YouTube covers and singers online that really inspired me to learn the piano. I wanted to make my own music. I had started writing music before I learned the piano, probably at around like 7. I wasn’t even spelling the lyrics right! Who even knows what I was writing about? It was like sassy lyrics and I was just kind of like “Mom! Look what I wrote! In piano lessons, I was a little bit of a delinquent piano student because I quickly discovered my ear and homed in on that, because it kind of felt like a cheat code; to get to making the instrumentals that I heard in my head. I wasn’t really reading the sheet music and I was just kind of quickly tried to find the chords. That’s how I started writing music, and when I first started doing that it, it was just infectious for me. I just couldn’t stop, and it really became my therapy for everything, whenever I was going through anything. I’m very sensitive. It took a long time to build a tough shell, but when I was a kid, I was very very sensitive. I also was very self-aware, so I recognized that I was sensitive. Sometimes there’s things that maybe you don’t bring up that had hurt me, and I wrote songs about that, and that was my way of letting it out in that beautiful way without causing any harm, or having to worry about the aftermath, while speaking up for myself, which I learned to do. Essentially, that was my process and I always performed in schools with a piano, my voice, and some original material. That’s always been my gag pretty much all throughout my life, until I got to a point where there wasn’t any more talent shows and I was studying in university. I was studying finance, completely irrelevant and a friend and I were studying in the library. We literally had a finance exam the next day and we took a break and we were scrolling on TikTok, (this was) when TikTok was like a brand new app. this is right before the pandemic shutdown, and I posted and went viral. I started posting more covers than originals to get my original material kind of gathered, and really make sure that it’s what I wanted, that it was my best work forward. I was posting mainly covers at the time, but I always I always essentially wrote on the piano.
The Knockturnal: Who some of your dream collaborators that you have or do you have any dream collaborations or bucket list experiences that you would like to achieve as an artist?
AC: I have always dreamed of being on the big stage and selling out arenas. Dream collaborators… I would say Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Adele, Lauryn Hill would be a dream. Stevie Wonders as well is a huge inspiration of mine. Probably taking home a Grammy has also been a huge dream of mine. I feel like growing up these are all of the images that I vividly saw when I was trying to convince myself to go into sciences to study for this chemistry test. I was mentally always there. Those are those are some dreams of mine for sure.
The Knockturnal: What can listeners and fans expect in the near future for your music?
AC: I have an EP coming out called Self/Less. I can’t reveal when, but it will be coming more towards the Fall. This has been in about a year and a half in the making. I have put truly my whole soul into this project. It has been such a personal project, and the greatest form of therapy. It’s essentially about me putting myself first for the first time. I have always been a chronic people pleaser that just put everybody, not even above myself, I never even made the cut.
The E.P. title is Self/Less, with that play on words, with me just always feeling ultimately selfish for doing something for myself, which is why I always went into various programs that were unrelated to music. My brother’s autistic, so I always had that in the back of my mind thinking “Is he going to be OK?” and you know, putting him first, not to be maybe a mother and more than his sister sometimes. That’s a huge part of my life and going back and forth to LA and then making the move about six months ago was so difficult for me to leave him and my family, other relationships and all these sacrifices that I made to do this. I found myself locking a sense of self, and not who I was just trying to please everybody else. I was in a relationship at the time that I started writing this, and it’s the first time that I left the relationship that just wasn’t helping either of us at the end of the day. Even in terms of my family, making the move here, I’m very close to my family and they’re everything to me. I think of them when I think of the outro of ‘Strange’. This is something that I had to was miserable and so yeah that’s kind of what inspired the E.P. It’s truly it’s a project of self-love and I feel like “Strange” is really the prelude to that story, and it introduces the E.P. perfectly.
Check out Alicia’s social media platforms, as well as her newly debuted single, “Strange” and music video here:
