This rising star has been climbing the charts with her latest singles “Alarm” and “Do It Right” and she does not plan on stopping anytime soon.
We got the chance to chat with the British singer Anne-Marie as she talked about how she got started in music, touring with English band Rudimental and what fans can be expecting to see soon.
I see that you kind of started exploring music when you were younger with being in musicals. Can you explain how you got into that and did that inspired you to pursue in music.
Anne-Marie: I went to a dance school when I was about two. I think my parents, as soon as I could run; they put me in a dance school. My older sister did dancing as well and music and stuff so I kind of followed in her footsteps. I was just doing it for fun. I joined their agency and I had an audition for a musical theater show, and I got in. I didn’t even really know that I could sing, so it was a bit of a shock to everyone and my mom and dad. From that moment I thought, “This is what I want to do” although that was for musical theater. I had to get a bit older and learn about all different types of music to actually realize what route I wanted to go down. It’s always been there it was just deciding and figuring out what route and what kind of music I wanted to do and I chose this.
Can you speak about your style of music and the genres that influence you?
Anne-Marie: Whenever someone asks me what genre I do it’s really hard to explain. Since I’ve grown up I’ve always taken influence from every style of music. I love listening to every single style there is not one I don’t like. I try to put everything into it like my mom and dad used to play Prince and Michael Jackson around the house when I was younger. When I grew up a little bit I listened to like Christina Aguilera and females like Alicia Keys and Alanis Morissette. I try and fit everything in. I love soulful melodies, I love good drumbeat and lyrics are very important to me. I tell my stories through my songs, so every song is a true story.
Can you speak about how you linked up with Rudimental and got to tour with them?
Anne-Marie: I met Rudimental when I had a writing session with them; we wrote a song together. We stayed friends and kept seeing each other around; they are really lovely people so it wasn’t hard to stay friends with them. About a year after I met them I think one of their girl singers for their live show had left and they were looking for another live singer, and they just thought of me and called me and I said yeah. I thought it was a great opportunity, their live show was amazing and I loved their music. I saw it as a great thing to do, so I joined them.
What has it been like to collab with them?
Anne-Marie: It was amazing. I love their music and I love what they put into their music; they are so passionate about it. Whenever I collaborated with them and worked with them it’s always been very fun and meaningful, which I think is very important for music. Especially, in my own music I try too make it a meaningful story or something. It was always fun and they are really lovely people, so it never felt like work.
So you have worked with some big names in pop like Wayne Hector, Two Inch Punch, Steve Mac and more. Can you explain how it was working with them?
Anne-Marie: The one word I can explain working with those people is just easy. When you can go in a room and it flows out really easily its just-I don’t know how to explain it- it’s just so fun. It doesn’t feel like a struggle to write a song. I basically go into a session and tell them a story about something that happened that week, or that month, or that year about my life and we end up writing a story. They are so creative and really really amazing. It’s just easy.
Last year you released an EP, Karate, each of the songs are really different. Can you speak about why you decided to make each song pretty much its own thing?
Anne-Marie: You know what; when I write a song I write it first of all with just a piano or guitar something really simple like that. When it comes to putting music around it I always try to put what is needed for that specific song. That’s why all the songs kind of sound like their own little entity. I try not to push a genre on to anything that I do. Right now it’s more pop and I’ve kind of gotten into the habit of having a style, which I like. I try to blend everything in, but on that EP I kind of just wanted to have it different. That’s part of my personality like I really love left (field) pop and that R&B and I thought for my first EP I would get that part of my personality out of the way before I get on to the big album.
I saw your music video for “Alarm” and it’s really cool. Can you tell me the inspiration and thought process behind the video?
Anne-Marie: We had loads of ideas for it coming from different people most of the ideas were quite literal. It would be like explaining the story in the video … then the song would ring, and it was quite modern as well. I like music videos to be kind of timeless. That video you can watch it in I don’t know how many years and it would still be amazing. I didn’t want to involve any like mobile phones or modern technology just to keep it really slick and nice for everyone to watch it on a later date and still find it quite beautiful. The Romeo and Juliet actually came from the director’s brain; she just thought of that and couldn’t get it out of her head, so we just went with that. I really love that video.
Last question what can your fans be expecting from you soon?
Anne-Marie: Hopefully I’m going to be putting out more music just as much music as possible really. I’ve got quite a lot of songs stored under my belt, so I’m just going to be getting out as much as possible. An album, a tour and touring as much as possible yeah-just music and touring and new videos, just everything.