consciousness.
She says it was ‘the creativity and energy’ of jazz that
really meant something to her and inspired her to write,
along with other notable singers like Dinah Washington and
Sarah Vaughn. According to her
jazz spoke to me… There is nothing else for me, there is no other music
that has everything jazz [has]’.
It’s no surprise
then that Amy’s process of writing is natural rather
than forced. Making her sit down and write a song would make
her ‘hate myself’ and ‘when you put expectations
on yourself to write something out of nowhere with expectation
brings disappointment,; Music is definitely a creative process
for her and life experiences shape most of the songs although
she ‘usually [has] a riff before I have lyrics’.
However, with Amy working more and living less’ subject
matter is harder to come by and writing about the industry
isn’t an option. Concerning ‘Frank’ (her
debut album she makes no bones about the fact that the album
is mainly about one guy (her ex).
It’s clear that she loves what she does. Success isn’t about money
or fame, it’s about the pleasure of writing the songs, of creating something
special. ‘I think I’m successful when I write a song, it’s
ike the best thing in the world for me.’ And she means it, which is so
refreshing, I can’t even begin to think who else in the spotlight has that
attitude. What caught my attention though first of all was the ease with which
she sang and played guitar – she’s so good but doesn’t let
it go to her head.
In fact she remains firmly in awe of her jazz predecessors and tells us a story
of how she almost met Tony Bennett through her producer. He just casually mentions
that he happened to know Bennett’s song and ‘my eyes literally filled
up’ at the chance of meeting a hero of hers. Amy’s sense of fun come
through when she mentions Wayne Newton. She describes him as having a whole ‘kitsch,
cult thing’ going on as well as being the ‘king of Vegas cheese’ and
that she ‘would love to work with him’. But, at the same time, she
acknowledges more recent artists and producers such as Hi Tech and Matrix not
to mention a long-standing love of Michael Jackson.
Amy is very adamant that the inclusion of hip hop beats and styles was all me
and for once it’s believable. The album may be jazz but it’s not
stuck in the past and it has its own identity rather than being in homage to
past greats or hip. And when you think about, Amy is a rare example of an artist
who’s been played on both 1 Extra (BBC Urban radio station) and Jeremy
Vine’s debate show on Radio 2. The Brit Award judges definitely think she
fits the Urban bill too having nominated her for best British Urban Act (as well
as best British Female Solo Act). With her career having taken off, Amy feels
she’s living in a dream at times particularly when the industry doesn’t
seem to be ‘part of the real world’ and when she gets nominated for
awards ‘so soon’ in her career.
For the time being, however, her star still shines bright and I hope it stays
that way for a while.
Natasha Perry
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