LOCK Magazine caught up with London-based singer-songwriter Amy Steele to find out more about her influences, be sure to check out Amy’s curated playlist ‘Human Nature’ at the end of the interview to delve deeper into which artists and sounds inspire her music.
What are you up to right now with your music?
Hi – Thanks for having me! I’m currently working on a new project – and I’m going to be releasing a new single from it shortly.
What part of your creative process is your favourite?
I love the studio phase. When the songs are just coming together at the beginning, and you make the hook or the first two lines and first realise you have something.
What is your biggest motivation in music and why?
I’m quite a perfectionist, so my motivation is always to feel I’ve captured the essence perfectly of what I was trying to do. So it’s a lot of drafting and re-doing until you feel you’ve got it right. I think getting it right and having the music be exactly as I imagined it should be, is my motivation.
What genre do you think you might ever try to experiment with and why?
I think my music doesn’t fit squarely into a genre. It’s under the umbrella of pop but has soul influences, electronic influences, alternative influences and my new music is still under that but also has afrobeat percussion. So I feel I am quite free with the
experimentation already, I’ve done a lot of dubstep, DnB and house remixes so I definitely have been bending the boundaries of different genres. I just do what comes naturally, rather than trying to fit into a mould and that way I feel when I create I can
stay authentic.
What is your vision for your career?
I have a vision to have my music connect with as many people as possible, and to make them feel something. That would be amazing.
Tell us more about curating Human Nature. What drew you to those sounds?
I think music is about moving people, that’s what it does- its connects and it makes you feel. Given the year we’ve had, I feel like social consciousness is at the forefront of people’s minds. “Human nature” is a playlist I curated about those things, about being
human and the ideas of justice and the issues we grapple with as a society and as human beings, and how to conceptualise those things with kindness in music.
Seems you are a core rap fan. Tell us about your relationship with rap music
I’ve always loved rap music, it’s a part of our identity.
You also seem to tap into that Afrobeats energy as well. Tell us about that too.
Yes I’m Nigerian, so I love the dominance Afrobeats has had internationally in the past few years, it’s taken centre stage and that is amazing to see.
Who among them do you imagine a collaboration with the most and why?
Watch this space! I’ve got some really exciting collaborations on my new project, I can’t wait to announce.