Music > Interviews

Interview with Emeli Sandé

29/03/12

“I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.” These are the words of Mexican art revolutionist, Frida Kahlo, whose portrait is emblazoned on one of her 21st century disciples. Exchange the brush for the ivory keys of an upright piano, and they are words that could come from Emeli Sandé, whose pen and voice are taking a majority control of the charts, which is music to our ears…

You’re coming to Norwich next month, and we’re very excited about that…Oh brilliant, I can’t wait!

So you’ve just got off the plane…Yep, just got off the plane to Glasgow. We’re performing at the Scottish Variety Awards tonight. 

Do you know, it’s quite sunny in Norwich today - has the sun managed to crack a few rays in Glasgow?Yeah it has actually, which is really bizarre. Usually I prepare myself for the rain and the grey clouds, but it’s actually quite sunny! There are a few clouds, so it might rain later at some point. 

That’s astonishing, sun in Glasgow! Now Emeli, I’m genuinely a big, big fan of your music and I drive the Outline team up the wall, because I haven’t got ‘Heaven’ out of my system yet…Oh, I’m proud, haha! 

I play it at least once a day, but the thing that drives them up the wall is that when you sing, ‘Then I’m gooooone…’, I sing ‘Men of Goooood!’ Do you ever have those songs where you blindly sing the wrong lyrics and can’t get them out of your head?Yeah, sometimes I’ve done that. There are a few songs where I think, ‘Oh, well maybe my interpretation is best!’ I think it’s a good thing that you’re expanding the lyric!

It’s not that I think my words are any improvement; it’s just my own dumb mishearing…I like it, it’s a good one, haha. 

I think I love the song because I’m an 80s/90s child and a soul baby at heart; ‘Heaven’ has that kind of feverish dance rhythm and powerful vocal that a lot of my old favourites had. I was thinking, that era might have been when your own music consciousness started to get attuned…Yeah, maybe, I mean you never know when you’re a kid because you’re listening to so many things and you’re picking up things on the radio when you’re young, so yeah, I think I’ve had a lot of different influences. Maybe my Mum and Dad were playing that kind of thing when I was young, but I think I missed that scene the first time it came out because I must’ve been about 5 or 6 at the beginning of the 90s, so I really kind of got into it more when I was working at Virgin Megastore in Aberdeen, when I was like 16 or 17 and that’s when I really started looking into different genres, and looking in to early 90s music then. I missed it the first time round, but I think I discovered it for myself when I was a bit older.

Michael Kiwanaka is someone who I’m really enjoying the music of at the moment, and I know he’s supported you on dates – there seems to be a great affection for music which has a sympathy towards soul music at the moment, do you think?Yeah, absolutely; I think it’s been coming back for ages now, over the past decade. People love soul music, and the stories and the simplicity of it all. Definitely in Britain it seems like there’s been a major comeback.

That’s awesome for me, because soul music runs right through me, and around 10 years ago when guitar bands were big, in the age of The Strokes coming out, it was almost a guilty pleasure to like soul music…Oh really?! I love it, I mean, I grew up listening to lots of soul and I just love it. I don’t think there’s any type of music that compares to it really. 

I want to talk about a couple of songs off the album, if that’s OK Emeli…Yes, of course.

You wrote the song ‘Breaking the Law’ about your sister, I heard you say. Now that you’re on tour and work takes up a large portion of your time, what are the things you enjoy doing with your sister when you meet back up again?Hmmm, well we like to have a good catch up, so we like to have a good talk over dinner, or something, but I love showing her my songs when they’re first done, so usually even when I’ve got a break we end up just doing what we did when I was younger. I sit down at the piano and ask her if it sounds good or not and she lets me know! So yeah, we catch up, we talk, and then we usually end up writing songs!

That’s awesome. And is she a leveler for you? Is she the voice that you can trust?Oh yeah, absolutely! I can tell just from her face whether something’s good or not! Even if she says it’s good, if I see that look on her face I know that I should just leave it alone!

I was thinking about the song ‘River’ as well – we know you have a lot of experience writing with other people, but ‘River’ you wrote on your own and it’s got this melancholic melody. Do you find the songs you write on your own differ from your collaborations?No, not really, I think it always just depends on what mood I’m in. Maybe if I am by myself, I am in a mood that’s more of solitude, but I have written happy songs myself as well, so it really does just depend on the mood, I guess.

You came to most people’s attention with the ‘Diamond Rings’ single – you wrote it, but it was Chipmunk’s single. Did you being a featured vocalist allow you to be introduced to the industry more tentatively?Yeah, definitely, it was great; it was kinda like an introduction without the pressure of having to be 100% perfect straight from the get go. It was a great learning curve for me because I learnt a lot about the industry - my first video was with Wiley, but the pressure’s not completely on you, because you’re just featuring, so I learnt a lot and I’m really glad I had that experience before I came out with my own stuff. 

I’m really, really interested in your Frida Kahlo tattoo – she’s someone I really admire, and she once said, ‘I paint because I need to.’ Is this the way that you feel about music, do you think?Oh yeah, absolutely, that’s what I just loved about her, that you can feel her pain and her need to create and I definitely felt that. Music was just such a big thing for me from when I was so young and it was the first thing that I could really express myself with, and be as loud as I wanted to with. I definitely relate to that. I need to tweet that; I think it’s a great quote!

You studied medicine, but I was wondering, if you’d have studied your first love of music, it might have taken away some of the magic of the art if you’d had to dissect it as you do when you’re studying something…Yeah, that’s a really good question because I’ve always thought that. I’ve always kept music and school very separate because I knew that music was something very natural to me and I didn’t want it to become a science, or for it to become – like you said – dissected. I had a lot of friends who studied music and by the end if it, they’d lost that magic and the spark for it, so I definitely wanted to protect that. Because it came so naturally to me and I’ve always been able to educate myself with it, I just wanted to save school for something that I really couldn’t learn by myself, so that’s why I wanted to learn medicine, because I think it would have been impossible to do that alone, you know! 

There’s an interesting new show talent show starting called The Voice. It seems to encourage the idea of songwriting and musicianship more than the other shows – do you think an artist has a greater chance of longevity if they have those qualities?Oh yeah, absolutely; if you have the ability to write, that gives you so much more power and also you get to decide how long you stay in the industry because if you can write a song that people want to hear, and you’re not reliant on other people, then you really have control over how long you can stay in the industry, I feel. So yeah, I definitely think you can have longevity that way, and you’re not reliant on your label to find music for you, or promote you in the right way. I think it’s essential really.

You won the BRIT award for Critic’s Choice – is the affirmation from the industry something that you need, or can do without?Erm, I really appreciated it, you know, it’s great to get that kind of acknowledgement and it’s encouraging to see that the industry really believes in what you’re doing and appreciates your music, but people change their minds all the time, so you can’t get too caught up in it, or take it too seriously. I’m so happy I have a BRIT, you know, I’m over the moon, but you have to keep making music and keep your focus on being creative more than anything. It would drive you crazy, I think, if you started to get too concerned with awards and that type of thing.

I’ve just come back from a holiday in America, and I was really pleased to hear ‘Next to Me’ in one of the shops out there – are you excited about the legs your music seems to have internationally?Yeah, I’m very excited! I’m very excited to get as far as I can; we did a small introduction tour in America about a month ago and it went really, really well. It’s great when you see that your music can touch people in countries that you’ve never even been to. It’s a great feeling that you’re writing music that isn’t limited to one place, or one type of person.

Yeah… we don’t want to lose you though like Estelle! She buggers off too often! Come back Estelle…Haha, yeah! 

I saw on Twitter that you’d retweeted something about Little Dragon, and it seems to me that you have a fantastic taste in music – do you still enjoy discovering music, and are they a band you enjoy?Oh yeah, I love Little Dragon. When I did Jools Holland, they were on the same show as me and I just like the whole presence she has when she sings, and the way she performs just blows me away. The whole album is beautiful, so I’m a big fan of theirs.

‘Twice’ for me is like ‘Heaven’ – it’s a song I just can’t get out of my system…Oh, it’s just beautiful. Yeah, I think I might make up some of those lyrics, haha!

You’ve enjoyed music your whole life, then you get to write music with someone like Alicia Keys – are you amazed that you’re making some of those kind of dreams come true?Yeah, I try and think of how if I went back and told 14-year old me what’s going on now, I don’t think she’d quite believe it. It’s really incredible, and very surreal when people that you’ve looked up to for so long appreciate you as an artist, and respect you as well, it’s an incredible feeling.

And what came out of those writing sessions?We wrote some great songs; we wrote some songs for her new album, so I’m really looking forward to people hearing them all.

Was it quite exposing for you, passing over your ideas to ALICIA. KEYS?!?!Haha, it was just really natural; it’s really rare for me to find someone who I enjoy writing lyrics with, but with her we were just at the piano and it all flowed really naturally. Nothing was jarred, nothing was forced; the ideas came out of conversations we were having and it was all just very fluid and natural and I loved it really.

As I said, you’re coming to Norwich early next month and we’re very excited about it – can we ask you a little about what the live show’s going to be like? Do you get your piano out?Yeah, the piano comes out! I really wanted the live show to reflect the record, so we kinda mixed it up a bit; it’s quite a dynamic show, full of energy, but then we have the real quiet moments where it’s a bit more intimate, so yeah, I’m just really looking forward to getting on the road now the album’s out, and coming to Norwich! It’ll be great!

What, as an audience, can we do for you?Well… you can get involved, don’t be shy to sing along –

- I’ll be singing the wrong lyrics though, won’t I?!Haha, yeah! Hey, whatever lyrics you want, just sing along!

“Men of God” louder than anyone else!Yeah, ‘my next song, Men of God’, haha!

Emma Garwood

Emeli Sandé brings her sold out show to the UEA on April 4th. Call the UEA Box Office on 01603 50 80 50 for possible returns.