Photo:
Twenty year old Arlissa is a relative newcomer to the music scene, and yet she's already collaborated with Nas, filmed a video in the creepy swamps of Louisiana and bumped into Rita Ora in McDonald's (as you do). Mixing American tribal sounds with the lyrics penned in dreary Crystal Palace, Arlissa is already making waves for herself in the world of music.
We caught up with Arlissa to chat to her about writing her own music, not being able to stay away from the subject of love and the difference between audiences when playing outside of London...
Hello Arlissa. What can we expect to hear on your debut album?
It's just my life for the past three or four years. It goes through a lot of heartache, but then it goes through a new relationship. It's really personal. It deals with everything I was dealing with and it's like giving people my diary to read out in the open! As much as I try not to do that - because I don't really like writing about love and relationships - I couldn't stay away from it and it just happened. And I got a whole album from it!
Why don't you like writing about love and relationships?
One of my influences is Regina Spektor and I love her lyrics and how she wrote little stories. All of her songs are story driven and it's so quirky and cool, and I wanted to do something similar. I felt like writing about relationships is the ultimate cliche, but then I began to realise it's just so universal - everyone goes through it and everyone understands. I was going through this horrible break-up at the time and I couldn't really get past it, and it was therapeutic to write about. So as much as I was trying to write little stories, I just ended up writing about my own life.
Arlissa is one of the UK artists emerging in 2013 - and tipped for big things
You've been compared to Florence Welch quite a lot. How do you feel about that?
I actually really love Florence and the Machine, and I've been to loads of their gigs. So for people to compare me to her, that's completely okay by me - I love her voice so I take it as a compliment. At the same time, our voices are different but people can compare me to whoever they want and it's their opinion, so I'm just going with it.
You mentioned Regina Spektor and Florence Welch - which other female artists do you enjoy?
Ooh, I'm loving Haim at the moment - like, absolutely loving them. I've seen them so many times now when they're in London. I just think they're such a powerful thing to happen to the music industry - these three sisters, all so talented, playing instruments, playing guitar beautifully and singing beautifully and I think it's completely given another take on music. I'm a huge fan of them.
So who would you say your main influences are?
I've got loads! For the album it was Vampire Weekend, Crystal Fighters, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel - they're my huge influences. They help me create my sound and I wanted it to be more organic and different. I wanted to use real instruments, to. It wasn't so much as trying to find a sound that fit the music, it was about finding a sound that fit me, and they definitely helped me.
How was collaborating with Nas?
He was so nice. I had a good team around me and we were all just having a jam, filming the music video and singing - so when he walked in, we were just like, oh hey! He had his friends with him and we were all just chatting in the studio, and then he went and did his rap. It was really cool. It was only on the plane home that I was like, 'Holy s**t, I just did a track with Nas, that's so weird'. But at the time, it was totally fine.
You're on the same management team as Rita Ora, Calvin Harris and Hurts. Are you friends with any of them?
Hurts came to one of my gigs. I met Rita Ora once in McDonald's and I got a picture with her! This was way before she was famous and I saw her in a Drake video and fell in love with her so when I saw her in McDonald's I was like, 'Oh my God, Rita Ora, I have to have a photo with you!' So I've got my old snap in McDonald's but apart from that, no.
So if you could collaborate with one of them next, who would you choose?
Calvin Harris would be pretty epic! All of his songs and collaborations have been so insane and amazing, and Hurts would be really interesting as well. I think me and Rita Ora might be a bit of a weird one because we're both so different, and having two female voices on the same track is something that I've always found quite weird. I like doing the male-female thing.
As a Londoner, who's played many gigs in the capital, are you looking forward to getting out to perform in other parts of the UK?
Definitely! I've played in Bristol and Birmingham before and the crowd were so different and excited. Playing in London is always quite nervewracking because everyone's so cool and they don't want to try too hard to give you a good clap or something.
Last night it was really interesting, because in the beginning there were only like five people there, but halfway through my first song everyone at the bar came and saw me. It was a really enthusiastic crowd, but at the beginning it wasn't like that so much. But when I went to Birmingham and Bristol they were so happy and excited, and so many people, and I was like, 'oh, this is really nice!' But I think it's starting to even out a bit.
You filmed the 'Sticks & Stones' video in the swamps of Louisiana. Are places like this as steeped in witchcraft and voodoo as they seem in film and TV depictions?
Before I shot my video there I'd been before and I didn't like it, I found it terrifying. But my family are actually from north Louisiana and it's a really poor place - my great grandad had built the house with his own two hands and everything's made out of wood and poorly done. It was interesting coming from the big buildings in London to absolutely nothing.
New Orleans is so freaky as f**k though, we went to the swamp bit and that was stunningly beautiful. The city is a little bit scary, it looks like a broken down Paris. It's really cool - the buildings are incredible but they are very broken down and there were like voodoo dolls in every shop and scary things, so it was a bit freaky!
Thanks, Arlissa! 'Stick & Stones' is out now. Watch the video below.
