Amel Larrieux – Interview

How has the feedback been on the album?

I’m working really hard and the audience has been really wonderful, passionate and encouraging. I couldn’t ask for anymore.

I was wondering if everyone else has been gushing about the album?

After shows, people are so wonderful. It’s just very personal and intimate transactions with the people after the shows.

How much did you learn about the industry from your prior experiences?

The fact is that I wanted to do my music so much that I was really just daydreaming more than soaking up the information. At least I knew the importance of writing, and working at a publishing company made me continue writing. There were two different producers I tried working with before I did my own thing and they had me singing other people’s material. When I worked at the publishing company, it did give me the sense that I was on the right track when I thought about writing my own stuff and singing the way I wanted to. Otherwise, I’ve made so many mistakes by not paying attention. (laughs) But you’ve got to learn from your life’s experiences.

Is it also important to write your own songs because then you own them instead of someone else?

Totally. It makes a huge difference. Nothing motivates me more than the fact that I like to write. It’s nice to know that it will forever be your own, and it’s also nice to know that you will get those little residuals. (laughs) I mean, when you have a family you have to think monetarily once in a while.

I know that most fans have no idea what happens with publishing and that end of the spectrum.

The way the media presents it, you’d think they wrote it. Especially when a song gets nominated for the song of the year and the writer doesn’t even go up.

How did this solo project happen?

I realized that I needed the chance to do something else musically. The Groove Theory situation was that we just weren’t doing the best album that we could. It wasn’t in sync. We were sort of going in other directions, so I thought that was a good time to make my way out. If there is a Groove Theory album in the theory, then that would be great, but right now I want to do this. We did the album in about eight and a half months.

Was working with your husband, Laru, something that just happened?

Yes. It just happened. We met because he is a producer and songwriter. We were working with him when we were working on the Groove Theory album. We met, fell in love, and got married three months later. We ended up co-writing four songs on the Groove Theory album before it was released. So we’ve been working together for a long time. I mean, we’re the kind of couple that will go in a record store and go shopping for three hours just looking for vinyl and cds. We are just music lovers and we realized that we were going in the same direction. We write and do music together even when it wasn’t for an album. We built a studio in our house so at that point we could work at any time in the night.

So do you two have your hands in other things involving music?

Yeah. We own a label called Pacific East. We are going to have artists out on our label hopefully next year. Laru is a creative soul and he also has a great business mind. I wanted him to manage me because I didn’t trust anybody else, so we started our own management company. It’s really important for us to have unity in writing for people. Like, ‘How about we have Laru do this?’ or ‘We can have Amel do this.’ We really like to work together and we create better music when we do it together.

How were you writing this together?

Wow. It was really every way you can think of. Sometimes he’d come down to the studio and would start some track and the core of it would be great and I’d play a piano line. Or we’d record stuff and then I’d go in and write it. Or else I might go in on the piano and lay down the basic chords and then Laru would add to it. We just work so many different ways.

I was wondering if you and your husband wrote “Even If” together because it is like the perfect love song.

Actually, that is a love song to my oldest daughter. It is something I brought to him, ‘Wow, this is going sound great with the organ’. We have this organ that looks like it was in a church. It just grew out of something I wrote for my daughter.

That is just an example of what I like so much about the album. I mean, it feels so intimate.

Cool. That is great. Thanks.

I really like albums with feeling.

That is just the kind of way I feel about music. I just really, really, really love music. I mean, I feel like it’s done so much for my life. It’s changed the way I think about things and I’ve seen firsthand how it changes children’s lives. Musicians in my band have children and music really brings them together. I just love music and I put every single cell of my body into it when I’m singing.

When did you realize you could sing for a living?

Well, I did a lot of different stuff and I really came from an artistic family and background. I danced for twelve years and I always wrote poems and fiction. I painted in my spare time. It came to a point where I realized that singing and writing made sense. I love to sing, but it seemed like my voice didn’t fit anywhere. I mean, how am I going to fit into the world with someone like Whitney Houston who can just make people cry when she sings? So it was like I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I was writing all the time, and it wasn’t until I started singing my own songs I realized that my voice didn’t sound that bad. Bryce (of Groove Theory) was shopping deals with other singers and writers at the publishing company that I worked at for a year, but he wasn’t getting a deal, and his publisher asked me to write to one of his tracks. So I wrote it and she asked me to demo it. And I did and he asked me to be in the group. So I joined and we got a deal within two months. It really just happened.

Talk about luck.

I know. It was such a blessing. I know there are so many people out there that are trying to get deals.

For some people, it just happens and they get luck on their side.

To tell you the truth, I like to be truthful and I know it’ll make a lot of people upset, but there is a lot of nepotism and favoritism. I mean, people switch labels and they promise deals to people when they get a job at another label. A lot of it is just someone hooking up their friends. I realized early on that it’s never really just about the talent, but if they have selling power. That is why it’s so important to believe in yourself.

You are right. And it proves my point that my favorite albums never sell well, mostly because the artist isn’t someone they can necessarily sell to Mtv.

Same here.

I’ve finally come to the realization that I can’t get everyone to like who I do.

(laughs) That is funny because during interviews I’ll get asked, ‘What are you listening to?’ and I’ll mention three artists and they have no idea who I’m talking about.

I do the same thing.

Maybe that is part of what makes that music have so much integrity, because it doesn’t go overground and doesn’t get corrupted, especially because it doesn’t have that hype that comes with getting large. I’m not saying that everyone who gets large loses their integrity. I mean, Sting still makes great music that he believes in and hasn’t lost his integrity. I think it is worse for those who are younger and they see all these material things and people just fill their heads with so much b-s. It’s hard if you don’t stay grounded.

My favorite song is “Make Me Whole”.

Aww. That is so sweet.

I was wondering if you have a particular song that means a lot or you enjoy most, even though I do know that each song is like your baby and it is tough to pick.

I have to say that I agree with people that say that they are your babies. When you do an album, it feels like your whole life led up to it. All songs are important equally in different ways. Even if it is about my daughter and if die and I have to leave her here, it’s gonna have to be okay, but the fear of leaving a child or loved one is scary and that song holds a lot of emotion when I sing it live. It’s a lot of work to get through it. Sometimes I just wanna cry. I used to cry a lot in rehearsals. That song holds a lot of emotion, but they all bring me joy for a lot of different reasons. We spent a lot of time on each song, so it wasn’t like we were doing album fillers. I can’t believe people even do those.

It happens a lot. That is what I liked so much is that the last song to me is the best song.

It is funny, because the music I listened to growing up I don’t think they ever had album fillers. Even the little songs like (Amel begins to sing “Her Majesty” from The Beatles’ Abbey Road). I still remember that song and it isn’t even a minute long. Every song meant something.

The Beatles are my favorite. It is funny because I was just listening to Abbey Road last night.

My mom stuck to a couple different artists compared to my dad who listened to a lot of stuff. But my mom listened to Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Otis Redding when I was growing up. She probably played Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road the most and they definitely influenced me. I can see how they were influenced by a lot of other different music my parents listened to. They were just great.

I was wondering about the line from “Searchin’ For My Soul”, about not watching the news. Do you still feel that way?

It is totally true. As corny as it may sound, for me I get to the point, I mean, especially all these tragedies with children.

That is exactly what got me thinking about the song. With the six-year-old shooting the girl in his class.

You’ll have to fill me in because I’ve been hibernating in my house.

I guess the little boy lived in a house that trafficked drugs and he found the gun. The worst thing is that the boy didn’t really realize it would kill and was so bad.

Oh my God.

The worst thing is, how is he ever going to recover mentally from this? He may not understand now, but what about the future? And they aren’t punishing him at all. You can’t possibly live a normal life after that.

You’re right. That is so, wow. That’s so sad. People always say, ‘We have to do stuff for the kids,’ but less and less people are doing it. The whole song is really about it. It is rooted in my worries and concerns about young African-Americans but it goes across the board. I grew up around a very multicultural atmosphere and I’ve seen that are some problems that plague one race, other problems that plague another, and then there are the problems that plague them all. It’s really scary for me. I’m afraid for my own kids to be out there. The laws for children’s crimes, date rape, rape, and all these things that happen to kids, are so lenient and scary. (laughs sadly) God, I don’t even want to get into it.

It all comes down to the fact that parents need to be held responsible and that we shouldn’t ask politicians to take care of our kids.

I know. And now since I’ve become a parent, I see how my kids are directly effected by my actions. Even when I don’t feel like being a model parent, I still have to try hard. If I say someone is ugly, then your children will begin thinking this is all right to feel this way. Who is to say someone is ugly? And what a horrible thing to say in front of a kid. The deeper stuff of course is being violent in front of your kids and stuff like that because your kids will take these on.

I was wondering if “Infinite Possibilities” is the same idea?

Yes. The more that I think about it, I realize it is really about people in general. Like it’s uncool to be positive now and it’s always associated with some new age religion. It’s basically about, ‘Hey, I’m going to fall on my ass a few times, but if I keep trying to do it, I’ll get there.’ It’s the trying that makes you a stronger person. There is nothing that isn’t possible. You just have to believe.

+ charlie craine