A SHORT PHONE INTERVIEW WITH SINGER GABRIELLE APLIN, FOR VOXX MAGAZINE

She became a famous figure almost overnight with her cover of ‘The Power Of Love’ for John Lewis and has only gone from strength to strength since then. We had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat with the truly lovely Gabrielle Aplin in leading up to the release of her second album, Light Up The Dark.

Hey, how you doing?

A: I’m great thank you, how are you?

Not too bad thank you. So, we’ll get right into it. Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?

A: Well, my name is Gabrielle Aplin and I am a singer-songwriter that likes to make music.

Cool, so we saw you playing Birmingham back in 2009, before you got signed. How have things changed since then and what have you learned?

A: Well for me when I got signed it was more kind of, well it was just a good thing for me to do. It wasn’t like I drastically changed the way I do things. I just have a few extra people working with me and I have those extra resources to use, you know? It’s just about having that at my disposal really, but nothing’s really changed. I’ve certainly developed and I’ve just made my second album, but up until making that album it was first time I’d done all of those things. Now I can say ‘I love this part, I’ll do it again’ or ‘I don’t like this part’ and I’ve just kind of started to work out my way of doing things really.

You’ve toured the world, visiting various countries. How was that experience?

A: That was amazing, especially the culture shock countries, you know? I’ve been to Japan a lot and that was just incredible. I never thought I’d get to go there. Even just kind of touring and playing to different crowds makes me more confident in front of a crowd and makes me a better musician, and that all kind of went into the second album. It was just a great experience all round.

So what was the first kind of music you were aware of?

A: Mostly the stuff that my parents were playing. My dad is a big Bruce Springsteen fan so I listened to a lot of him, and my mum is a big fan of The Carpenters, Joan Myers and Joni Mitchell, so yeah, I listen to a lot of that. It was mostly bands and singer-songwriters from the 60’s and 70’s really.

So is this the kind of music that influences your work, or has that come from elsewhere?

A: Absolutely, they’re kind of like my sole influencers. I love Joni and Nick Drake. When I’m making a project of work, like an album, there’s always my references and inspirations in there. This current album I was really inspired by The Rolling Stones and just big live bands, Edward Sharpe, just live storytelling I guess. I’m mostly inspired by experimenting though and I’ve felt really free, like I don’t have any agendas and I didn’t have a label chasing me going ‘We need this song for this and that’. They just left me to it for a year so everything was very free and I was just doing what I wanted to do.

Is there any kind of particular message you hope to portray through your music?

A: Well, it’s different with every song. I’m kind of just writing about different things. Some of the songs are about me, some of the songs are about things that have happened to my friends, some things I don’t even know that well. It could be about a place I’ve been to, or a moment that I want to put into a song to create an atmosphere. The whole album doesn’t have any one particular message. Each song is different.

Ok, so slightly off topic now, we’ve heard you’re into animals. Do you have any interesting pets of your own?

A: Well, we have lots of cats, a ferret and a Boston Terrier. I just like rescuing animals.

A ferret?

A: I didn’t really plan to have one, but when I was younger I just knew. My friend had one and she was basically going to take it to a rescue centre because she couldn’t have him anymore and I just felt sorry for him so I ended up rescuing him myself. I just decided on the day that I was going to have this ferret and that was it.

That’s nice. And if you weren’t doing music right now, what do you think you’d be doing as a career instead?

A: I think something creative. I really love all aspects of art. I love paint and I love to draw and design, and it’s the kind of thing I just do for fun anyway. So something in that kind of area.

Ok, so finally, do you have any advice for aspiring singers out there wanting to be where you are?

A: I think for me I guess I… I think the industry has definitely changed from how it was maybe 10/20 years ago where the first thing you needed to do was get signed. The internet has massively changed that and it’s amazing and you should really embrace that. We should just embrace all the resources we have at our disposal for free, you know? I was able to put my music on YouTube and iTunes all by myself. I didn’t even need a label to do that. I was able to record in my bedroom with just one microphone. You can’t expect to go viral with one YouTube video but you should just make the most of every resource and work all these elements together, and of course also just playing all the local gigs you can get, hanging out with other musicians and sharing ideas with them. Just get yourself inspired.

Well thank you very much and it was lovely meeting you… over the phone.