Ameriie interview: ‘I want to be naked on a horse!’

Best known for her global hits 1 Thing and Take Control, R&B singer Ameriie is back after a five-year break with a new single and an extra letter in her name – because, why not?

Excited to find out what she has in store for us on the new album, I met up with the singer to chat about everything from music to science fiction novels to, well, getting naked on a horse.

So your new single What I Want samples The Sugarhill Gang’s classic hip-hop jam Apache. The sample feels very you, is that why you chose it?
“It is very me! My husband produced it, and he knows what I really love. I’ve been creating tracks for a record of mine called Cymatika, which will come out after my new album, Bili. We’ve been choosing which record the songs will go on, and we can tell because the sound is so different. The sample came about because he knows I love drums and big beats. There are songs that I never get tired of performing, like 1 Thing, songs that are heavy in percussion, but have a very aggressive, soulful element to them. They don’t exist in any one time, or sound of the moment. That’s very me.”

So you have two albums in the works?
“Cymatika I started working on first, and it has a very specific sound. Thematically it’s different too. But then, I had these other songs that didn’t really fit on Cymatika, and that turned into Bili. Cymatika doesn’t really have a sound I can compare with another artist. I’m not just saying that, I know it’s cliché-sounding. It’s dark, heavy and very hard-hitting with a cinematic edge.”

When will we see the albums?
“Bili will hopefully come out towards the end of the year, and I want to release Cymatika as soon as that release is done with – so hopefully early next year. Now I’m on an independent label, even though I’m working with a lot of the same people as before, there’s no longer all the red tape that there used to be. It’s so awesome! It’s like all the good, without the bad.”

You write your own music, and you’re very involved in the entire creative process that comes with making an album. Do you think being so involved helps set you apart from your peers?
“I just like to be in the studio and create. If I didn’t do that, I don’t know why I would even do this! This job can be overwhelming sometimes, you know? It’s not that I have to make it a point to write my own music; it’s just the only way I know how to do it. When people try to write songs for me, I can hear certain elements of me in them – but they are never quite me. I’m very strong-minded. Even signing autographs, some people make stamps or have interns sign stuff, and I’m so against that. No, no, no – If that ‘I’ is messed up because I was tired, then guess what it’s because I wrote that ‘I’.”

It sounds like you’re perhaps a bit of a control freak – would you say that’s the case?
“Yes! I do like to do everything myself. But I’ve learned that there’s some things to let go of, and I’ve stopped micro-managing as much. I’ve learnt to tame it. It can be draining otherwise.”

Are there any duets on Bili?
“So far, we have this really, really cool idea. Someone that would be perfect – actually, there are two people for Billy, and one for Cymatika. I don’t want to jinx it, so I can’t say yet. I don’t want to put them on the spot! Awkward! They’re all females, which you don’t really see period.”

Speaking of female duets, Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX’s Fancy is currently at Number One in the US – the first time a female duet has hit the top spot there since Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine. Do you think female duets aren’t as celebrated as they should be?
“Really? Wow, I think you’re right. You see it a little bit, but it’s very rare. Sometimes you feel like labels just throw juggernauts together to be cool.”

Like throwing people like Britney and Gaga together?
“Exactly, like the biggest and the biggest. When something becomes a product, you lose something. When I collaborate with someone, it’s not about the cheque. It’s about the art.”

[youtube height=”350″ width=”660″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR8PQG8WiF8[/youtube]

You came over here in 2007 and performed at G-A-Y in London – how was that?
“Oh my God, that was amazing! I even remember what I was wearing. It was a lot of fun – I remember there was a lot of energy, it was incredible.”

I hear your songs in a lot when I’m out at gay clubs – do you think there’s a reason why the gay community embraces your music?
“It’s very energetic. I think the gay community tends to like that, definitely. If you go back to Liza, and Cher and Madonna, they’re all very in-your-face women. They have this kind of energy. I feel like the gay community love a strong female personality.”

It must feel nice to have an entire community of people see you as a strong, independent woman?
“Honestly, it’s amazing. I’ve had so much support from the beginning of my career. You can feel that love when performing. I was just at Washington DC Pride. It’s huge, and people come from all over the States for it. There’s so much love there. I feel very supported and I’m so thankful for that.”

I know you performed with Rihanna a few years ago – how do you feel about TLC appearing to criticise her rather revealing outfit at the CFDA awards?
“I really respect TLC, as they were at the forefront of the feminist movement. They were really trying to get the message out – I understand what they’re saying. But when I first saw the outfit, I thought it was amazing, it was art. I was on my Instagram and I saw the outfit and I was like ‘LIKE!’ When I see Rihanna, I don’t see someone who is being pushed to be sexual. I understand people that say women are so sexualised, because we are. The solution isn’t that we need to not be sexual, or be very sexual – there needs to be a balance. Having met her, and seeing how she carries herself, I think she’s very aware of who she is, and that’s very strong. The outfit reminded me of Grace Jones actually, who was very much a pioneer in her day.”

How do you feel returning to the industry in a post-Miley Cyrus pop climate?
“I don’t feel like it’s much different, actually. You’re dealing with an industry that’s dominated mostly by male executives. Some days I want to be covered up, some days I might want to be in a bikini. But if I walk in there and you’re pressuring me into wearing a bikini, then I don’t like that. With Miley, I don’t know. She’s being herself, and she has an amazing voice. I think for her, I know she’s had a lot of controversy in the news, but she seems very confident to me. There are things I look back on and I think ‘I would never say that now’ – but that’s because it’s where I was at the time. I can look at Lorde, who is completely covered up, and some people may say she needs to show a bit of skin. And she could be like, ‘I don’t want to. Maybe I will next year. Maybe I never will.’ You can be whatever you want to be, as long as it’s coming from you. I’m trying to think of someone back in the day that is similar?

I think you could say Avril Lavigne, who came out around the same time as you?
“Exactly, Avril Lavigne! I can be a girl and I can be as girly as I want – but I can wear boy clothes. Even Gwen Stefani, she switched it up between the two. But it’s my choice, my body. I’m very big on that. I cannot stand those ‘real women have curves’ campaigns. There are women who are thin and who stuff their bras. Real women are big, thin, short, tall – the power lies in ourselves.”

This sounds like something that really bothers you.
“I was telling my husband about this, actually. We were talking about women being sexualised, and I love the idea of being covered up on a magazine – like Lorde’s Rolling Stone cover. But I also have this idea where I want to be naked on a horse… and my husband was like, ‘I don’t know about that’. I was like ‘It’s my body!’ – I probably wouldn’t show my nipples though, but that’s me.”

I love that this is an actual conversation you and your husband have had!
“It’s tough for him because I do wear revealing outfits sometimes. But it’s about being who we are, and appreciating someone who’s all covered up and someone who’s all naked. Both are beautiful things.”

I think I have to ask my final question now…
“Are they shutting us down?!”

If you weren’t a popstar what would you be?
“My passion is writing. I’ve written a couple of books, actually. I’ve finished book one of a trilogy, I’ve finished a sci-fi fantasy novel and I’m working on another one. I’ve been writing a lot, it’s overwhelming between the writing and the album!”

Ameriie’s new single What I Want is out on Aug 10.