Ama Louise: UK songstress bringing a fresh sound to R&B nostalgia - EP8

0:01Ama Louise:On to our artist spotlight segment for the week. You've done the research. Who are we going to be discussing today? We are doing Ama Louise. What? What? I'm really, I'm really, I'm really, I'm just thinking. That's him. Oh, big swing. Sultry? Buttery? Yeah. Throwback lovers R &B.

0:30Right. Back again. Hello, are you alright? Oh my God, I can't see it. Okay, okay. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Hello. Right. Back again.

0:45Ama Louise:Back again. Let's get to it, bro. Final of the week. What are we saying? It's your turn, right? That's right. What have you got for us? So we had, you bought us Anita Baker. Yes. Last time. Yeah. Big album, big album. My choice this week, we have gone for J. Cole. 2014 Forest Hills Okay Okay It was about time That you brought this one out Yeah it was coming It was coming It was coming So Yeah I mean As you know J. Cole is one of my Personal favourites Yeah One of I think One of the greatest rappers This Probably one of my favourite albums Listen Born Sinner for me Defo up there Yeah Yeah I know people You can be bored of hearing me say this but seeing the show and he played the album more or less top to bottom.

1:33Ama Louise:And yeah, it was, it was quality. One of my favorite live shows. Yeah. Just his lyrical ability, the musicality of it. Yeah. It's quite iconic really. Also, yeah, just that a good, a good time for music. That's sort of the, the 20 teens. Yeah. Yeah. 2013, 2014 was a great, great time for music. like nothing was the same you had good kid mad scene yeah it was a run that was a big run from the big three over there it was a lot man it was a lot this obviously is nice like I really like this artwork as well in the colour scheme I think it's really nice obviously on the back as well you've got like little intersection of said said road name but on the inside I'll pass you one to have a look at it for a sec yeah obviously it's a 2 LP and then you've got Yeah, some really nice imagery on the inserts there, which I think is quite unique.

2:32Ama Louise:Most people don't either have just a blank color sleeve. So it's nice to have the imagery there. Onto the actual discs. Yeah, just standard black with some nice sort of labels. And then on the flip of your one, if you just show the camera in a sec, you've got the track list and all the credits, including all the songwriters and credits of pretty much everyone as well as some imagery there as well which I feel like we said this recently but I always used to like that on CDs where they would have like insert booklets and it would be like a lyric book and a credit sheet because I always find that quite interesting this is the album he's got was it Notes to Self and he's like shouting everyone out which is really cool as well like yeah you got that feeling that it was like a momentous occasion.

3:26Like even he recognized that at the time

3:29Ama Louise:and obviously it was received that way as well. Like Magnum Opus kind of vibes. Yeah, because there are some big tunes in here to be fair. Thank you. I'm still, I would say I'm still a Bourne Sinner over Forest Hill. Yeah, I think I am as well, you know. I think that's what, I think because Bourne Sinner like cemented J. Cole for me. I was like, okay, this guy. That was the proper, obviously, before that he had some very good albums as well but that felt like a proper commercial arrival moment for him yeah yeah yeah and then as well on the flip side of what you're i mean what the camera can see now he's got like the direct the gray tea and gray um like i guess jersey like shorts on that was his stage attire for the shows as well okay so nice consistency but also you know how he is like you don't really say too much quite nonchalant he's not out here doing the most just yeah him and the mic man so yeah one of my favourite albums yeah worthy shout out yeah I mean yeah J.

4:31Cole's the guy he's the guy yeah I was waiting for you to bring this this one up it's coming it's coming it's my favourite album I love it so much I was ready for it I was ready but yeah I can't I can't hate it's it's very very good

4:47Ama Louise:you wait till the week we bring Born Sinner out we're gonna be back at it back to back yeah yeah I'm not letting you do that next week you can say hey yeah you gotta space you gotta space out at least space out yeah shout out to J. Cole trust me one of my guys right there me and them so what you've been saying man you're very blue blue today I know super blue isn't it what were we saying where's this from what we got going on over here so this this is Koji Radical's like album the word merch is a bit is a bit grim but it's merchandise album attire yeah okay okay so yeah this is lyric lyric from one of the tunes just drinking my water minding my business and I wear a lot of black and dark colours so I was like you know what let me bring a pop of colour today spice it up a little and as it goes the blue and the green is matching my vinyl of the week as well what's that for that what's that for that apparently it was meant to be what is going on yeah I hear it I hear it did you did you get that through your label and stuff or did you actually purchase it what were you saying yeah worked on the album we had the label and so man got it yeah just trying to draw me out you can well I'm just saying could I handle get a spare or not could I get a little hat for your guy like couldn't couldn't sort me out in any way no you just thought yeah I'll sort myself out I'll bring it to the episode he's gonna love this well it could have been matching on the episode could we now he'd be sitting there in your blue jumper and I'd be here looking like a pair of donuts yeah but I could have brought out another time wouldn't it you know they'd be like oh yeah these men they're deep in the code you're in the cool and that I didn't know there was merch I wasn't aware of all of this stuff so yeah it's kind of kind of sad and that but yeah next episode you can that's a nice lovely blue number you got there again space it out space it out there you go nah nah looking good man looking good I need to get some yeah I never have any like artists like merch and stuff I never really I don't know I never really think about it I guess yeah I'm not a big fan of merch for the sake of it that's why I like this one because it's a bit more subtle.

6:51Ama Louise:Like a lot of them have like the artist logo like emblazoned. Or like literally just the album cover square on the chest. I'm like, guys have some imagination. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still want it to be clothes that if it wasn't, you weren't associated with it, I would still want to wear it type of thing. Like one of my favorites is Nux with his No Days Off brand. Yes, yes. Because obviously he says it all the time and stuff, but it's like separate enough and the quality of the garments is good enough. Like I've got a nice suede cap and I've got some socks and he's got a whole range. So that for me is like a nice association, but it's not like, as I say, like, hey, here's an artist's face.

7:28I'm trying to think in any situation, any faces on the top, I'm not really about in general anyways. But he's in the road, isn't he? Yeah, of course.

7:37Ama Louise:Not my bag. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My hair. Cool. Anything popping then? What have you been doing? What have you been saying? Anything popping, anything popping. in ah so it's not that interesting but for me great well for me great lead yeah you guys are gonna find this super super boring but but i'm gonna i'm gonna say it anyways cool but it was like a more personal what snore are you taking me down come on come on so i mean yeah my uh i went on holiday like back end of back end of last year and yeah i was really trying to do like not much like i think we spoke about it before like i find it hard to like switch off yeah what did you go but we oh no i just got it in dubai oh okay okay yeah i'm sure we've had this exact cover yeah sorry sorry oh you're quite lucky there yeah yeah anyway so it's not about where we went but like i got back into reading for the first time in a while um my wife bought me a kindle for christmas oh yeah kindle's like mad small in it so carrying it around is very convenient.

8:44Ama Louise:So I think it would be good for me. Speaking of books, actually, it just like flicks something in my head. I, you bought me a book a while ago and I still haven't read it, which is the Jay Diller book. The one like, about Diller time and stuff and how he produces. And I've literally just taken it out and put it on my bedside table because it's about to be read. I was like, I was like, listen, we're doing music podcasts. I need to know my stuff. like you're a dealer fan you should read this like and all this type of stuff so it's but it's on my bedside table right now and it's ready to be open so I'll let you know next episode we're gonna discuss yeah how you're getting on there full episode just how I'm doing what page you are how far you are like what you're saying I'll give you the update I'll give you the update for sure alright cool I didn't even know like yeah I don't even know what it's about I knew you were a big dealer fan so I'm like take that and enjoy it Yeah, I need to get into it.

9:43I need to get into it. So, speaking of Dilla, let's go into recent rotations. That's him. Oh, he's a big one. You ready to start?

9:56Ama Louise:Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. I'm ready, bro. What? I'm ready. I'm ready. Why are you looking at the door? I'm ready. I'm just thinking. Okay, recent rotations. Some stuff we've been listening to recently that we're trying to put each other and the listeners onto. How many have you got today? I've got three. I've got three. Okay, so do I. You know what I would like? I would like to have like a recent rotation of jingle. I want a jingle for my... I want theme tunes from our segments. I hear that. So make it happen. Make it happen. Me make it happen? Yeah, you're the guy that makes things happen.

10:33Ama Louise:So please. I don't know if I'm the jingle curator, to be fair. I've got three. How many have you got? Three or so. Okay, okay. Do you want to go first? Yeah, I'm going to go first. All right. So my first recent rotation today is an artist called Sunday, who I've mentioned before, although with his alias previously, now we're back in his full bag. So he was IE before, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Good memory. Okay, cool. So yeah, we're talking Sunday. He has a new 12-track album called Boy. To describe it, I would say it's indie R &B in terms of the Sonic. And yeah, he, as we spoke about before, he's a Christian artist.

11:15Ama Louise:So a lot of the lyrics are like, obviously faith inspired. I wouldn't really say there's a gospel sound to it. But yeah, Sonic the indie R &B. For me, I would describe it as a really good balance of like storytelling lyrically combined with like his personal faith and journey as well. Yeah, it feels very personal, very intimate. And sorry, this is an album? Yeah, this is an album. I checked the semantics and he has declared this is an album. Just to avoid any confusion. There's a couple of standout tracks for me, but the one that I've had on repeat is a track called Lover. Just musically is very interesting.

11:56Ama Louise:Yeah, just very, very good guitar. And yeah, vocally good. Melodies are brilliant. um and yeah the indie r &b sounds a bit a bit confusing sometimes um but i think it's kind of got i guess the the soul and some of the groove of r &b and then some of the more instruments associated with indie um and i feel like we're seeing a lot of that more recently with even like the the justin bieber swag album some of the stuff that we're hearing with dijon with mcgee um in terms of the electrical lead and stuff um so you can kind of hear some of those influences as well um but yeah sunday boy lovers the main track defo one that's been on repeat for me of late okay sunday lovers let's go i'm oh i need to check it out i need to check it out um yeah actually did listen to ie before and it goes in to be fair so yeah so this is that like and that's probably more stripped back version of this this is like yeah elevated yeah yeah yeah okay so yeah i'd like to listen to it to see what the difference is so i can see if there's a distinct difference between the two artists and that okay cool uh okay number one recent rotations let's go uh i've got so sorry before i begin i've got two new and one oh let's go so number one recent rotations this is new this came out uh in december um it is artist's icon um and the song is not alone okay um icon is spelt with an x instead of an o so i c x n okay this actually links back to me speaking about um west side boogie oh previously because when i was listening into his album i was like there's got to be something new what's happening and he he does do a lot of features and he was featured in this album okay cool on the song not alone and it and it's uh icon is a uk artist um actually he's the founder of guap mag magazine yeah so the founder of got mag uh the album this is it's from an album so the album is called abraham which is his name um and it's like uk jazz hip-hop fusion like very like venner adjacent kind of like that type of fusion sound and yeah that just goes in i played it i was like oh flip it out what's that here here and then yeah so i i saw obviously i saw uh boogie was on it listened to the song i was like this is mad jazzy who's this who's this guy and he's i can hear obviously i can hear he's from the uk and stuff and then yeah find out that he's some mad found the founder now he's back into music like i think he was already was always into music and stuff but um he was more i guess focused on like curating that kind of youth centric sound and stuff for the people and now he's doing his doing his own thing he's got a full album out um and it's yeah very good so yeah icon not alone album ibrahim sick that's i love to see that people doing stuff that's like different lanes but like obviously the same like i guess common theme of music and you can tell by the album is very collaborative there's a lot of people involved and there's a lot of like like-minded and stuff and it feels like almost like almost community driven but still personal to him obviously it's uh like and the album's title is a namesake so it's still very personal to him um so yeah definitely check it out okay cool i will ask i've never heard of yeah this is the reason right there's i'm putting the people on let's go on bro come on what's your number two My number two, you mentioned the South African band last week.

16:06Okay, yeah.

16:07Ama Louise:We're taking it back. Taking it back. Oh, gosh. South African artist, Dalala Tukson. Okay. Well, let me spell that for you because I appreciate it. Yeah, I've had no idea, mate. Go on. So first name, Dalala, D-L-A-L-A. Okay, Dalala. Okay. Surname Tukson, T-H-U-K-Z-I-N. Okay, okay. I'm probably not doing it the best service of pronunciation. But yeah, he is the artist. And we talked about the album Mavis, M-A-Y-V-I-S. So he is a South African DJ, producer, and artist who blends, I guess, a lot of the African electronic sounds, essentially. So Amapiano, Afro House, Three Step, and just makes his own incredible music.

16:56Ama Louise:so Mavis is an album that came out November I want to say so fairly recent each song is like a mad journey honestly of like sonics layers and just crazy builds which you know we obviously hear in our piano quite a lot and this is yeah no different to that probably a bit adjacent but with his own unique flavour as well it's interesting looking through the track list of the albums the average track length is like 6 minutes okay which obviously is quite um native to the genre yeah however i do quite like that because i feel like a lot of a lot of what we're seeing now in a more quote unquote like social media ages like songs becoming shorter and shorter yeah um so this you know i do love the fact that this is like now we're gonna like this is true to the genre and we're really gonna build something here and so i think this is why i like it because each track is like its own little journey and even if some of them don't have crazy amounts of lyrics like the music like makes you feel something and tells a story uh in and of itself so one track that i'm going to call out specifically from the album mavis is uh asalali um i think it's only the second track on the album so there's an intro and then this track um this is nearly nine minutes long so it's like a flipping yeah it's literally uh it's a pilgrimage but it's like nine minutes of progression of the track and it takes you places you don't expect once you think it's like fully reached its like max dynamics is a new instrument or a new rhythm that comes in and so it probably keeps you on your toes and it's exciting and it's the sort of thing that you know if i heard this out i'd actually be quite excited because i'm like you know what this is this is sick and it takes you know sometimes you can be able to sit around like genres and go in different places but this even in and of itself On it's own It does that And yeah The album overall Is top top So definitely Check it out Yeah Mavis Okay Dalala Mavis Okay Okay I'll definitely Check it out Okay My number two High register over here My number two Of my recent Rotations collection Artist is Kael This is spelled K-A-I-Y-E-L okay uh the song is called and then and there you are um and this is uh like a toronto-based artist uh this song is from his debut album called mundane um and it's like it's like r &b i guess r yeah r &b kind of soulish i guess uh it's very hard to define it um i've written down it's like very do you know like jordan rique it's very it's like him in his early days um when he had like the at the baseline ep and stuff like that it's quite similar vocally like that um okay sick and yeah it's probably at the moment is one of my most played songs not favorite most played most played although it is one of my favorites as well but yeah it's that it's very yeah very very good um i think yeah i have a feeling he's quite popular in his like toronto i think scarborough like area but it's not like super blown up yet uh and then and there you are is his most popular song at the moment okay um album is very good as well um but yeah he's vocally very good on that song is actually there's a feature with elissa plaza um who i again i don't know but she's from toronto as well um and yeah again she's very very good on it as well so that's all i can say in it just like listen to tune it's very like uh i've been like throughout today i've been humming it this whole day so when you think when you've been listening to me like what the is this guy is this guy humming and stuff that's what i've been having uh it's just very like chill i stumbled across it just randomly it just came on on my spotify in the car i was with my missus and we just started like Groove we're like who's this guy who's this guy what's going on and yeah he's just he's just good so yeah that's my number two Kyle nice Toronto does have a history of churning out some serious artists exactly exactly I would like to go yeah I haven't gone either haven't gone either and when these men can sing they can sing so yeah that's me what's your third then my third is an artist called Arno Sacco okay A-R-N-O S-A-C-C-O and the song is called Two Shots okay this is only his second ever release oh early which is yeah I literally similar like stumbled across him yeah I say stumbled because I actually can't pinpoint I was just in like a in like a bit of a Spotify hole and yeah came across him this he's very good yeah very good it's yeah Heartbreak R &B is how I would sort of describe the song yeah um very interesting i guess blend of of cultures and stuff so he's um he's belgian caribbean um based in london but has been part of like the dutch r &b scene okay yeah so there's kind of a lot going on yeah a lot going on there um but i think it's an amazing way to bring together like i guess cultures um especially like musical cultures and communities um so hopefully he's able to do that and start his career off very well looking at um i guess he did an instagram post of a list of credits of people that contributed to this record and there's a lot of people there yeah which i think speaks to hopefully that community that he's starting to build um and that's both people who have like helped produce the record uh mix and master but also people with a creative vision around how he's like promoted it and stuff okay um so yeah i thought this was super impressive uh really good vocal range um musically interesting and um yeah vocally very interesting as well goes very high at certain points which i felt at times reminiscent of you know the weekend when he hits that sort of high register yeah and some even some of his production when it's a bit more stripped back i would say um obviously the weekends lived many a life when it comes to sort of different Sonics and stuff but yeah man two shots definitely check that one out because yeah I feel like quite early to the party with this one and I feel like he's going to have an exciting exciting journey ahead of him man so yeah Arno Sacco two shots okay yeah well I always love to be early to the party so I'm going to have to tune in now okay okay is it me yeah yeah that's right I'm the last one correct this is why I let you go first this is your old one so i could go last for the old one yeah yeah so i didn't put the date of this that's very upsetting i don't know when this came out it's gonna be 80s in it 70s this would be um 1970s the isley brothers okay footsteps in the dark big big tune uh if you don't know that tune um by me saying it or like you search and listen to it as soon as you listen to it you'll know it from a sample which is Ice Cube It Was A Good Day is the main sample but it's also Diller's sampled it, speaking of Diller earlier Diller's sampled it in I was going to say favourite I'm going to hold it in in one of his very very good songs What a cop out The song is Won't Do where um i didn't realize at the time but the drum the drum line uh like beat is taken from from that song um and then just obviously like shifted things around and stuff in a in typical diller fashion um but then those drums are also used in thundercat them changes which is probably the first tune that i started listening to thunder that was his big single his first album um that put a lot of people on yeah um so it's a very i think the song itself has been sampled like yes over a hundred times or something but those are the three that as soon as i listen to the song i'm like oh crap yeah that's the izzy brothers in that and it's yeah but the song itself like smooth soul like you know hearing footsteps in the dark you know it's it's very it's very it's very good um but yeah that's that's right what we say i'm upset i don't have the year for you guys because i can't even think i would i would say like like 78 or something but i don't know i don't know i don't know so we can put it on the subtitles so people can check that yeah do their crate digging exactly why have you been getting back into that one recently out of interest i think it was through jay diller to be fair yeah um i was listening to i don't actually listen to that much jay diller like his own songs but more of his production in songs so um like uh like slum villages like uh their slum village fantastic volume albums are really good and that's just his production throughout um and then it started started making me think about samples i was like okay let me see like and i was like oh yeah might listen till jay don't i won't do uh listen to that i was like okay yeah that's that sample i start listening to it all and just go back um because that's like one of my favorite parts about hip hop is like the samples and stuff yeah of course um which is why i usually lean a bit to us stuff a lot as well because they they are like heavy and samples and that um so yeah that's my three man solid yeah i think uh boom boom good good today i'm liking it i'm liking it solid list yeah man all right should we go to spotlight on that and i have to add those to The playlist Oh yeah I'll leave that to you mate I'll leave that Leave that You sort out I keep him Footsteps baby In the dark Huh Yeah Yeah They call me Before you were one of the brothers Before me You know there's bare brothers there There's like five of them Oh really Yeah it was three originally And then two just Jumped in And they're like He's about to do it all right Yeah no They're like Let's make some choose and there's um what i discovered i didn't even put it together do you know alex isley yeah she's a daughter of one of the isley brothers all right on to our artist spotlight segment for a week where we choose one artist discuss a bit of their discography their history their journey to music their journey to now um this week you have done the research i have do share who are we going to be discussing today we are doing amma louise r &b artist let's go Let's go, let's go.

27:58Ama Louise:All right, R &B artists. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them at the moment. How would you describe Amelouise in one line for us? Off the bat. Yeah, so, well, it's not off the bat. I've written it down here to be fair. But one line to describe Amelouise is sultry, buttery, throwback lovers R &B. That's what I'm calling it. What we say. Sultry and buttery. Bro, it's sultry and buttery. smooth and that smooth bro smooth i thought smooth is too basic so two words to make it into one sultry and buttery those are good words yeah i like those words thank you throwback lovers r &b is that what we're saying yeah yeah this is what i can i can get with it this is it man i can get with it this is it so okay so where do we start with the journey then okay okay yeah so i thought i'll take you through her journey so um and then we can have a couple conversations and points around it and that but first question before i go into that is um first memory of the artist when when did you touch base to with with uh do you know what i feel like i was aware of her for a while but i didn't really click play for some for one reason or another um and so yeah i've listened to the music now and stuff but i couldn't pinpoint like how i came across it i it was probably um yeah pretty sure on spotify and stuff but then i would say i would say that there was a part of me that probably morphed it with amalu yeah who's now gone like just to ama yeah and so for me and my basic brain probably somewhat unhelpful in terms of that discovery and like cognizant sort of like yeah process but just being honest so yeah i come across i'm yeah i'm the same uh i'm actually i'm late to the party with this one i'm not gonna let you um the reason we're discussing amy louise is because her debut ep long story short uh came out in october um and that's probably about the time i've caught caught on to be fair i think i've probably just previous to that i probably listened to like a single of hers from this ep yeah before the full EP was released um that's just kind of shuffled onto my Spotify and when I've seen the name because Amalou went from Amalou to Amma I thought is this the third thing or was this the old thing because I think Amalou's name is Amma Louise as well like her full name so I was baffled and then and then I heard it I was like wait hang on a second this is different yeah this is completely different what's going on and then yeah I was like what's this sultry music saying and I had to check it out so um yeah an interesting introduction yeah yeah exactly yeah so yeah but very very similar stories so that is not just me being a novice i assume like and obviously i've done like had to do like research and stuff just to learn a bit more and that about the artist and even google search and it's like zipping me this way zipping me that way for like a lot there's lot of like overlap um being that they're both from north london as well so yeah that's unhelpful anyways um yeah just a bit about the artist early days um as i said north london she's half french half ghanian um and uh she actually often um like well not often but she's done a lot of like social media content for france and in france and stuff because she speaks french and stuff which is quite of cool um she studied geography at university okay uh and then and then did a teaching degree to teach geography okay it makes sense in in schools what does one do with a geography well i guess that's what you do so her her entry into music is a bit different to uh a lot of artists that we've discussed in the fact that she never really thought it would be a career for her it wasn't like she wasn't necessarily musical in any way she always loved singing and sang around like friends and family um but yeah she never knew she could do it as a career and it was only when she was 20 so she was still in university at this point her friend suggested like yeah you should write some songs and do do something with this and then she started to give it a go um good friend yeah yeah exactly so i think a common theme in in her story she's she's an independent artist and she's still she was independent and still is independent now um and a common theme is that she had like a lot of good friends that helped her out in terms of like the graphics um for like covers and stuff like helping her out for like videos or whatever or like like organizing things and social media and stuff like that it seems to be a common thing which is like, I guess, really important as an independent artist to build like a little team around you, right?

32:57So yeah, in terms of releasing music, her first single came out in 2021, which is called Unworthy. Now, I can't find this song anywhere. I only know that this is through an interview that she did. um and in the interview she was set she mentioned that she hates the song and she wants to get it off she's like i don't even want to like listen to it so she i guess eventually i think the interview was in like uh 2024 summer so from then to now it's gone it's good i couldn't find soundcloud i've googled like as much as i could i couldn't find it um so that was her her first song and she mentioned she didn't really know what she was doing kind of again because she this everything was new she wasn't really um into like music production as much she's kind of just had to write the songs and i have the voice kind of thing so she had to go through social media and like hashtag producer and find people that way and just through like networking and stuff she managed to find some producers she didn't know anything about like mixing and mastering she didn't even know that was like it was sure the thing needed of course who do who would do that so she managed to get someone um get someone to do that and they sent it back and she was like yeah i guess that sounds sounds a lot better so it's good to go um and then she had to learn about like just promoting songs and just like how to put it on the platforms and stuff i think she said she's uh distro kid to do to do stuff like that um so that's 2021 so that's very very early nothing really going on um um and then that's the only song she released that year and then she released two singles in 2022 um at this point by the way she's still working in teaching as well so she's still doing the like the nine to five or i don't know eight to three these men work i don't know what my teachers are doing uh she's still doing that um which she is one of the reasons she said that in in her heart she wanted to release more music um but life life gets in the way life gets in the way so she came came two singles in 2022 with no angel and so weak um and then we started on quite like a vulnerable and oh yeah yeah so sad place isn't it free titles yes she knew like her love of music um came from r &b and like late late night use early 2000s r &b um some early inspirations uh was lauren hill whitney houston and celine dion so like very vocally strong um but emotional and wonderful music as well so that that kind of she knew that's the type of music she wanted to do.

35:56She didn't want to like faff about. She knew, she's like, this is the music I want to do. And that's what she was producing. And then, so 2023, two more singles, Girls Trip, and Can't Leave You Alone. Can't Leave You Alone is quite interesting. It's got Daniel Merriweather. Do you know who that is? so he is an australian r &b artist that was super popular in like the earlier 2000s like 2003 to 2009 around that period okay um only because he had he collaborated a lot with uh mark ronson in the early early days um and then his album i think came out in 2009 um but was again very popular and he had a song with Adele on it as well um that I think is his most popular song but she basically met she met met Daniel Merriweather through like a friend of a friend um he asked her to like open for him and like sing the Adele version like part of his song and stuff and which was her like first professional live okay performance very cool which is cool here like in the UK

37:16Ama Louise:yeah in the UK yeah yeah yeah so that was kind of her first like live performance just out here singing with like like a very capable artist and stuff and yeah so just off of that obviously after after that interaction she obviously had that relationship now and she got him to like do backing vocals for the song Can't You Leave You Alone so so yeah that's a nice little moment yeah yeah So she's like in her networking bag. Yeah. She's got, got that mix. She's already, now she's done like a live performance and stuff. So she's starting to get the ball rolling. For sure. So things are happening. And this is all still whilst doing, working full time.

37:55I don't know if she's working full time now. 2022, she definitely is. I don't know. 20, this is now 2023. It's still a quick succession either way. Yeah.

38:04Ama Louise:Yeah. Yeah. So she, she has said herself, she's still not super happy about the amount of songs that she's releasing now. Cause that at this point, that means she's only got, she's only got, but she's got five songs that have been released since her start 2021. And now we're in 2023. Yeah. into 2024. Uh, this is when start things start. I noticed, I noticed happening. She releases her biggest song to date, which is send your, uh, send your loving, um, which is the first single in this debut EP as well. Originally it was released as just a snippet Of the hook on TikTok Before the song was even Like fully fleshed out And I think it was at this time Again speaking with her friends And like just having some Kind of time to self reflect on how things are going She was just like Alright I'm doubling down on social media So it's interesting When we were speaking about Dam's Previously and he was He's not so much on social media amma louise was kind of the opposite she was like i'm on tiktok and i'm gonna be posting every day so that's just what she did she posted loads of snippets of her send your send your loving song um i think she was on holiday or something and she was like let me just quickly while i'm flying home let me just quickly post something by the time she got back it was like 50k or something on tiktok and then it's just been climbing and climbing climbing everyone was asking about the song and waiting for the release and stuff so she was like oh crap i need to i need to guess i should finish it yeah i need to make the song and get it out and stuff um which yeah and at the moment it's still her like pinned post um on her tiktok and it's like over a million views and stuff so that went like fully that's the dream really blew up hop on a flight no signal and then you're like oh snap yeah there's motion it's crazy it's crazy it's mad how like it shows how much social media works like in terms of if you do do put the time and effort in and just like grind out yeah um because she didn't necessarily have like like a deep catalog at this point she's only she's blue from the sink single itself but then it also it also kind of tells like shows you um there's a lot of music that we're missing on that just hasn't gone viral basically because the song in itself is like a very good song um and she'd posted it previously in different snippets and stuff but it just hadn't gained any traction for whatever reason so hit and miss and so for some reason this one just blew and it became super popular but if that didn't happen like we'll be missing we wouldn't be having this conversation yeah no facts facts what um did you did you look at the post and stuff yourself uh yeah but i can't describe i can't remember okay i was wondering what it was that connected that whether it was just sounded sick or whether it was a lyric or like a common emotion that people would like resonate with or it's just interesting to know like what it is that resonates with people yeah i can tell you i'll share a quick anecdote anecdote on that point so i don't know if you probably would have heard the song alex warren ordinary yeah it was like i'm not gonna even attempt to sing it but everyone should know this song just because it's been everywhere in 2025 it was like the yeah it spent the most it was like record-breaking number one in the uk and was the biggest selling single of the year so he yeah he had it and he was like yeah no no one was rating it like no one was rating it at all he was he was trying to tell people how much he loved the record and people were like yes no big up you and you're taking it and then he was like i believed in it so much he was like so and he's like i had a had a vision for it and when i wrote it i was like i know this is my best song and so he was like i think he said he posted 134 times to it or something online and then it was actually between he was posting before christmas and then there was a break and he had got some momentum before christmas and then christmas obviously everyone's routine goes out the window yeah yeah and then he was like so momentum went and then he was like the new year he was like i have to go again because people were enjoying it so he's like i posted again and it was kind of through the lens of um remember this song that you kind of like yeah and then he was like and then they brought it back and then it went crazy um all of a sudden and then i think it was probably one of the most created two sounds on tiktok yeah across 2025 and so sometimes it's just consistency if you believe in what your i mean it's a bit that your product or your offering just go for it man yeah it's crazy because like yeah i was complaining about it like yeah we had this just a couple of episodes ago saying i hate when they're just like playing the same thing but on their side i understand it like because yeah you're just thinking it hasn't got the like the people that i've seen it so far aren't the right people to get it to go where it needs to go um and so i understand it it's just a part of the game now and so and yeah so she just doubled down on social media and she was like this is it gotta do what you gotta do yeah so like she still now is still like very much into tiktok and stuff and i think she leaves the instagram to be more like clean polished um side of things it's crazy how social media works so that's 2024 yeah um 2024 is not finished i'm a liar that was in march 2024 so now this has gone this is going crazy now um she also did send your loving as um a sped up version for tiktok because So TikTok loves slight sped up versions.

43:43And then she did a remix with a French artist. Oh, cool. I don't know how to say his name. So I'm going to say Tay C. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Who's like a popular French like R &B and stuff artist. He's really good. So she's, yeah. So this, that was released as well. So there's like three different versions of Send Your Lovin'. And it's like an ode to France to her origins, which is quite cool. And obviously he's like singing in French and stuff, which is cool as well. So that's now popping off. The ball is rolling. Here we go. We've got some momentum. So now she's like, okay, it's time to start like working on more singles.

44:27Let's build up that EP and stuff. So she's released between August, 2024 and September, 2025. so for the next year essentially um she releases selfish anything i can do focus hindsight and i don't mind so that's five singles and these are all for the ep um and then the next month in the 10th of october bang debut ep long story short eight tracks i'm here for it and i like that it's

44:59Ama Louise:like just it's around 20 minutes in length so if you are coming across it for the first time It's not like an album Where it's like 45 Like you can listen 20 minutes It's very palatable To be able to spend 20 minutes with an artist And see if you're into it Or not Before like It's like a try Before you buy almost Yeah it's very much Like a taster Like this is This is what I'm about Like this is me Which is really good Just a bit about Her live performance Yeah Performances and stuff So her first Like actual Live performance Like amateur performance She did like an open mic At Box Park Oh cool And she basically did it she wanted to do it to prove to herself that she can be an artist because she was like if i'm going to be honest i need to be able to sing live yeah so she was like this is going to be kind of one of the harder things for me to do just run up into like a raw open mic and just put up into there so she actually did that and then that was when she kind of knew that she could do it then obviously i mentioned about um the daniel merriweber was kind of a professional first live performance she did um latitude festival in summer of 2024 nice uh and then in june uh last year 2025 she did south by southwest london um and then this february coming up she is doing her first headline show in london oh so maybe we should go to that we should rock up man we should Rock up I'm deep into Abloise now I'm not going to Lodge What venue is it?

46:33Sorry Sorry

46:34Ama Louise:That's on the spot Why would you do that to me? It's in London It's in London You know what I'm going to find out Just for you Thank you bro I'm going to find out Let's see What she's saying I'm going to guess Go on Tell me Is it the lower third? I hate you Yeah it is lower third How did you do that? You see from my glasses or something See the reflection I was like How did you do that? Just This is where a lot of people Play their first show Oh really? Yeah Oh okay Where's that? Central Yeah Yeah exactly Yeah Big up her man That's sick Yeah yeah So I do actually want to Want to check it out If it hasn't like sold out And stuff for sure Yeah yeah I noticed that on streaming and stuff She's like made a concerted effort To be putting out like Some live performance stuff Yes Which I think is great Especially if you're a singer It's like you want to show people put it you yeah you definitely have the vocals yes that's one of the things she started out doing when she first got into singing she was doing like um or acoustic covers um and stuff and she would put it onto youtube uh again she's gotten rid of it a lot of this stuff i think she was like all right we're serious now yeah we're turning a new page yeah yeah i'm wiping i'm wiping everything out so yeah she had like a whole like series and when she would like regularly do acoustic so i I think she knows that's what she wants to kind of have.

47:57So does she play as well, sorry? No, I don't think so, no. It would just be with like guitars and stuff. Oh, nice, nice. Yeah. And she's got like her own like band. I think it's like the mic band is what they're called. But that's who she collaborates with often. Yeah. So I just wanted to ask you a question. I don't know if you're going to know the answer, but I've just assumed like you work for a label. Go on, hit me. You know, I just wanted to understand life as an independent artist um she doesn't have a manager either or she didn't up until last year anyways so i think she literally does everything herself um what are the challenges that they actually have because in my head as just like a nobody doesn't know anything about music you make a tune you find a way to stick it on spotify or whatever and that's kind of it but so what what does the label kind of provide you i guess or and and do you like you know what i'm

48:53Ama Louise:saying yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um i mean this in itself could be a multi-part yeah yeah just give me a taste just give me a taste the cliff notes the cliff notes all right cool um i would say like guidance is probably one of the main ones honestly like obviously a lot of people will have people have their skill set and their expertise or their perspectives but i think a lot of is guidance honestly like in working with loads of artists myself both like within a team and independently and in a managerial context and all of that like a lot of the time it's just like providing like affirmation to people that what they're what they've got is good enough type thing and like just kind of like holding their hand on that journey to like releasing i think what what you say is completely valid in terms of it's like you've got a song we've figured out the way to put it out and it's out job done but then i think when it comes to it like if you and i were to make a song that and then we're and now we've got this song we're like oh now what are we doing something you kind of realize the challenge of like getting people to care about it and i think even in the first instance as you said like um like super uh like super obvious functional one is finances like we're saying cool well i got this song but then i've got the beat from here so i now need to pay a license for the beat or now i need to pay for this to clear the sample or pay you for like splice or do you know what i mean yeah exactly yeah yeah you're 100 right i mean speaking on that a part of the interview that i watched her um she was mentioning one of the reasons for like the not lack of songs but like not as many releases in in the earlier years is because she's got to pay for all these studio sessions she's got to like there's a lot of like outgoings that you don't realize you think as soon as you just write a song and then you're good to go but there's a lot but yeah it's really just is it's lighting the load is giving guidance and also just encouragement honestly okay yeah so there's a lot there's a lot to do like you need to do a lot to get music out and to promote and stuff i guess um as much as there are no barriers to entry there's barriers to quality in a sense right okay i do rate like anyone who's like an independent artist because it's like so much work and stuff behind it especially when when you can deliver at like a good quality um which amla is doing at the moment especially for like a debut um yeah just prop props to her in it just keep going just keep going man it'll be interesting to see if she does eventually opt to be like signed or does she just keep on doing her thing yeah man so okay cool uh just some other musical inspirations that um she has mentioned um to her obviously i mentioned lauren hill whitney houston celine dion um some others are jasmine sullivan uh destiny child uh alia uh and alicia keys so you can see where we're going with It's solid, man.

51:58It's solid. You can see what we're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I've put down, so some, uh, for fans of, um, certain artists, they would like Emma Louise. Uh, I've put down, uh, Joyce Rice. Nice. Um, we've mentioned that a lot, the previous episode, Shea Universe. Uh, and I've gone Isaiah Fools as well. So I've kind of mixed, mixed it, mixed it a little bit here and there, but like, Like the artists that they do like that ode to old school R and B, but they have their twists, twists to it. And I think that's kind of what Amber Louise does as well. Do you have anyone you would like to see, see her work with?

52:43Cause she's only basically got one feature in her catalog. So is anyone you can see, or you would like to see her work with?

52:50Ama Louise:Do you know what? None, none kind of stick out of the top to be fair, quite rate doing it just on your own. to be honest if you can yeah i'm right as well i've put um i've put two two artists okay shoot uh one is jazz caras who i am about yeah yeah i'm about um who again she's like does a lot of like r &b like in a old school style as well um and i've done another art an artist that i mentioned I think on the like the first episode Is Jamin Oh yeah you did I've classed this as like Lovers R &B And I think that's what he does as well It's like very old school Like yeah it's just about love And being vulnerable and stuff like that And I feel like as a It'll be interesting to see like another duet In that style Yeah I think it would Fit very well I do have one actually okay okay come to think of it and we spoke about him in the last episode as well okay and this yeah doing like some cross uh cross continental okay yeah audiences jayden okay okay okay now we're going r &b back okay yeah yeah yeah like again i do feel like she would also benefit from like just sort of like her being the female feature on like uh on a male song yeah whether it be like a rapper or an r &b act i think that would be interesting and would provide a nice point of discovery for her especially amongst like um guys who like who like like their r &b or maybe like their rap so but yeah i feel like that could be a quite a nice r &b collab there yeah yeah i hear it i hear it jazz carries a good shot though when you were saying for fans of that was one that came to my mind i think okay okay have you got a favorite song what we're saying yeah my favorite song is selfish okay yeah yeah okay any any follow-up to that um well probably my one of my favorites from the tape is um um the lead single um but then i looked it and i was like oh it's also like the most streamed i was like that's too basic oh so sending your loving yeah yeah yeah okay so i'm glad that that's one that did like did numbers for and did well yeah um but that's selfish for me.

55:08Ama Louise:It was just like probably the catchiest. Um, and probably stood out the most. Okay. Mine is, I don't mind, which is, was her latest single, but is also in the EP as well. And it's interesting to see her, her growth. And like, she has said herself that she's even for this EP that she was kind of, she learned like a lot in terms of like collaboration and like what things are needed to make a full project and stuff. And you can kind of, I, I feel I can kind of hear that progression. It's cool to be able to see the journey, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. If someone hasn't listened to Amber Louise, what song are you pointing them to?

55:48I mean, I feel like it's a cop out to say the same one. You can say the same one, don't be afraid.

55:52Ama Louise:I'll probably say selfish, but at the same time, I'll just say, oh, 20 minutes is not a long time, isn't it? Just run the whole, run the EP, man. Yes, I would agree. That's a good answer. I would say - Long story short, ain't too time consuming. Yeah, it's long story short. It's called that for a reason to get me. yeah I hear it I would yeah I would say yeah you've got enough time to listen to the whole thing if I would point to someone I would probably say send your loving yeah yeah it's a good intro yeah because everyone loves the tune so send your loving that way to get me trust me the EP like if you don't know about her like you really as you said like sultry or buttery your little adjectives there like yeah you know what you're you know who she is by the end of it and you know what to expect later and so you know if this is for you is something you'll be about for sure i'm about it man i'm about it i'm glad i like stumbled across across uh um and now i'm deep into the into the research that found the biography the timeline and stuff so now i'm invested it's happening um and yeah i think that was the um similar to like a lot of people our age um that listened to like r &b back in the day and stuff that like we all enjoy that sound so hearing it again but with like a new yeah yeah twist is always good i like i like the style of um she makes it very nostalgic with like the like the instrument like decisions like the keyboard choices and stuff like that you're like oh flip it up yeah let me just check the date on that it's really fun and like you're hearing the snare and you're like oh that sounds like almost like a timbo like snare like it's like very It's very specific It feels So Yeah Probably deliberate choices Isn't it Yeah yeah So I rate that I rate it very highly And now I think it's coming From the From North London Yeah I need to I don't know where In North London I need to Need to find out Again I can't find anything out It's alright bro It's alright I've been trying to do my sleuth And it hasn't worked But yeah Cool I think We can We can Wrap up there Amma Louise Long story short Big debut EP Check out man Yeah big up man That's cool Let's go Let's go