It has been four years since Estelle last released an album and in that time she has been constantly gigging and performing.
All Of Me is her new album release and I caught up with her to talk about the new record and what she has been up to.
- Your new album All Of Me has just been released so what can we expect from this new record?
All of me as I have literally put everything that I could into it, I was going to the studio when I was upset and when I was happy I just put everything into it.
I didn’t sit and think ‘right I am going to take five minutes and go back in’ I was just singing whether I was crying or happy or whatever and you hear me talk about things that were directly hitting me at that point.
- It’s been four years since your last album Shine so what have you been up to in that time and why has it taken so long to get back in the studio?
Living and travelling and performing like crazy, I haven’t stopped performing for four years; my publicist told me that she has looked at my schedule and she was like ‘you have been on the road for 350 days’.
So I am have never been in one place long enough to get in a really work on something or give it a three or four day moment - it becomes a four or five hour moment.
So that cuts down your recording time by everything. Then in between that I have been trying to live and be a regular girl and have something to write about.
- This is your third studio album so how have you seen yourself develop as a singer and a writer since your debut?
I have become fearless and a little less nervous about saying certain things - I just say exactly what I feel. It was also a growth thing I just needed that push to grow.
I would go on stage and say exactly how I felt and people would appreciate it and I was like ‘oh this works, I don’t have to phrase things right? This is amazing’. So that gave me another level of freedom when I was writing.
- So how have you found the response to the new album so far?
Everyone likes it I was like ‘oh my god I am doing the right thing this is brilliant, thank God’. You are always nervous as an artist as to whether think you suck or think you are brilliant but people are like ‘the album is really great’ and I am like ‘oh my god’. I haven’t had a bad review.
- There is a very upbeat start to the album with The Life & International as well as softer songs such as Break My Heart & Wonderful Life so what does this album say about you as an artist?
That I am well rounded, I am upbeat some days and I am down and pissed off some other days.
It really is all of me and I just wanted to give people a different facet of every single part of me vs. it being just one style or one energy.
I don’t think we all stay in one energy or one style ever and I want to give people something real so I told them when I was PMSing, when I am happy and ecstatic and when I want to cry.
- The album sees you pen some tracks on your own as well as collaborating with other writers so how do you find those two very different writing experiences?
Well I have always done it that way, I have always gone in and either written on my own or with other people. The last album I wrote a lot with John and the last album I wrote a lot on my own so it was nothing too deep.
The way I do it is I write and people are allowed to help rather than sitting there and taking somebody else’s words, I am not very good at that.
I have to sing it and the two records on the album that are written by other people I had called Ne-Yo and said to him ‘Look I have this idea and it is coming out really bitter can you help me?’ And he did and that turned into Do My Thing.
And there is another track called Thank You that was written by Akon, and I had a strong physical reaction to it that I felt I needed to try this record - it turned out so well we kept it.
- International saw you write and perform with Chris Brown so how did that collaboration come about? Did you enjoy working with him?
Oh it was cool, it was cool. That boy is like a bundle of creative energy and I think he is one of the crazy geniuses of our time; he is an amazing singer, songwriter and producer.
I was in with his team as well, there is a young lady called Seven and she helped me write the song - she has a beautiful voice and you can hear her in the background singing all the high notes.
We sat in there and did it and really knocked it out. Trey Songz came in later and he was like ‘we want in’ and he killed it.
- David Banner and Don Cannon are just some of the people who have produced tracks on the record so what has their experience and input brought to the album?
Don Cannon gave me a load of beats one time, he gave me like fifty beats, and that was the one record Break My Heart that I just kept playing the beat. They just send me the tracks and I worked for them.
David Banner is just incredible he is just so versatile it is ridiculous. I had been on a trip to Shanghai with him with a couple of other artists and that was incredible and we just connected from there.
He sent me a load of beats and I was like ‘this beat right here we are going to use it’ and he was just like yeah ‘do what you have got to do’.
- There are also a handful of interludes on the album with people just talking about love and life and so on so how did the idea for that come around?
I wanted to have something that spoke to the entire conversation of the album and that kind of brought it together, I knew it was going to be a very eclectic so I just wanted something to link it all together other than my voice.
And that gave the album an extra conversation so people knew what they were walking into when they heard the entire album vs. it’s just a bunch of songs. So that was it really.
My friends came together for these tracks one is school teacher, one if an ex-label employee, one is a former Iraq vet; he was my assistant at the time, one is a Navy vet who is an aspiring rapper and the other makes sunglasses for Gaga and Rihanna.
I just realised that I had such a diverse range of people in my life that all had amazing experiences and they could probably say some shit about it - and they did and it sounded great.
- You have served as executive producer on All Of Me so how much is producing a part of making an album that you enjoy?
Oh 100%. Exec producers tend to edit the album and make sure that you are not putting a bunch of rubbish out. So between myself, Kevin Liles and John Legend we definitely got in and made sure that I wasn’t putting out a bunch of rubbish (laughs).
- You have spent a lot of time in America over the last few years so how has your music been received over there?
Pretty good, I think that they like it too. We released the album last week and the order reviews have been incredible and I was like ‘I can’t believe that it is out oh my god. So it has been really good.
- And are we going to see you hit the road in the UK this year?
Absolutely! We will be on the road on April as we are doing a European tour between April and May, 20th April to the 20th May. I am so excited as I have not been on the road here for four years so I am excited to get back.
- You have a huge fan base all over the world so for any of those fans reading this interview do you have a message for them?
Yeah. I am so happy and I am so excited that they waited for me to come back out with this album, I really do appreciate that.
I am just happy that they are here and love this album. Keep buying it and keep telling your friends and I will see then soon.
- Finally what’s next for you?
Between touring and going up for acting jobs and things like that it’s going to be busy, it’s going to be very busy.
I am also putting out a book, I take have taken pictures as a hobby for the last four years. So we are just going to keep going.
Estelle - All Of Me is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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