Keep on moving: Amelia Warner
Since her cover of The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” soundtracked John Lewis’ 2011 Christmas campaign (Morrissey described it as “delightful”), the dulcet tones of Amelia Warner have been hard to escape. Under the moniker Slow Moving Millie, last year, the Liverpool-born 29-year-old released an album of 80s hits, Renditions. From Bananarama to Yazoo, Amelia stripped the songs back into reimagined, melancholic ballads. She is currently working on a new record, which unveils a little more of her own songwriting and channels the storytelling of Rufus Wainwright via Tim Burton films and orchestral movie soundtracks – a nod to Amelia’s previous incarnation as an actress. She carved out a successful career with roles in Lorna Doone, Mansfield Park, sado-masochist drama Quills and sci-fi thriller Aeon Flux, but has spoken candidly about her struggles to establish her creative identity as an actress. These days, she devotes her time to music. The Hunger spoke to Amelia ahead of the release of her album later this year.
The Hunger: Was it difficult making the transition from being an actress to a full-time musician?
In terms of how I felt, no. Writing and singing were two things I had always done, but in terms of changing job? It’s a tricky transition for anyone in any field and I did go through a period of feeling awkward and worrying what people would think.
So there was an element of fear.
Exactly. Especially when you’re managing to make a good living and you’re comfortable doing what you’re doing but its not fulfilling you in the way you had hoped.
You have had a lot of success covering songs from the 80s. What is it about this period in music that particularly appeals to you?
Songwriting from the 80s is often overlooked. It was a decade of production: there were a lot of new toys, synths, bells and whistles. Because of that, it was easy to dismiss the music as a silly, guilty pleasure. But people forget how much pathos there was in that decade. Britain was going through a mad time and, after digging through all of the shiny, bright, pop production, you can see a lot of that tumult in the music.
‘THAT SENSE OF SOLE RESPONSIBILITY IS EXHILARATING, BUT ALSO COMPLETELY TERRIFYING.’
The arrangement is often quite simple: just you and a piano. Did you set out wanting to ‘strip’ songs back?
I do try to strip songs back as much as possible – that is almost the aim of the project: to take these songs and ask, ‘Will they work with just me and a piano?’ We build them up again, but in a different way, a more traditional way with real instrumentation rather than synths and midi. There tends to be a lot more going on in my own stuff, which I’m actually trying to simplify. It is in my nature to want to add more and more, and build and build. I love music that does that but I also think there’s something really special about music that is really pared down; it’s a good test of whether something really works.
Who has informed your vocal style?
I don’t know. I have never really thought of myself as a singer. I was just writing songs and realised that somebody had to sing them in order for them to be heard.
So singing isn’t something you dreamed of doing?
Singing, no, not really, but music has always been very important to me and writing is something I have always done, even when I was acting. The idea of pursuing a career in music didn’t occur to me until much later. I started acting when I was very young so it wasn’t necessarily a decision I made. Then suddenly, after five years, I thought, ‘Ah, I’m an actress!’ which was quite strange.
And when you talk about writing are you referring to song lyrics?
Well, I’ve always written lyrics and had notebooks that I would fill with things that I didn’t necessarily think of as lyrics at the time, but I’ve also played the piano since I was small. Creating melodies and bringing them together with words is something I have always done.
Read more of our exclusive interview in Issue Two of The Hunger, on sale now.
Source : Hunger Magazine
