Alice Jemima is a Devon based singer songwriter who was on tour with Kim Churchill when we caught up with her at the Exeter Cavern club, we managed to grab 10 minutes before her set and chatted about beats, songs and 'olympic' sized gigs, here's how we got on....
Please would you tell us about yourself and introduce your music?
My name’s Alice Jemima, I’m from Newton Abbot in Devon and my music, unsure how to describe it, I produce a lot of my own material and write songs, all self recorded and produced from my home studio and it’s been a great way of finding out the sound that I actually want. I’ve been to studios and perhaps not got the sound that I am looking for so have learnt a lot by doing this in my own time at home. I’ve been experimenting with beats and different sounds a lot lately using a site called ‘Loopmasters’, you buy the beats and then own the rights to them but I also like to create my own from scratch, this is great fun and a chance to experiment with sounds.
Are you currently studying or working outside of your musical life?
I work full time on my music, I tried the college thing but it never really worked out for me so I went off and did the music thing full time, hopefully manage to keep it going. I mainly do gigs in Bristol, London and Exeter.
Is this a local support slot tonight or have you been on tour with Kim Churchill?
I’ve been on four dates with Kim, we did London on the 6th, Brighton on 7th, Exeter tonight (8th) and Bristol tomorrow (9th October) then that’s the last one.
How has Kim been as a tour partner?
We haven’t had much time together at all on the tour, I’ve not been able to watch him play the last couple of dates so I’m looking forward to watching him play this evening.
Are you a solo artist or have you tried working with a band before?
I work solo at the moment, I have worked with bands before but we didn’t achieve the sound that I wanted, it was more ‘jazzy’, certainly not what I wanted at all, I really enjoy drum machines, bands like The XX are amazing and I want to chase that style of sound.
Do you prefer working on your own?
I guess so, you know what you’ve done and don’t have anyone else to account for, I make my own backing beats and in the future if I did have a band, at least they can learn what I like and then work to produce more of ‘my’ sound.
How has social media assisted you in getting your music out there?
Soundcloud has been amazing, I did a cover of Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggety’ which has achieved way over a million plays, I’ve been getting 7-10,000 plays a day on my Soundcloud profile, it’s incredible, the people come from all over the world and the comments are really positive. I still need to try and conquer Facebook and Twitter, I’ll get there one day!
What has been the biggest or best gig to date?
I've played some amazing shows and had some excellent experiences. A couple of years ago, I performed at the unveiling of the Olympic rings at St Pancras station in london, Lord Seb Coe and Boris Johnson were there, so that was a big ‘wow’ moment for me, I guess the best shows are the ones that you don’t really expect to be very good and the audience just really picks up a vibe from you and starts loving the material, it gives you the confidence to just keep on doing it.
What are your plans for the remainder of 2014?
Carrying on writing songs, recording, more shows. I’m quite underground at the moment and I want to get more songs written. I’m also suffering with a cold and struggling at the moment.
Are you planning on playing any new material tonight?
I have lots of songs that I drop into the set depending on how things are going, so you’ll have to wait and see!
Do you have an album or an EP that people can check out?
I have one EP available on iTunes, it’s called ‘All The Boyfriends’, you can check out more material on Soundcloud, I hope to have more material going up there soon.
We'd like to thank Alice Jemima for sparing her time to chat to us and we wish her every success in the future with her cool homemade beats!
Interview by Steve Muscutt
SOCIAL MEDIA