Interview with Alison David


Q: How does it feel to have finally your own CD after endless years of guest appearances on other people's records?

Alison David: Well, it's not the album I imagined. It is in fact just a collection of my favourite recordings up until the date that I was thinking of giving up, at least my approach to, music. The CD was put in to be manufactured by some teenage boys on a school business scheme called the Young Enterprise scheme. It is an international charity organisation set up to help teach kids business skills. The boys saw my music as a way to make a profit and they have; albeit a little one. Tired of having to suffer for my art and feeling the 'album of my dreams' to be always a little out of my reach, I realised I was keeping to myself what I had intended to share and got on with it. Now I have an album and no pressure on me to hone down my sound. I'm quite happy with it, it's like a history book of my 10 year dance with music making.

Q: You've been a guest singer on many songs. Which of these session works has influenced your music style and maybe the way you write/sing a song today.

Alison David: I guess they all have.
Some of the bands have influenced my music business skills, I'd say Ashley Beedle was the best for that. He split things down the middle always. Some bands have shown me how never to work...
As far as sound is concerned, I remembered how much fun it is to get people dancing and really rock out when I played with Freeland. Also The Egg gigs I've performed resound in my memory, because it's so fun to make people high. Most of my musical influences come from bands I haven't had the pleasure of playing with yet. Mellow's sound was very lovely to work with also.
There's so much more to making music than the sound itself and the bands I've collaborated with have shown me things like how to tour, studio skills, picking a band, how to share the stage well, on stage sound, marketing,...the list goes on.

Q: Please tell me how you've teamed up with the No Limit team.

Alison David: My friend, Nic Askew, teaches on the Young Enterprise scheme. His students were stuck for an idea when their original first one was not possible. He played the boys my music and suggested me.

Q: Your album Believe is available for some time now. How content are you with the reactions so far?

Alison David: I am happy with the reactions. Moving on from being precious about my music, the most important thing is if it touches people. The feedback I'm getting is telling me it does, what more could I want? I love the fact that the audience is spreading slowly. I haven't sought distribution yet, so I hope the album will go much further as I do.

Q: How do you describe your music style and where do you see your niche in today's music scene?

Alison David: I think soul is the closest word. I wish I knew a good genre name. I like neo soul term best I think. It's so hard when you have to choose a music genre box to fit in online. At least soul is back as a choice these days. I was trying to think how best to describe the genre of bands I frequently play in this morning, Life's Addiction, Red Snapper, Speeka, Mellow, Freeland - they're all fusion music with a tendency to dance.

Q: Which artists keep inspiring you?

Alison David: Stevie Wonder just keeps on inspiring me. Sometimes I lose interest then wham! I hear another song by him that I've never heard and have to stop and marvel at his skills. I received a CD from the Freestylers today, they might wanna do a track with me, and I'd say this fusion dance music, like the bands I mentioned before, is inspiring. The whole broken beat/neo soul thing too. There's still so much room for proper soul songs on all that. Otherwise, people I've heard in my immediate environment influence me most, like Dave Sanderson, for example, the singer from Andy Barlow from Lamb's new band, Hoof (www.hoof.tv coming soon). This man can perform! Or The Hat who do poetry, story and song together with avant garde jazz tinged music. Then there's Bela Emerson who plays solo cello shows sexily alone with her cello and sound effect boxes. I saw Sophie Barker on the weekend and her beautiful tones and vocal range inspired me as did her use of 2 acoustic guitars, a sound that I love. It's such a shame that the most inspiring music I've found is 'underground'.

Q: Your lyrics are very personal and sometimes criticise what's wrong in society. What are your sources of inspiration?

Alison David: It's so funny, all my songs teach me, even if I don't realise that at the time of writing them. My inspiration for lyrics mainly comes from my life and my own journeys trying to realise my dreams. I have been very gifted in my life and have observed that many people don't seem to be as happy as I have been. I see people around me falling into society's traps and each time dying a little more inside. I want to share the joy, and being an optimist mainly, I really can see a better world filled with love and honest communication. I think sharing our difficulties reminds others how much we all have in common.

Q: You offer a few songs on your website for downloading. Why are you so generous with your music while most other artists only offer short sound snippets?

Alison David: I can't be bothered with snippets, they take too much time to make. The way I see it, people need to know about my music to buy it and I hope that the people I give free tracks to will spread the word. I don't have my CDs in the shops internationally and my mailing list is all over the world, if I don't share my music people won't get it. When I have set up the facility to sell my music easily, perhaps I won't give so much of it away. So people better grab it while they can! I believe in flow, and personally find the flow of money from my listeners only feeds me with the money to buy the time to make more. Therefore I have recently invited my listeners to put some money in my paypal account, using my email address. It's an easy way to say "Thank you". I wanted to trust that I will be naturally rewarded for my music, 1 time, I sold a CD for " a price of your choice" and the average it came to was very fair. As far as piracy is concerned, I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT FOR MUSIC TO BE SHARED. Feel free to share my music. What I would say is find a way to invest in the artists you like, like going to our gigs.

Q: I really like the soul songs on Believe especially the acoustic ones. Is this a direction you like to explore more on future releases?

Alison David: It's funny the ones you call soul. I never thought of I'm Gonna Find You as a soul song, though now you make me think of it...Definitely flowing in the old soul blackness kinda sound now that I'm maturing. Yes. Definitely more soul and rock and dance. I want my audience to be moving but I also want moments that people can sit and listen too. It's what I would like as a listener. I went through an acoustic phase last year, this year, expect noise...

Q: You have also composed music for movies. Please tell me more about this and in which way is it different from writing/record music for an album like Believe.

Alison David: Aah..., movies...I like doing them. I'm dreaming of James Bond. I love working to a brief. Songs convey emotion and it's fun for somebody else to create the emotions that you then interpret into music. I can be as maleable and versatile a singer as I want on movie soundtracks and play with parts of my voice that I don't usually use. They have taught me the most and through my part in the film "Trauma" in which I starred as a dead popstar alongside Colin Firth and Mena Souvari I got to get a little acting role and fulfil another of my dreams. I get quite a lot of my feedback from people who've discovered my music through the films 'CQ' and 'Trauma'.

For more infos visit alisondavid.com, nolimit.org.uk and read my review of Believe.