Last night on Beats 1, Julie met with Emeli Sande ahead of the release of her new album ‘Long Live the Angels’ (out 11th November). The pair discussed the responsibility of making music, Giggs, the UK music scene, J Electronica challenging her musically, working with Wretch 32 and lots more!
On I.O.U by Wretch 32
Oh man I love Wretch, like when we made that song (I.O.U) he came round to the house and he came up with the concept, he was like, you know my sister’s name starts with a E and I wanna say I O, and I was like how about… It was like the perfect collaboration. It was great.
What was your first wow moment
It was hearing it on the radio, because I work a lot with Naughty Boy in Ealing, so I heard Heaven on the way back and I thought woah this is more than we expected. This is a bit bigger so it was, it got pretty overwhelming. [J: I could imagine] It was exciting, it was just fast and overwhelming, I did enjoy it like it was just so many people connecting to your songs and talking about lyrics to you is just a crazy feeling. [J: In your head you must thinking okay, I’ve recorded this song, I like it, it’s cool, I think it’s good, but to hear it on the radio that’s kind of like oh someone else has heard my song] It’s like, I might get paid for this [Both laugh]
You hear your music on the radio, your album comes out, you sell like 7 ga-zillion copies of this album, how powerful does that make you feel?
I mean great, but also like, responsibility, you know what I mean, it’s like you speaking not just for yourself and your friends who kind of you played the music to in the car, you’re speaking for a lot of people and a lot of people connected. So when I came to make the second album I was like, OK what can I say, what can’t I… I kind of got a bit stressed out thinking about it. Then I had to just kind of, I hung out with Naughty Boy, I hung out with my sister and they were like, listen you need to chill out, just go back to how you made it the last time, so I feel like I did and I just made songs that meant something to me.
Did you start and think, I’m not ready and stopped?
I was always writing music, but it just went in so many different directions, ‘cos I was listening to so much different type of, and one day I was like aaaaaw I wanna be a rapper, I’d do a little Hip-Hop track, [J: Hahaha Yes!] I wanna do this and then, I had to get reeled in a little bit like just you know, go back to listening to
the stuff that inspired you as a kid, like Gospel music, Soul music and that kind of brought me back into my lane [J: where you wanted to be] Yeah and came together.
Was there one thing that made you say, I’m getting out of this for a little bit, I want to chill out for a little bit.
I think there was like certain shows I started doing I just felt really tired, exhausted I was like, I’m just not progressing artistically the way I wanna progress, so I felt like I need to stop everything and just hide in the studio for a couple years, I need to get better at what I do. So that was the main thing for me, I really just wanted to catch up with myself and make sure that I’m doing it justice.
[J: I feel like for you to be able to go head first into a brand new album, there must have been some learning curves, there must have been some ohh not doing this this time, I’m gonna do it this way]
I think the biggest lesson for me was like really schedule time with your people, like your family, your friends, make sure you take time to live and experience life, so that definitely on the to do list, and um, like really my sister, my sister’s my best friend, and she’s just, when she starts saying alright cool you’ve had your chill out time, which everyday she’s like whens the album, and she’s my connection, she’s a teacher, so she’s my connection to the real world and like people that are just on their grind everyday, she’s like I need a new CD to listen to in the car like and she’ll always remind me, she’s like the kids they want some music come on, so she was like the catalyst to kind of get back on it.
On working with Giggs
That’s when I’ll get to be a rapper, if he (Giggs) let’s me do some bars, I’ll be there.
On UK music
Yeah I feel like, there’s a whole movement in the UK and I feel lucky that the beginning when I was working with Chipmunk and Wiley, it just kind of felt like the bubbles of it. It just felt like OK something’s gonna happen and everyone’s getting… I just love the confidence. I love that everyone’s like, you know what, maybe you’re not gonna let me in that door, but I’m gonna bash down this door and I’m gonna show you that people want to hear things that they can connect to, so I’m just proud of everyone, I’m proud of the whole scene right now and I feel like the whole world’s watching, so ummm it’s inspiring.
On subjects on the album
Yeah, I mean, I called the album Long Live The Angels and for me the whole kind of concept was, is a heavy dark time and I feel that truth and love and honesty, it’s kind of not encouraged anymore, it’s under attack if anything and fear is just like paramount at the moment, so the whole message of the album for me is just, you just gotta tell the truth you know, you don’t have to be lady like about it, but tell the truth and stand up for what you believe in because it needs standing up for, you know we can’t be passive anymore.
On the person she would most love this album to reach
I would love to reach someone like I was when I was a kid, someone that, I mean I grew up in Scotland so I felt very, very different and very kind of alone in what I loved listening to and very shy. So I would love to just reach someone that feels like they don’t have a voice or feel like they can’t just say what’s on their mind. I really wanna reach someone in that space and empower them, that’s what I wanna do with this album.
Have people reached out to you to let you know
Yeah I mean, the stories are crazy that’s what was really overwhelming to me and really made me realise, there’s a crazy responsibility here because to tell the truth more than anything, because songs like, let’s say Next To Me meant something completely different but then you hear aaaah it meant this in my life and I’ve done… People have gone through some crazy stuff out there and to know that it’s empowering people is, it’s a blessing really.
On who challenges Emeli in music
Yeah I mean, one people who I’ve worked with on my album is J Electronica and before I met him, I’d heard a lot of his, his poetry for me like rapping poetry on like my favourite film is Eternal Sunshine and he did like the whole ummm, I don’t know if it was a mixtape but he did the whole um [J: like a soundtrack?] Yeah, and I just feel like, actually I was flying back from South Africa to London and I first heard Bat-run-chun with the infinite and it just made me, it just gave me shivers like he could speak on such a deep poetic level, so for me that just really pushes me to kind of get to that level of poetry and that level of intellect when it comes to music so, we didn’t even mean to kind of make music together it just happened, it felt like the right spirit, he’s incredible.
What happens next
Yeah I just wanna keep going, because I wrote so many songs for this album, I think that was half the problem, I wrote so many songs that I couldn’t like define what the album was, so this time I just wanna keep coming and keep it relevant to my life at that moment [J: Yeah.] So yeah, I don’t want anymore time off. [J: Oh is it?? Oh Yes!] I just wanna keep going.
Are you ready for touring again?
I’m gonna try and do it again more healthy.
