Ameriie & Lenny out & about in Beverley Hills
Ameriie is loving the married life. The “1 Thing” singerand her husband Lennie Nicholson, who were married in June, looked happy as can be as they strolled hand in hand through Beverly Hills on Wednesday (Oct. 26).
Ameriie is set to make her return to music next year with her fifth album Cymatika, Vol. 1, which will incorporate elements of trance, electronic, house, heavy drums, and new wave.
Tiger JK and Tasha to be on Ameriie’s new album.
Fresh off her marriage to former manager, Lenny Nicholson, singer Ameriie headed straight for the studio upon her return to the US. In an exclusive with Billboard’s The Juice, Ameriie leaked news of her collaborating with Korea’s “Jay-Z and Beyonce,” for her fifth album. ”Cymatika Vol 1.”
On the last album you collaborated with Trey Songz, Fabolous, and Lil Wayne. Any collaborations this time around?
I did a Korean version of “Outside Your Body” [her current single]with Drunken Tiger‘s (Korean/American hip-hop group) member, [Tiger] JK and his wife (Tasha Reid). Those are my collaborations. JK is like the Korean Jay-Z. She’s (Tasha) also a rapper.They’re both amazing. I’m doing a record or two for Tasha’s upcoming album. I haven’t done it yet, and she’s probably going to kill me because I’ve been running around doing so much.Her new albumis scheduled for release in Summer 2012.
(Source: drunkencamp.wordpress.com)
Ok, Amerie (oh yeah i forgot AMERIIE) is my favorite RnB chick, but she seems to get overlooked by the industry. ALL of AMERIIE’s albums have been the bomb, so you know I’m super syked about her new album: CYMATIKA VOL.1; it’s suppose to be a new experimental sound that’s heavily pop influenced. AMERIIE done changed her name (only by adding another “i’ LOL) and she even dyed her hair this extreme blond color. My girl done pulled out all the stops and it ain’t no stoppin her now!!! Click on the photo to hear her new song: OUTSIDE YOUR BODY, the track is HOTT; also, follow AMERIIE on twitter: @ItsAmeriie
"Riley Urick
“Me and Ameriie got back on our music flow today!!! We actually are producing together for this latest joint. Sounds like the Himalayas mixed with Epic rock drums in the jungle with Slash rippin a solo while Toto does Backgrounds!!!! ya sumthin like that #Cymatika"
(Source: facebook.com)
Ameriie knocks out interviews with “Vibe Magazine” & a TV interview with Beats Per Mnet at the Mnet Studio
Had a grt time at Mnet w/ @BPMer & behind-the-scenes w/ @VibeMagazine! Thank u guys so much! #Cymatika baby!!!
Ameriie Explores Freedom, Androgyny, & New World Order on New Album
Ameriie breaks out of the box and explores new territory on her fifth album Cymatika, Vol. 1, which includes unorthodox topics ranging from ancient astronaut theory to androgyny to new world order mixed with elements of trance, electronic, house, heavy drums, and new wave.
“There’s a song about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with extraterrestrials destroying them with nuclear weapons,” explained the Georgetown grad of “Sodom & G.” “I don’t feel like that’s really been done.”
Other tracks include the mechanical “Intimidation,” “Run for Cover,” and the likely first single “FireStarter (Private Dancer).” “I really wanted to talk about thehuman experience,” shared Ameriie. “I wanted to talk about other stuff, but in a way that’s still listenable.”
Rap-Up.com spoke with the newly married singer about what we can expect from her genre-bending album.
How would you describe Cymatika, Vol. 1?
This album is pretty much trance, electronic, elements of house, heavy drums—not hip-hop in that sense, but drums that knock—and new wave with classic song structure. I probably finished about 80% of the project. Now what I’ve been focusing on is creating songs that really have strong essence of each of those elements in one song. I used dubstep ’cause I love the gritty sound of it. That’s my challenge right now is to take all of these five elements and combine them into one record.
A lot of the topics are about us as human beings—who we really are on that level, not a physical level. One thing I was experimenting with from a vocal aspect was androgyny and approaching the vocal in an androgynous fashion. To me it represents the dropping away of the veil of what’s physical and on a spiritual level, we’re not really men or women or age, we’re ageless eternal spirits without gender, without sex, so the androgyny symbolizes that—and of course it’s fun. A lot of the songs don’t really sound like me. I think I’m gonna have to start putting out albums every year because that’s the only way I can keep up with myself creatively. Albums are bookmarks of where I am creatively. I really want to put out more albums.
Who are you working with?
Riley Urick. He’s really talented. He has a great ear for what you want and he works with a crew of guys too. I worked with Andre Harris, formerly of Dre & Vidal. He did about half of the album.
Does the album have a theme?
The theme of the album is what it means to be human. I have songs about not being intimidated by society and what people think you should be, not wanting to be chic, kinda wanting to have your own identity and not feel like you have to follow the crowd. I also talk about self-suppression and how sometimes we suppress the feelings that we have or the ideas that we have. I’m into ancient astronaut theory, so I’ve combined my love for that into a song called “Sodom & G.” I basically compare the end of a relationship to the end of those cities. I make reference to me wanting to look back at the relationship when I still want to hold on just for a little bit longer before I totally relinquish it. Underneath that layer is the layer that Sodom and Gomorrah is not just being destroyed, but is being destroyed by nuclear weapons—all in a very listenable song.
How was the recording process different from the past?
I love to create moods and create sounds. Music is all vibration so I love to experiment. When you break out of a genre, you really have the freedom to do whatever you want. In all my situations, I’ve always had creative freedom so I never felt like the label was trying to get me to do something. However, it wasn’t until I really, really felt free that I realized that I felt a freedom that I didn’t even feel before when I felt free before. Right now, the page that I’m on is I’ma do what I want, and I always felt like I was like that. I do what I want and how I want to do it. There were parts of me that weren’t really ready to totally do what I wanted. No one else was holding me back. It was just myself. It’s kinda like [one of the new tracks] “Run for Cover,” it’s like running from yourself and you’ll eventually run out of places to hide.
What inspired you this time around?
The things that inspired me on this album were everything from fire to the color red to any indigenous people, like with the chanting on “Sodom & G.” Also machines and machinery to ideas of new world order to who we are as spiritual beings. I was like, ‘F– it. I’ma do what I want.’ I don’t care if it sounds really crazy.
What can you share about the first single, “FireStarter (Private Dancer)”?
On the surface, it’s about having fun, dancing the night away basically. A certain part of the song is fun, but it also speaks to our “look at me” culture a little bit. It’s kinda how everyone wants to be in the spotlight, not necessarily being in entertainment, just in some form. And kinda like how the world is a stage and how we are all the creator of our own reality. The hook goes, “‘Cause everybody in this whole wide world wants to be somebody in this world.” It’s very subtle, I don’t go deep into it like in the other songs.
Let’s talk about “Intimidation”…
When I did the vocals on “Intimidation,” that was different. When I hear that song, I hear stark warehouse, people being systematically programmed into doing certain things every day, living in the system, living in the matrix, living under certain rules. When you live under certain guidelines and rules, eventually you’ll adopt them yourself and then you don’t have to control the population because everyone controls themselves. It has this driving beat, it’s like a big, heavy beat, but it almost feels like machinery.
What do you hope people take from this album?
For this project, people will really know me because it’s not just about romance, it’s about other stuff in general and what I believe. If they listen to the CD, they can actually come away with it and say, “I know her and what she’s about.”
Ameriie interviews with Billboard
Ameriie has kept busy since the release of her last album, “In Love & War” (2009), both in love and work. The singer took time off before recording her upcoming fifth studio album, “Cymatika Vol. 1” (Spring 2012), to plan a “magical” Carribean wedding with music executive, Lenny Nicholson.
After stepping off the plane, Mrs. Nicholson clicked her heels to the studio to continue working on “Cymatika Vol 1,” which she says is 80% finished. Ameriie shared exclusive details with Billboard.com’s The Juice on the makings of “Cymatika Vol. 1”
The Juice: How has marrying Lenny affected you musically?
Ameriie: It hasn’t really changed things. We’ve been together for a long time, a little over seven years. We’ve always been a team. He’s always kind of been my muse. We’re so set in terms of a recording process. I always bounce ideas off of him, he always helps me figure out exactly the sound I want.
“In Love & War” was about the gray area between being in love and not. Now that you’re a married woman, is that something you touch upon on “Cymatika Vol. 1”?
This particular album is different as far as the subject matter. I kind of went in a place I didn’t go before. Relationships are very important to talk about but I also want to go a little deeper in to what it is that makes us human and what we have in common. Not just only from a romantic aspect, but what it is that makes us tick. I consider myself to be a very spiritual person. I love science, I love quantum physics and metaphysics. I just wanted to put that into my music.
You can figure out how to include anything in music, you just [have] to make sure it sounds good. I don’t like to be too preachy, so a lot of the stuff is subliminal or it has such a driving beat so that if you don’t want to hear the message, you don’t have to. You’ll either recognize what it is immediately because you’re into the same thing or you want to investigate it further.
What are the core genres of the album?
Trance and electronic. 80’s new wave, but not in the sense of the sound, particularly, but more so the song structures themselves. I really wanted to try different things. Even with vocal approach, some of the songs my sister listened to and she didn’t even know it was me. I wanted to experiment with androgyny. Some of the ways I was singing, it’s kind of androgynous. I felt like, if we strip away who we are on the outside physically including gender… ultimately, we are spirits that have no gender. To me, putting that androgyny into some moments of the songs was able to bring that in. It was a lot of things that I believe, feel, and my outlook on life put into this album, but not just in lyrical ways. It’s in the lyrics, it’s in the song structure, it’s in the vocal approach. I’m really excited about sharing it.
It’s a straight trajectory of the “Because I Love It” album which was released in Europe in 2007. In other ways, it’s so far down the line it’s completely unlike anything I’ve done.
We’ve heard you’re recording this album in “DNA repairing frequencies,” is this true?
To record in 528 [Hz] you have to have specific equipment. Everything we have right now is dissonant. The way everything’s tuned, everything is on a frequency that is not in tune with nature. If you go to certain websites, you can hear songs in the one frequency we use now. Everything we listen to right now is actually dissonant.
What I would like to do is record in just [528 Hz] frequency but you have to get that equipment. You have to get producers to tune in their equipment. They can do it but they have to overhaul everything to get into this program to create that sound. Someone told me I should talk to a [specific] engineer because Erykah Badu or someone was experimenting with this as well. But again, you have to overhaul all the equipment. All the sounds that a guy has in his producer’s box, all his drum kits, everything, needs to be retuned. It’s a big project.
Which producers are you working with?
Different people, but two I’ve worked really closely are Andre Harris, of Dre & Vidal but has branched off to do his own thing. He did probably a majority of [the album]. He and his team really captured what I wanted and what I really wanted to go for with the project. I also worked with Riley Urick who is just an awesome, awesome producer. He creates things from scratch right before your eyes, really quickly.
Will you and Rich Harrison work together?
We spoke about it not too long ago and I think we wanted to do something with this project. I went over it with him, what I was looking for in general, but we didn’t go too in depth because he’s been working a lot with his artists. I think that would be something a lot of people have been waiting for and something we’re ultimately going to do. It’s just a matter of when and in what way. We have great energy. We’re going to have to have a block of time where we can sit and really create.
Tell us about a few songs from the album.
Ameriie: There’s a song called “Run For Cover.” It’s kind of like a metaphor [for] self suppression. We’re suppressing who we really are or our ideas. We’re truly not living 100% authentically with ourselves and representing ourselves to the world as who we really are. We’re always running. But we’re not running from someone else, we’re really running from ourselves. Ultimately you’ll run out of places to hide because you can never really run from your true self.
There’s another song I wrote called “Sodom and G,” like Sodom and Gomorrah. The song on the surface is about a broken relationship. It’s destroyed. I compare that to the fiery destruction the city of Sodom and Gomorrah [faced]. I used the biblical story as an example as far as looking back that, I’m looking back at everything I left behind. The twist in “Sodom and G” is that, because I’m so into ancient astronaut theory, [I included] the theory that extraterrestrials were here in ancient times and helped build the pyramids. It’s also the idea that Sodom and Gomorrah wasn’t destroyed by a fire ball, but was actually destroyed by nuclear weapons from extraterrestrials. People might be like, “What?!” but I use a lot of layers when I’m writing; I like to really layer. Its fun for me as an artist and it really allows me to get into it and tell the story I want to tell.
On the last album you collaborated with Trey Songz, Fabolous, and Lil Wayne. Any collaborations this time around?
I did a Korean version of “Outside Your Body” with Drunken Tiger’s (Korean/American hip-hop group) member, [Tiger] JK and his wife (Tasha Reid). Those are my collaborations. JK is like the Korean Jay-Z. She’s (Tasha) also a rapper.They’re both amazing. I’m doing a record or two for Tasha’s upcoming album. I haven’t done it yet, and she’s probably going to kill me because I’ve been running around doing so much.
Ameriie’s new single “Firestarter” goes to radio this summer.
(Source: Billboard)
Ameriie, Sia & Rich Harrison?
A few moments ago, the incredibly talented Australian singer/songwriter Sia Furler repsoned to a fan’s question about her working with Ameriie.
siamusic @PdotHALL @ItsAmeriie oh yeh! when are you back in the studio! i have some songs for you! let’s do a session with rich harrison.
Ameriie & 4Minute rock Music Bank (2010)
Ameriie working with 50 Cent & T.I’s producers for upcoming album
Look forward to working with the lovely @ItsAmeriie Upcoming ALbum is going to be #Phenominal Team SecretSpecialists is on it @MrCaviar https://twitter.com/#!/TheRealGSparkz/status/11880031928188928
