Welcome to the music room. At this time in the music room.
I used to lock myself in my room and she kind of used to coax me out with, you know, 2 coins and say, look, if you sing this, this, this song, Little Mermaid song, you know, you can, you can have your treat early this week and
Wow. Monetizing your art at a very early age.
I guess it did,
Welcome to the Music Room where I chat with professional composers, songwriters and musicians about their music lives before going back in time to find out how it all began for them. I hope this show will resonate with you, and maybe even inspire you with the item and advice that will be left in the Music Room later on. In this episode I'll be chatting with singer Amelia Jones. I say singer rather than soprano because Amelia is so versatile.
She loves to perform early music, But she's also sung on gaming soundtracks. So I'll be asking her about those different approaches. Anyway, first up is Music Stories. Baranovsky has scored the music for The Teacher, a shattering work that feels as current as today's headlines. Directed by Farah Nabolsi, The Teacher will be shown at the San Francisco Film Festival on the 26th and 27th of April, 2024. Cool. Trent Resner has been talking streaming inequality in gq.
He said, I think the terrible payout of streaming services has mortally wounded a whole tier of artists that make being an artist unsustainable. And it's great if you are Drake and it's not great if you're Grizzly Bear. Great band, by the way. And the reality is, take a look around. We've had enough time for the whole all boats rise argument to see they don't all rise. Those boats rise, these boats don't. money in any means, and I think that's bad for art.
And Trent, I for one agree with you wholeheartedly. And those were the music stories. Welsh born vocalist Amelia Jones is a compelling, passionate and nuanced performer, known for her crystal clear tone and expressive vocal delivery. Amelia is now based in Bristol in the UK after spending over a decade in Australia.
Amelia has become a choice vocalist for cutting edge contemporary composers and her work can be heard in award winning video games and Japanese anime productions, including Star Wars Visions on Disney Plus and Eden on Netflix. Let's find out more from Amelia herself and how it all began for her.
Amelia Jones, vocalist. Welcome to the music room.
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me, Gareth.
so welcome. How are you today?
I'm good. I'm good. It's been, a busy day. I've been preparing for a performance that I have on Saturday, um, just over the bridge in Cardiff, it's the, yeah, Cardiff Gaming and Anime Con. So I'm singing a set there of music from video games and anime. So yeah, I've just been preparing for that really.
I'm sure we're going to get into all of the Well, the stuff you've been doing around gaming, because actually there's quite a variety of work that you do because you're into performance as well. Um, so, I mean, you've got that going on. You've got other things going on as well. I know you perform, don't you?
I do, yeah, perform as well as record. Um, This week, I kind of, I had high expectations of myself this sort of past week, because I had a bit of time off like between recording projects. And I thought, Oh, I'm going to get so much done. And I was finally going to sort of lay down all my ideas that I've had for, you know, various things, songwriting, get heaps of admin done, but I got quite sick and I lost my voice, which was really weird.
That must be as a singer. I mean, that's It'd be
it was
guitarist losing control of their hands or something. Mm
Yeah, I'm sure we could go into, you know, all sorts of metaphors.
Has that happened to you before?
years and years ago, but it's, it's never been really as significant as it was, um, at this point because, yeah, like I said, I was just so excited to kind of finally have some downtime in my studio and really make some leeway and all these ideas that I, and I, you know, you know, I have ideas at really strange times for, for songwriting.
Like I'll, you know, for example, be kind of in the sauna and I'll have this idea for a song and I'll have to run out of the sauna and record a little voice note on my phone. Or I think my favorite one recently is when I was on holiday. In Portugal and I got this horrible bout of food poisoning and I was in bed and I couldn't, you know, do very much of anything, but I came up with this whole idea for a song and sort of recorded it and sent it over to a composer friend of mine.
And he was like, Oh yeah, this is actually really great. It's just, I don't know what it is. Um, but I kind of have these ideas that really, at moments where I can't really do very much about them, if that
Yes, absolutely. It's the composer in you. if you, if you speak to any of the listeners of this show, I'm sure, 90 percent of them will say their best ideas come from when they're out, you know, they're going for a walk or they're, you know, in the shower or they, you know, whatever it is, just not in their creative space. and I think it's just, I don't know, distracting your brain and it does the work anyway in,
Yeah. Maybe when your guard is, your guard is down a little bit and kind of the ideas come flowing in. Yeah. So, you know, I had that sort of, I wanted to do this week, but finally today, you know, my voice has come back and everything's fine. And, you know, I did have to cancel a gig and that was a bit of a, That wasn't ideal. And I put a little story up on Instagram, um, you know, basically singing a song and asking people, like, should I do this gig or not?
Because it was a difficult decision. And yeah, the majority and the sort of singers and the professional musicians and stuff, they all said, no. And I was like, you know what, that's really, um, that's a good point. Yeah. But it's also at times like this where I sort of realize how important singing technique is because I found myself kind of like using my breath. Support and everything a little bit more. And it really, really helped. Um, so yeah, singing is
All that training getting into action there.
It kicked in. Yeah, exactly. And I think I also had a lot of expectation on this week because life has been really, really chaotic lately. Um, I, I think, you know, but yeah, I moved from Australia to Bristol about just over a year ago now. Which Seems like a really good amount of time to get things done, but it has been such a big upheaval and I've learned so many lessons in such a short space of time.
And I kind of felt like I was finally in that space to be able to just kind of do things and just create and stop overthinking it. but yeah, then I lost my voice, but I've, yeah, it's kind of like, yes, on the one hand, I've kind of had my whole life to write music and, you know, and create these ideas. Yeah, I've, I've, I've had time, but it's not truly at this, until this point where I felt actually ready to kind of take action. Yeah.
Cool. That's really good. And, uh, I presume that, well, you certainly sound better. Are you hitting, there's this holy grail of the high note, isn't there, in singing? Uh, you know, is it a gradual process when you're training to get that high? Or is it, like that holy grail to hit the high note? Okay. Okay.
feel like. Sometime. Well, yes, of course it, it feels amazing to hit high notes. Um, some people have just got it. They really do. for me, it's been a bit more of a kind of a wonky sort of, yeah. Like when I was younger. You won't believe this, but I grew up in, well, between Australia and Wales. And I think it was in year 12 for my, I Stedford in school. there was, uh, songs from a movie or musical kind of, competition. And so I went up there and I sang the Phantom of the Opera.
Theme tune, um, with all the really high at the end. It, it kind of goes like, ah, and it just keeps going. Ah, ah, like up semitones, up semitones, except probably about an octave hire. And I just, I, you know, I felt really like, confident to go and do that, and I didn't win. And I, I think. Afterwards, I remember my, my chemistry teacher coming up to me going, you know what, Amelia, I think if you chose an easier song, you probably would have won.
Ah, but yeah, that's, don't strike me as someone who chooses the easy route.
That's the thing. That's exactly it. And I just remember thinking, you What a silly thing to say, you know, it's, it's not really about winning and it's not about choosing things that are easy, it's about doing things that you love and things that challenge you, you know, um, and things that people remember. I mean, people remember that I did that because it was a bit of a bonkers thing to do, but. Yeah, it was fun.
Yeah, we get on this podcast. We do like to give some credence and credit to the people who've helped us. But. You know, in the same vein, people who've just said really silly things. Prove them wrong.
Yeah, definitely. Oh, well, you know, he, he meant no harm. Um, and I was, I was the one taking chemistry. So, you
Well, more for you. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you should be expecting the unwarranted advice in that case. Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice one. so I was listening to some of the. Hollow Knight game music on your website. That's, that's, really quite beautiful and haunting and, you know, um, I'm sure we can get into this a bit later, but what, what drew you to that, gaming side of things?
yeah. So I've, I recorded Hollow Knight when I was probably about 22. So, um, I'm 30 now. And at that time I was studying at a conservatorium of music and it wasn't a very easy time for me because I kind of felt like I was being pushed into singing opera and singing classical music in this like quite specific way. I just felt like my voice didn't naturally kind of lean that way.
And. To simplify things, I'm kind of talking about sort of vibrato versus straight tone, I, I won't, I'll, I'll spare you the, um, the example, the vocal
right.
but there were just, anyway, when I was studying in the conservatorium, there were kind of a lot of things that drew me towards, singing like the modern composition students, um, content, rather than kind of doing You know, the Puccini and all of the sort of operatic stuff everyone else was learning. I just absolutely love working directly with composers. I love being able to talk about someone about the intentions behind their music. and I love video games as well.
You know, I grew up playing games and watching a lot of anime and everything. And so Yeah. When Chris Larkin, the composer got in touch with me and asked me to record a song that he was writing for a video game sort of that evening, um, I think it was probably only about the second or third thing I'd ever recorded. I'd done one video game and, um, like a short film before that. and so I was delighted, you know, absolutely delighted. Um, and you're right.
It is, it, it's a beautiful piece of music, um, city of tears and one that has gone on to resonate with millions of people, Yeah, just a few days ago, actually, um, well, I've been chatting to Chris and, and saying, you know what, I really would love for my name to be on Spotify because I've been credited, for, for the track, but for some reason, all those years ago, we just didn't think to put me on Spotify.
So anyway, now my name is there on Spotify alongside the track and it's got, yeah, about 17 and a half million
Wow. Amazing. Amazing. I think I get it. You know, you have sides where, one day you might be singing Purcell in a performance and you're acknowledging the past and the amazing work that's been done by composers, of days gone by. But on the other side of it, you're creating, you're creating, music that will carry on and you know, it's the future. So you're kind of
a legacy. Hmm.
really it's a I think it's a lovely way to be
Oh, well, and you know what, it's just an absolute honor and privilege. And you know, I won't lie. I'm extremely fortunate that I sort of, it's not that like I fell into it, you know, I did make steps to, to guide me towards this, um, this industry, but I do feel incredibly fortunate because it's an amazing industry. It's been incredibly welcoming for me and it has been a bit of a lifeline as well.
Like. In terms of the move that I've had, because when I was living in Australia, I was doing probably far more performing than I was recording. Um, and you know, I had my network there and people were phoning me up and hiring me for things. And I kind of just went with the flow a little bit, but then with such a jarring move halfway across the world and in an industry like classical music, where it's so important in terms of.
Um, I just, yeah, it's, it's been quite difficult to continue my momentum of performance, um, that I was creating. And, you know, I, I plan to keep sort of plodding away there for sure. But yeah, I've been focusing a lot more on recording because I have realized that. I love it. And I get a lot of freedom in the studio and wherever life takes me, it will kind of always be there as well, which is just so incredible.
Well, talking of, you mentioned Australia, there's a whole story there. I think we should go back in time and find out what it is. Are you ready? Okay, here we are, back in time. Um, so, Amelia, you mentioned Wales. there in, uh, in previous section. How did it all start for you? Um, what are your first memories of music back in, back in Wales?
Yeah, so well first memories of music back in Wales. I was born there and then I left when I was three
Right.
But my dad's a really good singer And so he was he probably sang the Eagles or Tom Jones to me or something when I was very young Like I'm willing to bet that But probably Yeah, my earliest kind of memories is when we, when we moved to Perth, Western Australia, my mum started teaching piano from home. And so, um, that was really wonderful. And she'd play, you know, Chopin and Debussy.
And then she started roping me into these kind of Disney songs with her whenever people would come and visit the house. And I was excruciatingly shy as a child. I used to lock myself in my room and she kind of used to coax me out with, you know, 2 coins and say, look, if you sing this, this, this song, Little Mermaid song, you know, you can, you can have your treat early this week and
Wow. Monetizing your art at a very early age.
I guess it did, I suppose it did start quite early, didn't it? Yeah, and so for the most part I was mortified by that, but um, obviously, you know, it did start. Sort of the cogs in my brain of, ooh, I, I really love singing. Mom also had this album, which she always played in the house, um, by a singer called Neil Saka. Have you ever heard of Neil Saka?
no, I'm way too young to know who Nielsen.
Uh,
Yes. Yeah, absolutely.
think in my mind, he is a, I'm sure he is. You know, I really need to look into him again, sort of
You're kind of a crooner, Yeah,
Yeah, but he had this whole album where he was basically reinterpreting, um, famous sort of piano melodies and he would add lyrics to them. So, um, you know, say like Moonlight Sonata, for example, I can't remember what it was, but he would, he would interpret it and add lyrics and sing it. And I really loved that. And I think that that album really inspired me because I'm all about sort of crossover and reinvention and doing things that are a little bit different.
so yeah, that album was really quite good for me. And then, you know, also we listened to a lot of Led Zeppelin at home and a lot of Handel's Messiah and the Beatles when I sort of really started becoming obsessed with them when I was about 12 or 13, they made me realize like just how excellent music can be. Can be as well. So there's a lot there.
So you were singing at a very early age. Did that then lead on very naturally to the training, the lessons?
not really. I did take some lessons and I got really involved in sort of musicals at school and I played clarinet and I played piano. Um, but in terms of sort of deciding. I'm going to be a singer that came when I was about sort of 19 or 20, which seems quite, quite early in retrospect, but I did sort of waste a little bit of time attempting a law degree for a year before I decided that I was going to sort of take the plunge and, and go to a conservatory. And there are so many reasons for that.
I remember hearing Lament by Purcell for the first time, and it kind of hit me like nothing had ever really hit me before. Um, I just found it so powerful. And then I, and then I heard Jeff Buckley singing it and I was like, that's really cool, you know?
And I think all these little puzzle pieces, um, as well as me kind of joining a choir when I was studying my law degree and that sort of being the only kind of like, respite and safe haven and magical place for me, um, in that time that kind of made me realize, yeah, when I was in that choir, I was like, I really just need to sing because you just never really know what life is going to throw at you.
And I could just feel like, and I should mention as well, at that time I'd moved from Wales to Australia. By myself when I was 18. Um, and so I'd left, kind of left my family behind and it was all sort of very dramatic and there was a lot of change and I really did feel like, you know, when I would start to hum or sing, then endorphins would just kind of rush through my body and I just feel so much better. And it was like this really powerful thing.
So I'm really glad that I listened to my, myself there.
Yeah, yeah, fantastic. So what, what was it like learning at the conservatorium?
Yeah, well, when I told my mum that I was going to study classical singing, she said to me that And this will always stick with me. Um, she was like, but, but Millie, people call me Millie. Um, but Millie, you don't even like opera. You know, is what she said to me.
And in a, in a way that was kind of true, I mentioned that I was obsessed with like Dido's Lament, which is from an opera, but that's more kind of like early opera, Baroque opera, as opposed to what we might perceive as kind of stereotypical opera, um, from the more like classical era, it was. Tough at the conservatorium for me. I was not a very popular student, I think, with my teachers. Um, and I didn't do very well in my vocal exams.
In fact, I kind of got worse and worse, you know, in terms of my marks. And I think I mentioned earlier about vibrato. So there's a lot of quite natural kind of straight tone in my voice. And a lot of singing teachers don't perceive that as healthy. Um, they think that sort of a big vibrato y sound is more healthy and that's what they tried to encourage. Um, and so I kind of just felt like I was being sort of manufactured and tried to they were kind of trying to change my sound a little bit.
The main thing that I struggled with is that when I would hear all these like incredible songs, so for example, like German leader or French melody or English art song, I would get so excited thinking about all of the tonal kind of possibilities and that I could make with my voice.
Whereas I think with these kinds of art songs, a lot of what is celebrated as singers is to sort of sing them in a very you know, like all the sort of the famous recordings or with vibrato the whole time or the dynamics exactly as they are on the page. But for me, I wanted to sort of add in a bit of breathiness here and there, or start on a straight tone and bloom. And I remember being in a lesson once, um, singing a piece called Après un Rêve by Faure.
And it's the most like exquisite piece of music. In French. And I get so meticulous. Like I translate things and I read between the lines and this, this one line of the song, um, Goes, um, return, return, sunlight, Revia, revia, radiosa And the radiosa, I kind of started on a straight tone, and then I was going to blossom into this incredible vibrato. I had it all planned out, you know, and I was really excited to sort of blow my teacher away.
With my artistic interpretation of, like, oh, it's gonna, you know, come up like a sunrise. But she stopped the entire lesson and she got so angry at me and said basically, I just, Amelia, I just cannot conceive of why you would sing the word radiant. in a straight tone. I just, I will never understand that. Yeah,
song, would have got better marks.
exactly.
How
So, yeah, I just feel, and this is why I'm drawn to early music as well, Baroque music, is because, and contemporary classical music and the soundtrack stuff. Because for me, the parallels with Those styles is that as a performer, we are allowed the freedom to interpret. and we are even sort of encouraged to improvise a little bit as well. Um, especially with Baroque music.
So basically within a Baroque structure, there's like an A section and a B section, and then an A section that returns and performers back in the day. It's called, um, historically informed performance practice is something that I'm really interested in. And, and it's basically just performing the music as it would have been performed back then. And we find these things out through sort of academic resources and, you know, scribbles of remnants of sheet music and all of that.
But yeah, we know that you know, with Baroque music, the performers improvised. It was just something that they all
Well, you know what? I was going to say, you are able to have conversations with the gaming composers that you work with. Wouldn't it be interesting if you were able to have a conversation with Purcell or a conversation with Fauré? Whether they would have agreed with your lecturer at the time or they'd, you know, they're creative people.
Hmm.
I'm sure there would have been a, a back and forth about the interpretation of a, a line or, you
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's why it's important to just kind of stick to your. individual guns as well. Um, of course, you know, and, and, you know, that's not to say that I didn't have many teachers that really inspired me and were very encouraging and all of that. I did. But yeah, I think it's just so important to always remember what you really, really love. as an artist and what sends that little tingle down your spine, you know, to really pay attention to that.
Yeah. Speaking of which, your individuality. I ask all of my guests to leave an item and a piece of advice in the music room for others to find. So, uh, I presume you have prepared your item and advice.
Yes. I
first of all, what item would you like to leave in the music room?
have this very cute little Hollow Knight. figurine.
Well, I'll tell you what, Amelia, if I can take a photo, then I'll put this on the socials.
That sounds
Because it, yeah, I mean, we can try and describe it. But yeah, we'll
Yeah. It's like an iron on plasticky. figurine. Oh, here we go.
Okay,
So cute.
and that'll be available for you as well.
Thank you. And the significance of that is that someone gifted that to me at a performance that I had with the London Video Game Orchestra last year, which was amazing. And it kind of was just a little reminder to me of, the impact that we can have on people as artists and as musicians, and that we might not be aware of that impact at the time. But it's really special what we do.
Yeah. Absolutely. Brilliant. So that will go into the music room. What, can you see it?
Yeah. I'm downloading it right now.
Feel free to share. Uh, that's all fine. Um, what advice then would you like to leave in the music room?
Yeah. So like I said, I've, you know, I've learned a lot of lessons in a very short space of time with, uprooting my career. I think the main thing that I've learned is that if you're not where you want to be, then that's not the end of your story and you're the one in control, which is kind of equally scary and very liberating.
If you're not where you want to be, then you kind of just have to keep putting yourself out there and sharing with people what you can do, because people don't know whether or not to sort of hire you or, you know, whatever it may be, if they, if they're just not aware of what you can do, and that's on you as a musician to make sure that people know that. And it's exhausting. It's going to be worth it if you just keep at it.
That's brilliant advice. Thank you. Amelia Jones, it's been wonderful chatting with you. Thanks so much for joining me in the music room.
Thank you, Gareth. All the best..
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