Q: Congrats on your first single of the year! What was the writing process like for “Good to you”?
Alana: Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. At the beginning the writing process was quite tricky. Usually when I write, I already have a set theme in mind of how I would like to portray things across to people or how they could relate to my songs. For this writing process, I decided to take my current feelings around the time and mess around with lyrics and melodies to relieve stress. I was extremely stressed over my life as being a young adult and worries over future plans and ended up thinking, this might actually be a good idea!
Q: How has growing up surrounded by Caribbean culture influenced your music?
Alana: If I was to tell my younger self I would be making music with music from my culture, I wouldn’t have believed it! My family is extremely proud of our culture and I grew up listening to the music, it’s a huge part of my life. We would often go to cultural events too where old dancehall, soca, bashment, reggae, chutney, calypso and so forth would always be playing. I usually listen to a lot of different genres as my music taste but music from the Caribbean will always be one of my mains. As my parents have West Indian accents, I thought it would be weird or out of place to make West Indian music with a more westernised voice type. I’m really happy I could find a mixture between making music with my heritage influence and to use my voice.
Q: How did a falling-out with a friend inspire you to start making your own music?
Alana: If I’m honest, it wasn’t falling out with a friend that influenced me to start making music but it definitely helped me to progress. I had made an ep when I was 17 for a college project to do with struggling with depression and mental health issues. My music was very dark both lyrically and musically. In the end it was very poorly done and I decided on removing it completely and starting fresh in the future. I started making music again at the ending of 2019 within a gap year I had taken for uni. For the whole year, I had nothing to do and I thought it would be best to get back in the game. I wanted this time around to start making music on things everyone goes through whether that be discovering self confidence, having a friendship break up, worrying about adulthood but at the same time trying to uplift them or help them to dance it out. I didn’t want to be generic and make love songs when I’d prefer to help people through my music and to tell them they’re not alone! I definitely think “be friends” was the one single that sparked up the interest though.
Q: I loved listening to all your covers! Which are you most proud of so far?
Alana: Thank you so much! I really appreciate you listening to them, not many people listen to them as it’s something I do for fun and for my comfort. My most favourite remix cover done so far would be, the “Woman” Doja Cat remix cover and the “I don’t do drugs” Doja cat, ft. Ariana Grande remix cover. As I usually edit everything, write my own lyrics and record them in myself I think these ones came out best. I really like my melodies and flow on these too! I really love making these all though, it kind of helps me to imagine what it would be like to work with all of these incredible artists and how I would sound on a track with them.
Q: This might be a tough one, but what would you say is your favorite album of all time?
Alana: It’s really hard to choose as someone who listens to almost every genre haha but, my favourite album of all time would probably have to be “Beauty behind the madness” or “the trilogy” by The Weeknd. I was a huge fan of The Weeknd growing up and would listen to “The trilogy” and “beauty behind the madness” so much to the point that, if I decided to not hear it for another 10 years, I would still know every word to them listening to it for the first time in 10 years! The production and insane melodies (by Abel) were way ahead of its time.
Q: Are you going to be releasing any new music soon? We can’t wait to see what you do next!
Alana: I will most definitely be releasing very soon! I have a couple of more songs lined up for this year (maybe 3 or 4) so you may get sick of me haha, but some are still in the midst of writing and recording. I hope when they do release that you’ll enjoy them, they will most definitely be different from each other genre wise but still in the pop/rnb place of course! Thank you so much!
Written By Sarah Curry
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