We just did a phone interview with Candice Alley, who woke up super early in Australia for us to chat! Candice tells us all about her feelings about being an independent artist, who she grew up listening to and why she would be Lady Gaga for a day!

PRO MOTION is shipping Candice’s next single ‘Before You Go’ with remixes by DeMarko to Billboard and Mix Show this week so look out for it! Here is a preview!

INTERVIEW

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BEFORE YOU GO (DEMARKO! RADIO MIX)

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Were you always interested in music?

Always. Music’s always been a big part of who I am, as I’m sure every artist can understand. Doing anything else is just not as rewarding or as fulfilling as writing and performing and it’s something I’ve done since I was very small. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

How did it feel to be nominated for an award with your first single “Falling” from the Australian Recording Industry?

That was a very special year for me and I also opened the show that year with “Falling” so that was definitely a definitive moment for me and great to get such recognition for a song by the nominating that year so that was definitely a highlight.

I’m sure that was quite the experience. You were very young then, weren’t you? Like 16?

I was. I think I was about 22 or 23.

So that was a pretty good first single then.

It was a great one.

I know that you’re now an independent artist, but you had been on a larger label before. How does being an independent artist compare to being on a larger label?

It certainly has it’s challenges on a marketing level, but you definitely get to steer things in the direction you want, as opposed to being guided by a record label, which gives you the freedom and complete control of who you are as an artist and I think that’s also important. It definitely has good and bad sides, but in the end, I think having creative control is extremely important, so, yeah, I think being independent is putting yourself in a great position also.

You write your own music and you play instruments. Do you ever feel as though that aspect of your performances are overlooked? Do you think that people just think of you as a singer rather than having the talent?

It can definitely be overlooked for artists, which is frustrating at times, but you just have to keep doing what you’re doing and eventually people will take notice and I think the most important thing as an artist is to keep writing and, of course, write your own material, if you can and eventually people should sit up because, I think, with songwriting, you’re really putting something out there that’s coming from an honest place and I think that’s important. Eventually, people come around but it can be overlooked at times.

When you write songs, where does the inspiration come from?

I’m not really sure. I mean, I’ve never forced myself to sit there and write a song, it usually happens on it’s own, but musically, I’m inspired by a lot of older artists that I grew up with listening to or my family was listening to, as opposed to current artists, which I’m sure a lot of other artists can understand and comprehend, as well.

Who were some of the artists that you grew up listening to?

Stuff like The Eagles and The [Rolling] Stones and Bob Dylan, old, classic people like that. Melodically, I think, that’s really going back to the roots of music and I think their songs are still great and that’s why they survive. I think that’s a huge inspiration for me.

Are you going to be working on a new album anytime soon or are you going to be focusing on family, with twins on the way?

I’m constantly writing and recording and I think my twins are going to give me a whole new chapter of writing material on the way, which is great. Through my pregnancy, they’ve been my captive audience at the moment. It’s very exciting.

What albums are you currently playing at the moment?

At the moment, I’ve been listening to everything from Lady GaGa to Wilco and then I’ll always go back to the old artists that I love, which I was saying before, and that’s basically where I get a lot of my writing inspiration from. I listen to a bit of everything, really. If you were to look at my music collection, you’d see a whole variety of things there.

If you could choose to be any other singer for a day, who would you be and why?

I’d probably have to say someone like Gwen Stefani or Lady GaGa because their videos look like they have a lot of fun, so I’d have to pick someone like that.

Thanks Candice!

Before You Go