Alice Ede: From Piano Lessons to Spotlight Performances
I had the pleasure of interviewing Alice the other day, we met over zoom and I was so intrigued to learn more about her craft! She struck me immediately as a very humble woman with a clear passion for songwriting and performing. We chatted about inspirations behind her songs, her dad’s time as an 80s DJ, learning piano with her grandma & what’s next for her. Keep reading to find out all you need to know about Alice Ede…
Can you share your journey into music?
So, I can’t even remember when I first started playing music, I was just so young. My dad was a DJ when I was growing up – an 80s DJ! I grew up listening to 80s music, which is like the complete opposite to what I make now. I think always having music on in the house definitely from an early age meant even if I wasn’t playing I was listening to music. My grandma also played the piano and she taught me how to play, when I was about 9 or 10. I was singing on my dad’s karaoke when I was like really little, ‘Lazy Town’ – god knows how everyone in the pub didn’t walk out hahaha. In fact, I think I sang ‘Sherry Baby’ and then ‘Lazy Town’, I had a really select taste in music back then. But yeah, piano was the first instrument I learnt, which a lot of people are surprised about because I play guitar pretty much everywhere now. So, I learnt that, and I just loved playing and then I started singing whilst playing and then I picked up the guitar in lockdown, so I was around fourteen/fifteen. I was self-taught on that because I was bored in lockdown!
So, following on from that are the instruments you play piano and guitar or do you play more?
Yeah so I play piano, guitar and ukelele. I haven’t played ukelele in a long time haha so maybe not anymore. And the I sing too!
Who are your major musical inspirations, and do you think that they have ended up shaping your sound?
Yeah definitely – growing up they have changed a lot. At the minute I’ve gone back to a lot of my country routes that are the artists I listened to growing up that I thought I can’t sing country because it’s not as big in the UK, it doesn’t fit my voice. Recently though I’ve started to come back to it, and I really enjoy singing country. Actually, even when I gig someone will say ‘you sing country don’t you for fun’ because they can just hear it in my voice. Which is a massive compliment! In terms of influences at the minute I love Noah Kahn who’s massive. I think he’s amazing, he’s more folk than country but I just love his song writing. I saw him live last year at Co-op Live and that was just amazing. You know how when you go to see an artist and there’s always a few songs that you don’t know and you just have to pretend to know them, but I knew every single song and it was incredible!
I also love Billy Joel, I saw him at the BST Hyde Par a couple of years ago – it was absolutely amazing, I got tickets as an early eighteenth birthday present. It’s expensive to get tickets for but it’s so worth it. I love him especially when I was learning to play piano he was a massive inspiration. He’s got a lot of classical music influences, a lot of his songs are based on classical songs. I love him and his songwriting and the arrangement of his songs.
I also love a singer called Maggie Rogers, she’s really cool. Almost like country-folk but she’s mixing it with modern day electronic music. I love the production of her songs.
Feel free to pick any of your songs – could you tell us about the creative process behind that song?
Yeah so I’ll say my first ever song I released because there’s a bit of a story behind it. So, the first ever song I released I was fifteen I think, and I actually released it through a competition called Pattern + Push. So, they are based in South Yorkshire, and they actually now have a stage at tramlines, yeah they normally take over the library stage on a Saturday. I joined that when I was still quite shy with posting my music online and my mum and my dad were just like ‘you should go for it because it’s going to give you a confidence boost. You’re singing all the time, you’re writing songs all the time and now you just need the confidence to put it out there’. I applied on the deadline day, and I got through hahaha! It was so cool we got to do all of these masterclasses with industry songwriters and artists. One of the mentors was ‘Coco’ who is a rapper from Sheffield. We also had Elliot Kennedy who has written with Gary Barlow – it was so cool such an amazing experience. Alongside that we were writing a song (there was about forty of us but only eight got through to record the song). So, if you got through to the final eight you got to go to MU studios, record your song and you’d get the song for free as well. Somehow I got through to the final eight hahah 15-year-old me. I remember not having a song written yet because I hate forcing it out because if I do its going to be rubbish. So, I was scrolling through my phone with my notepad out for inspiration and I saw this picture of a city. That’s when I wrote the song ‘Out This City’ which was about getting out and people able to do things again (because it was during lockdown). I got through and managed to record it all in one day, a very long day! We actually rearranged most of the song in the studio, so me and the producer sat down and changed it all around to make it work. I took my dad with me he was loving it and fangirling the entire time. I got to release it and to be fair it didn’t do the best because I didn’t have a big following.
A few years later, I played at Tramlines Festival (Library Stage) and people must have seen me so later I received and email from ‘The Full Monty’ series on Disney+. I was emailed whilst I was on holiday, and I was like ‘that is a scam hahah!’. Turns out it was real, and they were sending me contracts over because they wanted to use it in the series. I was like ‘no way, get lost, no you don’t!’ so it kind of resurfaced in June 2023! It was so cool, I got to do loads more publicity for it, so I went of BBC Look North, and I did something for ITV Calendar but I never saw it haha but I heard it was out there. It wasn’t even necessarily the song as much as I loved making the song and the experience, it was the things I’ve got to do since releasing the song.
When did you feel like you were starting to make your mark, was there a specific performance or something in particular?
You know what that’s actually quite a hard question because I’ve never sat down and thought I was making my mark. Especially as creatives it’s quite hard to say that you’re proud of yourself. When I first started out that was more when I was like ‘wow this is so cool!’. When you’ve been doing it for a few years though doing something now isn’t as crazy as it would’ve been if I did it three years ago. You do forget to sit back and think about how cool things have been. When I actually thought it myself was probably the first ever performance I ever did. It was just after the Pattern + Push competition, and it was at Tramlines. It was really the first time everyone had come out after Covid. I remember being stood backstage and I was nearly sick! I didn’t want to look because I didn’t want to see if there was one person or three hundred people. Tramlines is one of those places where you go on, you’ve only got a few people but as soon as the music starts everyone just pours into the tent. That’s exactly what happened! I remember seeing family friends, people from school that I’d never even spoken to, but they were supporting and some of my teachers were there too hahah. I’d posted my music on social media and my music teacher, Miss Brown, she was amazing but other than that not many of my teachers knew that I sang or anything. After that performance coming off was like the craziest post-performance high I’ve ever had. My dad was there with a beaming smile across his face. There have definitely been bigger things I have done but for myself that’s definitely where I thought I was starting to make my mark.
I played the main stage at Tramlines last year with The Leadmill Orchestra and I chose to sing ‘Minor Hypnosis’ the newest release of mine. We got to have it orchestrated for us, so we did a few shows at Leadmill, and the final thing was at Tramlines. Obviously that is way bigger but because it was such a long process for that you kind of get used to it. I remember being backstage on main stage it was early, and they were doing all the sound checking and I remember knowing the song that was being sound checked – it was so crazy that I was playing the same stage as them. I’d seen Paolo Nutini play the day before, and I love him, so it was amazing to play the same stage that he had been on.
What is next for you?
Last year I kind of took a break from releasing music it wasn’t the plan! I study songwriting at uni and one of my teachers was saying ‘when you’re young you literally just want to cram it all in and get it all out. The outlets you have at the minute are so good’. So, it’s important to get as much out as you can and constantly write, especially when you’re younger and have so many things happening in your life that you won’t necessarily have happen to you when you’re in your fifties. But for me it’s having the final product with the production how I want it and listening to it and thinking yeah I’m ready to put that out there. So that didn’t happen last year. I love writing but I hate recording vocals in the studio because it is such a long process that can get so tiring. Being a strong vocalist has never been a selling point for myself its more be being a songwriter. I have been recording, and I have so many demos but they’re just not fully ready yet. I also think because my writing has changed so much even in the last year if I put that out that wouldn’t really be me.
I am definitely working on new music hahah! Currently an EP, can’t say much more but it should hopefully be out towards the end of this year, but I don’t want to put pressure on it.
Is there a song that you wish you had written?
There’s two, one based on lyrics and the other based on instrumentation. For instrumentation there is a song called ‘Modern Girl’ by Bleaches I absolutely adore that song. If you don’t know it you have to go and listen to it. I listen on my way to the gym, and it gets me so pumped up. It feels so live but not in a way where it needs cleaning up its just perfect.
For lyrics, I’m a massive fan of Paolo Nutini and his song ‘Acid Eyes’ I really love. It’s not one of his most exciting songs but I just love the lyrics and think it’s such a beautiful song. I do wish I wrote that song!
If you could perform anywhere in the world where would you choose?
That’s really hard! In all honesty I love doing festivals nothing beats just being in the summer, outside, weather’s nice and the stage is outside. I’ve obviously done Tramlines. Even though I’m never going to end up performing there somewhere like Glastonbury. Not even the main stage, I would love to just attend one it looks so fun!
Finally, if you had to pick three artists/bands to join you on tour who would you want?
Noah Kahn – I want artists I like and are close to what I do.
Zach Bryan – I’ve got tickets to see him! It was so expensive but I’m so excited.
Sam Fender – he’s not exactly my genre but I just love his writing!
