Known for her electrifying vocals and charismatic live performances, critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ameriie blazes a trail with new projects BILI and Cymatika Vol. I. With her trademark fusion of a variety of musical influences, Ameriie continues to set trends while rejecting categorization. Due to her father’s U.S. military career, Ameriie grew up in a variety of places, including South Korea, Germany, Texas, and Alaska. Having to constantly adapt to new environments, she developed a strong sense of independence, throwing herself into academics and creative outlets such as writing fiction and music. After earning her BA in English at Georgetown University, Ameriie devoted herself completely to her musical career. “I don’t think I take myself too seriously, but I take what I do, the entire process of creation, extremely seriously.” From writing and co-producing her own music to conceptualizing her own videos, Ameriie is an artist’s artist and admits to being a perfectionist. “I don’t think I take myself too seriously, but I take what I do, the entire process of creation, extremely seriously.” But this doesn’t mean she isn’t having fun. “I’m in a great creative space. There’s so much creative energy buzzing inside of me, I’m doing my best to grab onto it as fast as I can.” This creative surge led to her decision to record both BILI and Cymatika Vol I. simultaneously.
Ameriie describes BILI as an extension of 2007’s Because I Love It, a heady blend of soul, hip-hop, and New Wave. The first single, “What I Want,” is written by Ameriie and produced by Mr. Nicholson, and samples “Apache” by The Incredible Bongo Band and the “Apache” remix by Grandmaster Flash. It is an Ameriie signature: thrilling vocals soaring over punchy percussion. Cymatika Vol. I. is “much darker in tone, both in instrumentation and vocal approach. I create in the dark, anyway, but for many of Cymatika’s songs, I keep it as close to pitch-black as I can in the studio. I keep pushing to make the sounds heavier, stronger, pushing to make them more cinematic, more like a score than a song. I want the sound to feel as large as the themes: fear, self-doubt, the desire for love, why we’re on this planet. I talk about romantic love, too—it isn’t all existential…Some recording sessions are more difficult than others, but I live for it. That’s why BILI is what it is. It’s an acronym for Because I Love It, which is a statement about why I create.”
Ameriie – Out Loud
This motto extends to writing novels: “I spend an incredible amount of time writing fiction. Hours at a time and just about every day. It can get a bit crazy, walking around with so much happening in my head—music, lyrics, plot lines, characters, video concepts—but somehow it manages to work.”
“I spend an incredible amount of time writing fiction. Hours at a time and just about every day. It can get a bit crazy, walking around with so much happening in my head—music, lyrics, plot lines, characters, video concepts—but somehow it manages to work.” And Ameriie isn’t intimidated by what happens after her work is released. “I try not to think of everything that comes after the creative process, because creating, itself, can be so pure, and for me, the thing I love most. It’s all about creating and sharing, letting it go out into the world because at that point, it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It exists outside of me and that’s a beautiful thing.”
Ameriie – Out Loud Lyrics:
