StreamLINE INTERVIEW SERIES - TAMELA D'AMICO

StreamLINE INTERVIEW SERIES - TAMELA D'AMICO

0 0
Read Time:14 Minute, 42 Second

Hi everyone, StreamLINE is pleased to present another stellar piece in our interview series as we had the pleasure of connecting with the multi-faceted creative and exquisite jazz recording artist Tamela D’Amico. Tamela dishes in detail on her extensive career in the entertainment industry, her background and path to music as well as upcoming projects and other interesting tidbits. Read on to catch the entire interview below.

Enjoy!

Hi Tamela, please tell us a bit about your background, where you’re from etc.  What were your early music influences?

I’m originally from Long Island, New York, and after being bi-coastal between New York and Los Angeles, I have spent most of my life on the West coast, at this point. But I am always a New Yorker first. I belong to a huge, loving and funny Italian family, most of which still reside in different parts of New York. We are like a large army, there are so many of us. I am first generation Italian-American with four older siblings and many, many cousins. I was actually pretty shy as a child, more of a sponge, taking everything in, which surprises people, knowing how my career path has been in the performing arts. My first influence from music came from our household. There was always music in my house growing up, in many genres, all the way from Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra to Luciano Pavarotti to Steve Wonder and Prince to Whitney Houston and Madonna, Singer-Songwriters, Funk, Soul, R&B, and World Music and so on… Music was a big part of my environment, because my family is very social. We love to gather people together and eat, of course. We are Italian! Our house was always the one to gather the neighborhood and throw a block party.

I’ve told this story many times, because it is what I believe has impacted my life, certainly my performing life, in a major way. I used to watch a New York nostalgia TV station that played old movies/musicals and TV series in black and white when I was around four to five years old. My pre-school days were filled with the Old Hollywood Glamour days. I watched The Wizard of Oz and then The Judy Garland Show on this station and I was too young to understand that this was all media from long before I was born, but I always say Judy Garland was my first teacher. I had seen her in the Wizard of Oz, and now here she was, every day, living from the past, and talking directly to me from the TV, or so I thought. She knew when to be still and when to be dramatic in a way that was so deeply organic, like lifted from the depths of her soul. That touched me at a tender age, and I just wanted to live in that space. Performing and jazz music, specifically, is my heart. I could have gone anywhere in the music business with my voice, and have, but the jazz space if where I feel most at home. They say one doesn’t choose to sing Jazz, it chooses you. At the end of the day, music and melody that stands the test of time has always been more important to me in any musical genre than having a one-off hit record. I love to dance and love electroswing music. It was my goal over pandemic to move into that market and I did with Boring 20s. I actually had started my music career in Electronica, when I first moved to Los Angeles, but that was primarily work for hire, just under my first name, with a few international dance hall songs and then I moved into Pop and Soundtrack work, and of course Jazz.  I love that I have now melded my love of dance music with jazz, moving into electroswing.

What was the defining moment or time in your life when you decided to pursue music on a professional level?

I have never been asked this question so specifically before and I have just figured out the long winded answer. I always knew I was going to use my voice and become a singer. I was very shy about it as a child, because it felt bigger than me. So, I literally waited until I had left college to pursue it truly professionally. I have many arms to my talents. People needed labels to put you in a box, and I would simply say, I am a multi-hyphenate. That was not accepted, until only recently. Now, you have to be a triple-threat performer/content creator with a head for business to make any traction. You see, I had already learned to be that way from watching the old studio movies. That’s what aspiring talent doesn’t realize today, that back in the day, you HAD to be good at everything in the studio system. Because, I was watching all those old shows and movies on the nostalgia channel, I just assumed that is what one must do to be in the entertainment industry, but beyond that I had major interest in all of it. Therefore, I am in many markets as a talent in the entertainment business and have only made money that way. If I don’t have a singing gig, I have an acting gig, or a filmmaker gig. So, after going to Film School at Florida State University with minors in Theater and Psychology, I attended the Strasberg Actors Studio to continue my training and traveled back and forth between New York and Los Angeles for work. During the audition process of being seen for Broadway, Theater, Film and TV roles, I kept getting asked by various pianists and producers that I had come upon to record some demos for them because they liked my voice. The notion of me recording kept coming up and I started doing those jobs. As mentioned, I recorded a few electronica hits that went international, I did jingles, Broadway idea demos for people trying to get their shows off the ground, and then was asked to audition for an underground girl group which later became The Pussycat Dolls. At that audition, another producer who was working with rap legend Dr. Dre grabbed me and asked me to come to his studio to record many many demos to try to put me in another girl group. I did that for a bit, and I still wonder where those tracks are today, but my heart was not in it. At the Strasberg, my vocal coach Elizabeth Sabine who was famous for teaching Axel Rose how to sustain his belt with quiet breaths, told me to pursue what was in my heart, because when I sang in class, she could see I was living those moments organically singing American standards. She told me I would never be fulfilled in my heart if I didn’t sing what I was meant to sing. So from there, I decided to focus on the jazz market and utilize everyone I had ever met to help me make that happen.

How would you characterize your sound and what inspires your creativity? Is it sparked by actual life events/experiences or just a vibe that you get into? How would you describe how your sound has evolved from your 2009 debut project?

It’s interesting. I know at times, the easy go to is to say that I have an old school sound. When my debut came out, everyone said my voice was “unique” and I didn’t know if that was a compliment or not. I can only tell you what people have said, which is all very confusing. People have said, I have a pure tone. People have said, I can really swing, and that they hear shades of Billie Holiday, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand and stylings of Nancy Wilson. And now with Boring 20s, people say Lady Gaga. Well ok, I’ve been impacted by all of those ladies and their music. BUT – I just sound like me. Being and staying creative is my oxygen. I have to have my hands in something or I get depressed. I am always creating, even if it just a really good food recipe. It’s just who I am. I love melody. In traditional pop jazz music that I have released, I have recorded mainly American Standards and other people’s written music and have some of my own that is set to release.

My own music is usually born from my poetry or journals. I find that whenever something is taxing me, I need to get my feelings out on paper or phone journal. I never set out to write something, specifically for release. It just happens that I need to express myself and sometimes it turns into something and sometimes it is shelved. Every artist has an arsenal you will never get to see. But we build upon it to get to the next thing. I can’t tell you how my sound has evolved. I am very malleable and adaptable. All I can tell you is that months prior to my first album release recording, I had lost my voice entirely, due to an accident with an inhaler after having an allergic reaction to animal dander. The medicine in the inhaler completely burned my throat. I had lost my voice and went home to stay with my parents and every day my dad would check in on me in the morning with a very concerned face, hoping to see if my voice came back. It finally did and after that I vowed never to take it for granted. I flew to Los Angeles and things got under way to record at Capitol Records, in studio A, with a big band on Frank Sinatra’s mic. I went from 0 to 100 and I was living the dream. It’s not so much that my sound has evolved. It’s more that I am confident and trustworthy of my own talent and spirit to continue on.

What’s the song that resonates the most with you personally from your first project?

I am more in love now with my first album then I was when we recorded it. Going through the pandemic and being in that space again where something stops you and you push through has helped me see that now. I love each of those songs for different reasons. My choosing of them was very special and personal to me. I wanted to do One for My Baby because of the impact Frank Sinatra has had on me, as a kid, and needed to make it my own and am very proud of it. But it’s We Are in Love that touches my heart now, because I would have never attempted to move into this market as a professional if Harry Connick, Jr. hadn’t made it popular again. He deserves more credit for that than people give him.

We Are in Love

Listen to We Are in Love on Spotify. Tamela D’Amico · Song · 2009.



You really nailed the essence of electroswing with your vocal performance in your latest release, “Boring 20s”! Please tell us how it was collaborating with industry stalwarts Wolfgang Lohr and Ashley Slater and how as the recording process? Do you envision releasing more recordings in the electroswing genre?

I love melody. In traditional pop jazz music that I have released, I have recorded mainly American Standards and other people’s written music and have some of my own that is set to release. For Boring 20’s, while in quarantine, I was getting a little stir crazy, being forced to stay at home. The creative bug was hitting me pretty hard. So, I dipped into my bucket list of things I wanted to accomplish in the down time. The new 20s started in a way that was less than what I had dreamed of, being a Jazz baby. I had notions of grand revivals of the Jazz Age. My father was sick and then passed away, and I was unbearably sad and with no outlet. I needed my music and after trying to uplift myself listening to electroswing music, I reached out to producer Wolfgang Lohr & songwriter/performer Ashley Slater (I didn’t know them at ALL) after hearing one of their awesome electroswing tunes on Twitter, of all places. I told them that I wanted to write a song with them about how this new twenties time period is not the “roaring twenties” I imagined, but rather the “Boring 20s”.

We brainstormed and they did the magic they do and while in 3 different countries, we agreed to work together all through email and never spoke live until the product was finished. That amazes me the most. Why did they say yes? How did we get it done? The song concludes all I was feeling at the time which I learned was pretty much what everyone else was feeling thanks to the masterful wordsmith that Ashley is, feeling the feels with me, and Wolfgang uplifting us up with these banger beats to dance to.

Boring 20s

Listen to Boring 20s on Spotify. Tamela D’Amico · Song · 2022.





We really enjoyed your live rendition of “Cry Me a River”. Many artists have covered the Arthur Hamilton classic. Which one is your favorite and why?

Thank you very much. I decided to release that live track performance after meeting Arthur Hamilton in person, and playing it for him, and him telling him that he absolutely loved it, which was one of the many thrills of my life. When I first started singing in small clubs and parties in Los Angeles, I would start that tune with sexy bass and roam around the room like a lioness to pick one guy to sing to. His chair would get dragged to the spotlight and depending on who the guy was and how he reacted to the experience, sometimes the song was 2 minutes long and other times it could go on for 8 minutes at a time. It was fun, hilarious and something my crowd looked forward to. I particularly loved that night that I performed it because it was a hall of hundreds of people. I felt it was my most organic version of it, as the crowd was with me and listening to every syllable I said and I felt impassioned by seeing my ex boyfriend in the crowd. I was singing to him from the stage. So, it all came together. I love that song, no matter who sings it. I just am not a fan of when others sing it to sound like Julie London. I love her version because she is Julie London, and that is enough! But when others try to emulate her, it feels hollow with no reason behind the words. American Standards primarily come from showtunes with backstory. You have to act and live these tunes for them to come out correctly.

Cry Me a River (Live from El Cid)

Listen to Cry Me a River (Live from El Cid) on Spotify. Tamela D’Amico · Song · 2018.



Do you feel that the internet, social media and the dominance of streaming has benefited jazz recording artists??

Yes and No. You certainly can move swiftly though a lot of international markets a lot quicker than touring by releasing on streaming platforms, if you have great marketing to help move you. But the downside is that most jazz aficionados and audiophiles love to have physical product in hand, which is not often produced anymore with CD players being pretty much defunct. Personal interaction with jazz audiences and them owning your material in hand is special. BUT…when it comes to electroswing, I have to say it doesn’t really all matter too much.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given; either personally or professionally?

Don Fehr who runs the players union for the NHL gave me the best advice of my life: “The greatest source of unhappiness in the world comes from having unreasonable expectations about the behavior of other people.” If you can remember that quote, your stress level stays way down.

What activities do you enjoy outside of your music and entertainment industry related endeavors?

Life. All of it. You name it. I want to experience it.

What live performance or venue has been the most memorable for you?

An answer you probably didn’t expect. I loved performing at the Playboy Mansion raising money for a charity. That was truly exciting, no, not because of the girls, it because because Hugh Hefner did so much for jazz and jazz artists back in the day and his work continues even after his death with the Jazz Festival that takes place every year at the Hollywood Bowl. It was cool to be a part of that history, before the mansion was sold. I’m a sentimental gal.

What’s next up musically for you in 2022 and beyond? Any projects, music videos, features or solo live shows on the horizon?

Lots of planning right now for a Boring 20s music video, a new electroswing single, and a movie musical I hope to get off the ground. Nothing set in stone yet, but soon. Stay tuned and keep up with my on site TamelaDAmico.com and all socials at @TamelaDAmico

StreamLINE Music Blog - Music Notes Logo

Connect with Tamela D’Amico


Avatar photo

About Post Author

Platinum Music Magazine

The Platinum Music Magazine brings you a wide range of topics your way as it relates to the music industry. The Platinum Music Magazine posts artist spotlights, interviews, tips and guidance, music industry related articles and helpful resources, videos and MORE! Please remember to subscribe to The Platinum Music Magazine newsletter and we will update you directly whenever new content is posted.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %

The Platinum Music Magazine brings you a wide range of topics your way as it relates to the music industry.

The Platinum Music Magazine posts artist spotlights, interviews, tips and guidance, music industry related articles and helpful resources, videos and MORE!

Please remember to subscribe to The Platinum Music Magazine newsletter and we will update you directly whenever new content is posted.

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%