{"id":22989,"date":"2024-10-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=22989"},"modified":"2024-10-01T18:27:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T17:27:49","slug":"meet-amy-allen-singer-songwriter-starlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2024\/10\/02\/meet-amy-allen-singer-songwriter-starlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet AMY ALLEN: Singer-Songwriter Starlet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paste Meet AMY ALLEN:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singer-Songwriter Starlet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-Writer, Chart-Topper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

talking to Matt Mitchell<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the accomplishments attributed to her, I can\u00b4t honestly say that I have heard of the subject of a recent article in Paste magazine. The writer of that article was Matt Mitchell Paste<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s music editor, reporting from their home in Northeast Ohio.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His interviewee is a Grammy-winning LA singer-songwriter who talks about playing bass in a band at nine years old, opening bar gigs for bluegrass groups by age 13, leaving nursing school for Berklee, and how the art of co-writing has informed her debut solo record.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a year ago, says Mr. Mitchell by way of introduction to new fans and doddery cloth-eared music jounos like me,<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0Amy Allen was nominated for Songwriter of the Year at the Grammys for her work on King Princess\u2019\u00a0Hold on Baby<\/em>, Charli xcx\u2019s\u00a0Crash<\/em>, Lizzo\u2019s\u00a0Special<\/em>\u00a0and Harry Styles\u2019\u00a0Harry\u2019s House<\/em><\/a>, as the latter nabbed her an Album of the Year victory. But, as the summer winds down, Allen is, at the time I\u2019m writing this, credited as a co-writer on three songs in the Hot 100\u2019s Top 5. Her collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter on\u00a0Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/em><\/a>\u00a0has left a definitive, monumental imprint on the zeitgeist in 2024, but that\u2019s only half of the story. Now, Allen (see our cover)<\/em><\/strong> has released her debut eponymous record, a 12-track singer-songwriter achievement arriving in all lowercase but unraveling in all-caps. The oldest song on her debut was written over six years ago, while the newest inclusion is barely four months old, but she didn\u2019t realize that she was building toward an album until 2023, when the pieces began fastening into place. \u201cI was feeling really fulfilled with what I\u2019d been writing with and for other artists, and it felt like a nice time for me to dive into finishing some of these songs that I\u2019ve written by myself, for myself,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve resonated with a bunch of them for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Allen is far and away not the same person on \u201ckind sadness\u201d that she was while penning \u201cthe american\u201d on her first-ever writing trip in London in 2018, there was an urge for her to not completely abandon the songwriting of her past. Of course, oceans of material got banished to the \u201cdeep, dark graveyard of demos\u201d that none of us will ever hear, but every one of the dozen songs on amy allen<\/em> symbolizes a piece of herself still reachable. \u201cThe songs are making the album because they\u2019re something that still resonates with me deeply,\u201d she says. \u201cA huge thesis of wanting to do this album was I wanted to make something that, when I\u2019m a grandmother, I can still be proud of and show to my grandkids and is still making me feel all the same emotions and I still resonate with it in the same way that I did when I was a lot younger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen lives by that classic mantra of \u201cmy favorite song I\u2019ve written is the one I wrote today,\u201d but amy allen<\/em> is a stunning ode to not forgetting about the music of your yesterdays, about allowing the way you once read and received the world to still motivate and challenge you. \u201ckind sadness\u201d works like it does because it\u2019s galvanized by perspective, as Allen sings about a healthy relationship unavoidably crumbling through long distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe saddest thing, I feel like, in relationships, is not when something goes horrendously wrong and you guys break up,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s when everything\u2019s right and you just can\u2019t figure out how to make it work. I\u2019m going through that in my head, like, \u2018Oh, everything is so great and I\u2019m so excited about where it\u2019s heading, but what if, logistically, we just can\u2019t figure it out? That would be so sad, because I love this person so much.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Allen moved to New York City and got involved in the music industry, she grew up in a small Maine town called Windham. Her family lived an hour away from the school she and her siblings went to, so her classic rock-obsessed dad would drive them all back and forth every day and make the stereo a part of their curriculum. \u201cThat was our schooling at the time, from when I was five years old, just rinsing<\/em> Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and even Sheryl Crow,\u201d she says. At the same time, Allen\u2019s middle sister started playing drums in a band called No U Turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point, the band realized it needed a bass player, so a nine-year-old Allen stepped up. \u201cI don\u2019t think I even knew what a bass was, but I was like, \u2018I can play bass!\u2019\u201d Allen shares. \u201cMy parents saved up and bought me my first little electric bass and I started learning Tom Petty songs on it.\u201d Years and years before putting a Grammy on her mantle, Allen and her sister\u2019s friends were cutting up at school assemblies and maling music videos that, according to her, are \u201cthe worst blackmail for all of us that exists in the world.\u201d While every boyfriend Allen brought home was subjected to watching those videos on a \u201cyou can\u2019t love me if you don\u2019t know my past\u201d prerogative, they were an incredibly consequential entry point into her later desire to pick up a guitar and start writing songs with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now 31, Amy Allen has put together an impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9. She went to Boston College for nursing before dropping out to study with Kara DioGuardi at Berklee. She put out songs with her four-piece indie pop group Amy & the Engine and even nabbed a Teen Vogue<\/em> feature<\/a> in 2015, moved to Los Angeles in 2017 to work with Scott Harris and sign with Artist Publishing Group and then, in 2018, scored a #1 hit after co-writing \u201cWithout Me\u201d with Halsey. She\u2019d move to Warner Records a year later, picking up more writing credits on Pvris\u2019 Hallucinations<\/em> and Harry Styles\u2019 Top 10 hit \u201cAdore You\u201d before releasing a very good EP of her own called AWW!<\/em> in 2021. But the most formative experience for Allen came before all of that. On Thursday nights, for five years between ages 13 and 18, she would play her own original songs at bars all around Maine\u2014often opening for a bluegrass band and, sometimes, stepping in with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Allen left for Boston College, she lost her ability to dedicate so much time into her writing and, through that grief, was able to better-understand just how embedded music is in her personhood in the first place. \u201cI was trying to keep up with my school work. I joined an acapella group, which was horrendously\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0the correct fit,\u201d she says. \u201cI was so ensconced in music for so long and, then, I went away to school and it was not there for me anymore in the same capacity. I couldn\u2019t put myself into it, and being able to write songs and process my emotions and what I\u2019m doing all the time is such an integral part of who I am. I didn\u2019t realize how much I needed music until I didn\u2019t have it anymore.\u201d Her transfer to Berklee wasn\u2019t because she knew it was a renowned music school, but because her mom saw that its campus was in such a close proximity to Boston College\u2019s campus. In fact, Allen originally wanted to attend Belmont. \u201cI was so grateful to be surrounded by people that had the same passions as me [at Berklee],\u201d Allen says. \u201cTo be able to put the time into learning how to get better, I didn\u2019t know how big a part of me it was until I wasn\u2019t there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Allen was living in New York City, as Amy & the Engine was beginning to meet with labels, she had a lightbulb moment that wasn\u2019t a concerted effort to break up the band or retire from touring. Instead, it was a long and winding pathway toward her writing stronger songs. \u201cI had this reckoning that I could write better<\/em> songs if I really put my time into it,\u201d she says. \u201cAll through my time at Berklee, it never dawned on me that I would be a songwriter for other people<\/em>, but then I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t fucking care what it means, but I want to get better<\/em> at writing songs. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s a means to an end of being an artist, but I love the writing process so much.\u2019\u201d When Allen did start diving into the co-writing game, she fell deeply in love with it and with the experience of studying why Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton\u2019s songs resonate across generations while also<\/em> learning from her peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen still loves to perform\u2014she\u2019s currently opening gigs for Bleachers\u2014and it\u2019s quite elemental to who she is as a musician, but live shows fell to the wayside for her for a long time. But now, it\u2019s becoming instinctual in her songwriting. \u201cIt helps a lot to not only be writing for myself alone, but for myself on a stage,\u201d she says. \u201cSeeing what that feels like and what songs resonate and being able to communicate with people that way is important. I\u2019m grateful that I did [end Amy & the Engine], because I know I\u2019m a better songwriter than if I had just put my head down and gone on tour bus after tour bus and never really studied the craft and gone deep into it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time Allen ever co-wrote was in DioGuardi\u2019s class at Berklee. Sometimes, it would be six people in a room\u2014three producers, three writers\u2014and learning how to co-exist in a space like that was just as intrinsic to the act of making tangible, legible music itself. As Allen puts it, co-writing is its own art form because \u201cthere are some people who are the most incredible songwriters ever but they\u2019re not necessarily good co-writers<\/em>.\u201d To her, collaboration is what makes music consistently new, and her migration into genres like country and R&B lets every turn be a learning curve. \u201cI look back on the first year I lived in New York, where I was really starting to, outside of school, do co-writes and walking into apartments in these alleyways of New York\u2014not knowing who they are\u2014in the middle of the night, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, my God, that was such a scary thing to be doing,\u2019\u201d Allen says. \u201cNow, I\u2019m starting during the daytime and I pretty much know everybody I\u2019m working with at this point. But, it was scary going into rooms where you don\u2019t know anybody there. It\u2019s scary to put your ideas out there and be vulnerable. Even with friends, it\u2019s scary to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen approaches songwriting\u2014and co-writing\u2014holistically. She prefers to come up with the melody, lyrics and chords all at the same time, rather than try writing to somebody else\u2019s track. \u201cIt feels like the emotion has been taken out of it,\u201d she admits. \u201cFor me, in some way, I know people that are great at doing that, and they can write great, great songs that way, but my entry point to writing a song is finding the emotion in it from the very beginning. I have to story-tell from the early seed and then build everything around it.\u201d Allen cites someone like John Prine as a guiding songwriting force, given how his stories are so concise and \u201ceach line needs to be there for the next one to make sense.\u201d \u201cAnd if one line was taken out, the story wouldn\u2019t be conveyed,\u201d she continues. \u201cThat\u2019s how important each one is. Each part of it is so important to me that I like to be on the ground floor of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While serving a song that is, inevitably, going to be sung by somebody else remains structurally separated from Allen\u2019s own material, both sides of her artistry feed into each other. It can certainly be difficult finding the time for both elements to co-exist, but they can be so galvanizing and refreshing that, often, they never collide into each other. \u201cThey both make me better at the other,\u201d Allen says. \u201cWriting for other people allows me, when I\u2019m writing for myself, to be much more exploratory and feel comfortable moving out of my own little safety box of what I think<\/em> I do best\u2014because I\u2019ve gotten to learn from so many great writers across so many different genres. I think writing for myself makes me a better writer for writing for other people. Being a performer in any capacity makes me relatable to artists when I\u2019m writing with<\/em> them, because I know what it feels like to really have to stand behind every line of a song if you\u2019re going to release it. And I know what it feels like to be standing in front of an audience and delivering lines that feel really authentic and true and vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously a song like \u201cEspresso\u201d doesn\u2019t sound like \u201cdarkside,\u201d but you can hear Allen\u2019s influence in every song she works on, whether it\u2019s her own or someone else\u2019s. When you hear a song like \u201cPlease Please Please,\u201d you can tell that Allen helped write it, because her penchant for dreamy, sugary melodies coupled with brazen lyrics shines through. Of course the person who wrote \u201cCan you imagine tits on Mount Rushmore?\u201d also penned \u201cIf you don\u2019t wanna cry to my music, don\u2019t make me hate you prolifically.\u201d It\u2019s as funny and anthemic as it is intimate and honest, and Allen\u2019s technique of using gentle, poppy arrangements to nurture lyrics written in boldface is unconventional yet masterfully executed over and over again, especially on her debut album (\u201cgirl with a problem\u201d is an especially rousing moment).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI subconsciously do it, for sure,\u201d Allen says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always been drawn to really pushing outside the box on what a song sounds like versus what it\u2019s saying. When people do that well, it\u2019s so interesting. The one that so many songwriters think about is Robyn\u2019s \u2018Dancing On My Own,\u2019 where it sounds like this big, dancing anthem, but she\u2019s saying such heartbreaking lyrics on top of it. A song that sounds like your heart is breaking from it, but it\u2019s saying something pretty positive, I\u2019ve always been interested in playing with things like that. I think it makes the listener listen more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

amy allen<\/em> is a record that sounds exactly like the environment it was made in. People like Ethan Gruska, Tobias Jesso Jr. and John Hill\u2014writers who have worked with everyone from Adele to Phoebe Bridgers\u2014leave their mark on these songs, and you can hear those dynamics play out. Allen\u2019s eponymous debut is not just an indie folk record; it\u2019s a map of many vernaculars put together by a bunch of artists who she\u2019s worked with on so many other artists\u2019 records. \u201cGetting to then write with them on my own project felt really special and pretty humbling, because I\u2019m such a fan of them and I know that they trust me and my songwriting and storytelling,\u201d she says. \u201cSo it was really fun to just create the world with them.\u201d And that world is a cross between Sheryl Crow, Cocteau Twins and Tom Petty, and the songs use everything from 12-string guitars to banjos to synthesizers to drum machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such instrumental variety then opened the door for songs like \u201cweirdo\u201d and \u201cunafraid\u201d to be sonically dissimilar but fit together like an odd blend of Allen\u2019s most beloved milieu. The \u201cHail Mary of a song\u201d \u201ceven forever\u201d has a bombastic poppiness that fades away on the pensive, stripped-back \u201cgirl with a problem\u201d while the electronica of \u201cpillar\u201d pushed Allen miles out of her comfort zone, only for her to come back into focus on the chest-ripped-wide-open melancholy of \u201cbreak\u201d\u2014and yet, they all scratch the same itch, because they all began as poems in Allen\u2019s kitchen that, eventually, got some chords added to them. \u201cI had such a clear vision, sonically, of what I wanted [the album] to sound like, and everybody that I involved in it on the production end are people that have a lot of similar instincts that I do and love a lot of the same music that I do and they know me well as a person and as a writer and as an artist,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was off to the races right at the beginning, because they understand me and they know my influences. Everyone on this album is like a close friend of mine. It felt pretty seamless; they all have their own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have urged readers to check out Paste on line for its eclecticism and excellence, as we are convinced you would find enough good reading to justify subscribing to the outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile I can only apologise to any of our Sidetracks and Detours readers for not bring this lady to your attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if you had not yet heard of Amy Allen, you certainly have now. I doubt very much that she follows our sidetacxks & detours not-for-profite daily blog, but I do suspect that Amy must definitely follow geographical sidetracks and detours, as we can surely glean from the number of the aspirational and inspiritanal artsts she has worked beside at one time or another, in once capacity or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, by way of apology I asked our new addition to put together our own playlist simply from some of the references in Matt Mitchell\u00b4s interview and essay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now what shall he call it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
songs collated by Some Lonesome Picker<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

CROSSING PATHS<\/strong> with Amy Allen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fleetwood Mac\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You Make Loving Fun<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rolling Stones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No Satisfaction<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Led Zeppelin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rock And Roll<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Princess\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hold on Baby<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlixcx\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Crash<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lizzo                     Special<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harry Styles          Adore You<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sabrina Carpenter Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/em><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheryl Crow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If It Makes You Happy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cocteau Twins \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Heaven Or Las Vegas<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Petty\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Girl<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy Allen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kind Sadness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halsey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Without Me<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pvrus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hallucinations<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Dylan \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just Like A Woman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolly Parton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9 TO 5<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Prine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In Spite Of Ourselves<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robyn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dancing On My Own<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adele\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Feel My Love<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phoebe Bridger\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Friday I\u00b4m In Love<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a Sidetracks & Detours collation<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allen approaches songwriting\u2014and co-writing\u2014holistically. She prefers to come up with the melody, lyrics and chords all at the same time, rather than try writing to somebody else\u2019s track. \u201cIt feels like the emotion has been taken out of it,\u201d she admits. \u201cFor me, in some way, I know people that are great at doing that, and they can write great, great songs that way, but my entry point to writing a song is finding the emotion in it from the very beginning. I have to story-tell from the early seed and then build everything around it.\u201d Allen cites someone like John Prine as a guiding songwriting force, given how his stories are so concise and \u201ceach line needs to be there for the next one to make sense.\u201d \u201cAnd if one line was taken out, the story wouldn\u2019t be conveyed,\u201d she continues. \u201cThat\u2019s how important each one is. Each part of it is so important to me that I like to be on the ground floor of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,78,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-tradition","category-entertainment","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22989"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23239,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22989\/revisions\/23239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}