New Zealand singer and songwriter Amelia Power turns personal experiences into emotionally rich and authentic musical storytelling. In this interview, she reflects on her artistic growth since her first single, the process of transforming memories into songs, and the challenges of building an independent career, highlighting creative freedom as a defining part of her musical identity.
Your songs are deeply rooted in personal experiences. When did you realize that turning intimate moments into music could create such a strong connection with listeners?
I think the first time I realized I could turn my own personal experiences and emotions into music that had the potential to touch people was when I created my first song Paradigm and played it for my family, regardless of feeling I have come quite a long way since my first song, seeing how it moved my loved ones was a really special and powerful feeling. Some of my family members were even moved to tears when I played it to them for the first time and I remember thinking wow songwriting and making music really is impactful and has the power to move people in so many ways.
From Paradigm to your most recent releases, there’s a noticeable evolution in your sound. How do you personally see your artistic growth over this period?
It has been an explorative, fun, creative and sometimes challenging journey with my artistic growth and evolution with my sound and music, I truly believe every artist needs to make a lot of music and try different genres to see what you like and don’t like and where you see yourself heading artistically from trial and error, writing different songs and working with different producers. I feel every song I have made has had a slightly different sound and feel to it which has been really freeing to explore for me and I now feel I have finally landed on a sound with my next unreleased single ‘Kingfisher’ that I am happy with and want to move forward with more genre wise with my music, in saying that I do feel artists should always feel freedom when it comes to trying different things with their music.
Songs like Atmosphere and Goodbye For Now explore very different emotional spaces. How do you know which feeling or story needs to become a song at a given moment?
When it comes to my songwriting, I always write about what i’m feeling emotionally fueled to do so at the time, I find the process very healing and a way for me to express and release whatever is on my mind at the time. I think as long as you have something that you feel inspired to put out in to the world and that people can relate to in some capacity, then that is what truly matters at the foundation of story telling with music.
In more vulnerable tracks like Black and Blue, you open up emotionally while maintaining a sense of delicacy. Is it challenging to balance honesty and sensitivity when telling these stories?
I always think there is an element of feeling like you are bearing the deepest parts of yourself when you write and create particularly vulnerable music and when you are feeling so emotionally fueled, it can be a process of how you want to transform that in to your lyrics and music but I find that some of my favorite songs are heartbreak ballads and have always known as an artist I wanted to create something in this realm. Writing black and blue was definitely needed at the time for me to cope with what I was going through and I think coming from such an honest place, it made sense to for the track to also be anchored in sensitivity and rawness.
Nostalgic reflects on memory, growth, and the passage of time. What kinds of memories or reflections most often inspire your songwriting?
Even though I usually write about something or a relationship that is affecting me at that point in time, Nostalgic was really fun to take on a different approach and go down memory lane a bit with thinking about and reflecting on my life as a whole and getting older. Memories I am inspired by when it comes to my songwriting often come experiences I have had in different places or with different people, whether that be personal, from friendships or romantic. Nostalgic was inspired allot by memories that I had growing up in my home town and the way it felt like I had changed but the town around me still felt the same in allot of ways.
Building an independent career requires consistency and courage. What have been the biggest personal and professional lessons you’ve learned along the way?
Being an independent artist is an ever evolving journey that I am constantly navigating and maneuvering day by day and learning more as I go but I would say thus far on my personal journey, I have learned that consistency is key and if you are passionate about something then the more energy you out in the more you move forward and grow, I have also learned that progress over perfectionism is so important and comparison is the thief of all joy when it comes to making music, everyone has their own style and unique sound and I think a good way to stay grounded is reminding yourself everyone’s journey and timeline looks slightly different and thats ok, things have a way of happening and flowing as they are meant to.
By sharing behind-the-scenes moments and creative processes on social media, you build a close relationship with your audience. What does this direct connection mean to you as an artist?
The direct connection you can build with your audience I think is one of the most integral parts of being an artist and making music and I think social media can be a really powerful tool and vessel to connect and engage with people all over the world. I definitely plan to share more BTS style footage soon of an unreleased single I have coming out in March, I want my followers and listeners to get more insight and a background scope in to my singles and me and what I am creating as an artist.
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