Socially conscious Perth soul songstress, Shameem has announced the release of her new single, Under One Sun and new album, The Second City set for release on January 16. Here she chats with us about the writing process and her creative collaboration. 

 

1. What was it like working with Grammy-winning UK-based producer, James Bryan, (Nelly Furtado, Olly Murs, James Morrison), to co-write this single?: Well, it was my first big co-writing experience, so it was a really different approach to be bouncing ideas with someone else instead of just bouncing ideas around in my own head. I learnt a lot from working with James; he had a very clear idea about what things would work and what wouldn’t work in a song, so I would fire ideas at him and he would be like “yes… no… hmmm, try that again, but with a different lyric?” and really channel the direction of my creativity.

 

2. The video for Under One Sun is really quite unique, tell us about what inspired you to go down that path: I came across the work of Western Australian artist Renee Farrant, who makes the most amazing and intricate pieces of art by cutting paper. I asked her if she would be interested in working on a music video together where everything would be made of paper: the people, the houses, the trees, my clothes. She was totally on board, so I then approached the producer Jason Eshraghian (Passenger, Northlane) with this concept, and he built a narrative around it. So everything in the video is in fact quite small; one of those trees could fit into the palm of your hand. Jason shot everything in front of a green screen and then blew up all the small paper objects so that they’re all life-size in comparison to me.

 

3. What are you looking forward to most with your upcoming tour?: Performing at such a diverse range of venues all across the country. It’s always fun to play in a new, different venue and tap into the vibe of the audience there. Also, I’ve never performed in Canberra, Newcastle or Byron Bay before, so that’s exciting.

 

4. You have your sophomore album, Second City, set for release in January, how are you feeling about that?: I’m just dying to release it now! It’s been finished for a while, and before that I had been working on it for ages… it’s like a big secret that I’m bursting to tell everybody. They say that when pregnant women get to 8 months or so, they just want to give birth to the baby already, haha.

 

5. Any advice for others looking to share their passions and message?: Do it! The world needs more people sharing positive messages. Music is a really powerful medium for getting constructive ideas across. Spread the love!

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