Audio Estelle
"American Boy" (ft. Kanye West)

Back in her native England, Estelle is already an established star, with multiple albums, mixtapes, and hit singles to her credit. Her unique vocals and genre-bending style (and a chance meeting at a classic LA chicken spot) brought her to the attention of John Legend, who signed her as the inaugural artist on his Homeschool Records label. Currently riding the success of her Kanye-assisted single "American Boy," she will be releasing her new full-length Shine this spring. MP3: Hey, Estelle. How you doing? Estelle: I'm alright. Thanks for taking the time to do this, I appreciate it. No problem. Thank you. So, I wanted to talk a bit about the album. First of all, I know that you've been making music for a long time and doing stuff independently on your own. In America, you're still sort of a new artist. A lot of people haven't heard your stuff yet, aren't familiar with you. When did you first start making music and taking this seriously as a career? I started when I was 18, seriously. I did it my whole life before, but seriously when I was 18. It's been about 10 years now [laughs]. Nice. Can't believe it's been that long [laughs]. Time flies, huh? Oh, man, it does. Right on. And you have your own label, which is Stellar Ent., correct? Yep. And you did The 18th Day album and mixtapes and various singles and stuff on your own? Yep. Cool. So, how did you hook up with John Legend and Kanye and all these guys you're working with now? Well, about six months before I did get signed to do The 18th Day album, I hooked up with John Legend and Kanye in LA. Kanye just dropped College Dropout. And I was out there working. This is me working on my first album just on my own, like, frick it, I'm just going to keep going. Right. I walked in to Kanye at Roscoe's [House of Chicken & Waffles]. And I said to him, "I'm a big fan, where's John Legend?" And he was like, "Oh, OK. Yeah, he's here. Come to the studio." I was like, "All right, cool." So, I went to the studio, back there talking to John for 20 minutes, didn't realize it was him. And then, like, I said to Kanye, "I'm a big fan. Where is John?" He's like, "Oh, he's there." I was like, "Ooooh. Good. Oh, good to meet you, then." [Laughs.] And we stayed friends and it locked into some work, so... And you guys collaborated on your first album as well, right? Yep, on the track called "Hey Girl." Cool. So what can you tell us about the new album? What can we expect? Oh, Lord. It's a lot of great music. It's a lot of, like, 100 percent me, 100 percent real talk, 100 percent dance music, soul, hip-hop, rap, reggae. It's just a big old mix-up of songs. I got really irritated--actually, no. I got to a point where I was like, "No, you're just happy with yourself." Like, I was raving in so many different clubs and I liked so many different styles of music. I was like, "I want to do all of this, now!" [Laughs] Right. So you would describe it sort of as, like, a little bit of everything? Yeah, it's a little bit of everything. And I just went ahead and did that on that album. Like, the thing was, everyone was like, "What do you do?" And I was like, "I do everything, just everything. Leave me alone. I'm not a pigeon, don't put me in a hole or a box." I do everything, you know? Just whatever made me feel good that day. That's cool. And now, are you writing all of your own material or is it a collaboration with different writers, or how does that work? Oh, no, I write all my own stuff. The only person I've written with...two people that I wrote with was--where I pointedly said, "I want to sit and write a song with you," was John Legend. And the other song that I didn't write on the album was written by Cee-Lo. Oh, nice. Which is cool. I mean, he was like, "You know what? I don't even need to write this for you [laughs]. I know I like the song. Let's sing it, f*** it." Yeah, that's cool, as long as it sounds good. And then, in terms of producers, you're working with Will.i.am and Swizz Beatz and who else is on there? Mark Ronson, Wyclef, John Legend... Who else? It's like 12 tracks, so I have to keep thinking. I've know you've done some stuff with Hi-Tek before. Is he involved in this record, too? No, I'm on his album, we did that after I recorded my album... It also features Jack Splash, who's recorded with Alicia Keys. Oh, cool. So are you in the States now or are you back in the UK, or where are you at now? Oh, no, I'm in the States now. I moved over about a year ago. Last May. Coming from overseas, what was the biggest differences, not just musically necessarily, but just sort of with lifestyle in the States as compared to the UK? Everyone here eats out. All the time [laughs]. Yeah, totally. They eat out or they order out all the time. And I'm like the biggest stockpiler, like, "I want to cook. Can I cook? I want to cook. I don't want to eat out!" And I'm never in my house to do it, so I end up buying a bunch of food and it goes off. [Laughs] I hear you. Do you think you're going to stay out here for a while or are you hoping to? I think I will. Like, the label's out here. Both labels are out here, Homeschool and Atlantic. So I'm trying to be where the label is because it's easier. Are you in New York or in LA? I'm in New York. OK, cool. Now, I also wanted to ask, you know, the music industry is going through some crazy changes...some things for better, some things for worse. But in general, in terms of new artists getting signed, the sales have definitely been down, and it's more about singles than albums and stuff like that. Does that stress you out at all or are you just going into it fully optimistic with whatever happens, happens? Good music is good music. People will buy what they want and what they like, you know? And my thing is people are still selling albums. Alicia Keys is still selling like, 700,000 albums. That's based on good music and people actually liking the artist. So you know, I'm not even... Not too worried about that. My thing is, I think people will like the music. And if they like the music, they'll buy it. That's what's up. Now what's your live show like? Do you play with a full band? What's the live concert situation like? I have a full band but I do, like, a smaller setup. But it's just a lot of fun. Like, my thing is never about just going on stage and doing a bunch of acting and stuff, it's really fun. Like, I talk to the crowd. Right. Like, they come on stage and dance with me, they come and sing with me [laughs]. It's bunch of fun. And I just like to have fun. I don't want to get out there and be with them like, "I'm me and you're you. Listen." You know? And I know that people paid their money to come in and watch, so they want to be entertained, they want to feel like they're part of the show. So we make them part of the show [laughs]. Nice. That sounds good. And so are you going to be doing a big tour once the album drops? I know you did some shows at the end of last year with Kanye overseas. Are you going to be doing a headlining tour or are you going to be joining with somebody else's tour out here or what? I think we're going to be working a lot. We're trying to get on a few different tours. So I'd say look out for me. Cool. So what would you like to say to all the people out there that are just hearing your music for the first time and just getting their first taste of Estelle? I'ma tell you this. Keep listening. Turn it up loud. And then when it's finished, put it back on again and play it again. [Laughs] Right on. You are going to love it and it's real talk. It's the realest talk you've ever heard. It's nothing fake. It's nothing pretentious. And if you don't identify with it, feel free to e-mail me with some song subjects that you think I should sing about. And next album, I got you. Excellent. Well, hey, thanks again for taking the time to do this. I appreciate it. And good luck with everything. Thank you. All right. Take care, Estelle. Bye.