1. It’s been just a few months since Angel Stirling dropped her first hit single that sent
her rocketing into stardom, and she released her first album only a few weeks ago
which already has critics raving and fans going insane. So, when I got the chance to
talk to her about everything I was obviously thrilled and tweeted all you guys from
the magazine’s twitter asking you all to send in questions that you wanted Angel’s
answers to!
This evening’s waiter looks expectantly at Angel Stirling, wondering if she’ll be
ordering wine. At almost 18 and possessing a smooth self-awareness, the British
singer could easily pass for a legal drinking companion. Instead, Angel orders a nice
double shot espresso, a great pick-me-up following over 12 hours of photoshoots
and airports. “I’ve been up since 5am,” she grins. No rest for the wicked as they say,
or well, 2014s biggest breakout star. She has just returned from Los Angeles and
New York, her busy schedule is thanks to the languid, attention grabbing ‘Burn’, a
track which (according to Billboard) has sold over 650,000 copies to date, and
counting! It is currently at the top of the indie charts and number one on iTunes – it
even beat out Fall Out Boy’s American Beauty/American Psycho. Plucked from her
debut album, Manual Love, Angel’s first clutch of tracks are all incredible with the
teenager’s smoky vocals and haunting lyrics, all of which she has written herself. Her
songs have those awesome, raw guitar sounds throughout, making it sound super
fresh and real which is what makes Angel so special and different. She likes the way
her music is rough around the edges and can just fall into place. “I don’t like perfect,
I think it sounds much better when it’s just raw and real.” And maybe this is what her
fans love too!
The teenager hasn't actively sought out press opportunities, and her manager Peter
Quin estimates that she has played only 10 shows to date. Angel Stirling's first U.S.
performance, a headlining show at New York's Le Poisson Rouge on September 4th,
was her first real moment of stateside promotion, and the 700-capacity show was
sold out and packed with curious industry executives. An hour after Angel Stirling
had finished whipping her golden hair around and playing songs from her debut
album, a dozen fans still lined Manhattan's Bleecker Street, hoping for a glimpse of
their new idol.
Angel started writing short stories and songs at 11, though it wasn't long until her
smoky, soulful voice was discovered. Quin saw a video of her performing at a local
talent show, and signed her as a solo artist to a development deal with Universal at
the age of 16 and she then spent a few years channelling all of her talent into this
first album. “It is definitely is weird to have been signed, and then get so much
recognition, so young. I mean, young girls say to me that I’m like their role model or
something and I’m like ‘Whoa, I’m only a couple years older than you, I’m still a kid
man’” says Angel. However, she certainly does give of the illusion of being an old,
wise soul so no wonder she has so many fans looking up to her. “But on the other
hand, sometimes people meet me, and defiantly make me feel like I’m young and
inexperienced and almost incompetent. They’ll say stuff like ‘Oh don’t worry, it’s all
taken care of’ an I’m like no, I want to be involved, I know what I want and I’ll do
2. everything I can to get it.” Angel knows that if she wants to keep her brand
authentic, she can’t just turn it over to the adults.
Angel spends a lot of time trying to connect and engage with her fans, and her fan
base is growing more and more every day. She has her own YouTube channel where
her music videos are uploaded but she also uploads videos of her backstage before
performing, meeting fans and even of her just at home when she wants to tell/show
her fans something. Not many artists do this, they rely on the more official and
formal ways of connecting with their fans but Angel thinks that it’s too formal and
wants her fans to see what she is experiencing. Maybe this is part of the reason for
her great and sudden success? She also has thousands of followers on Twitter and
Instagram. “I think it’s a great way to communicate with my fans and really thank
them for supporting because I would obviously be nowhere without them. The line
between my friends and my fans is quite blurred for me. I’ll hang out with them after
shows, I always try to reply to the fan mail I receive, if I see them in the street or
whatever, I’ll stop and chat to them for like 10 minutes.” On hearing about her
enthusiasm about her fans, I decided it was time to ask her some of the questions
sent in on Twitter: @goodwinsdormer asks who inspires you? “Wow, literally
everyone and everything. Music wise I guess I’m inspired by Lorde and The Pretty
Reckless and The Killers, all of their music is just so great. And people just inspire me
generally are people like Taylor Swift and Emma Watson because they so passionate
about what they do and are absolutely killing it!” @queenangel asks if you didn’t
become a musician, what would you be? “I don’t know, I always knew I wanted to be
a singer but apart from that I literally have no idea. Maybe something to do with
fashion because that just fascinates me.” @rosehathaway has a nice simple
question, what is your favourite colour? “Baby blue. Or Turquoise.” @hollandrhodes
wants to know what music you listened to growing up? “I listened to literally every
genre growing up. I loved Shakira, Bob Marley, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Kooks,
Eminem, Nirvana, everything. I was also influenced by my parents’ tastes a lot so I
love the old stuff like Queen, The Kinks, Led Zepplin and Joan Jett.” @angelstirlfan
asks what are your favourite TV shows at the moment? “Oh man this answer might
be long. I waste way too much of my life binge watching TV shows, it’s ridiculous. At
the moment Homeland, Suits, Game of Thrones, New Girl and The 100 would be my
top five, they’re all fantastic.”
We move on from the Twitter questions to talk about Angel Stirling’s style. She has
this grungy look which she somehow manages to make look quite feminine and
retro. Definitely our top style icon recently! “Yeah I just really love fashion, I’m
intrigued by it so I love playing around with my look and mixing and matching
different styles of clothes is something I find really fun. I’ve also always been slightly
influenced by retro stuff. I adore Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and especially
Grace Kelly. I’m fascinated by that era. That’s why there’s a lot of red lips and winged
eyeliner.” She laughs. Well, we’re certainly digging it.
Angel is very new to this world of fame but she already has a troop of paparazzi
following her wherever she goes. “Yeah, it can get quite annoying that I’m followed
everywhere and have everything about me criticised in gossip columns and stuff but
3. then I remember that this is all because I’ve achieved my dreams which is to make
music so I realise I can’t quite complain as this is the best thing that has ever
happened to me, even if it does come with down sides. I guess to get the good
you’ve got to deal with the bad!” Fame certainly isn’t easy. “A lot of my audience,
they’re younger than me or the same age, and a lot of the decisions I make are about
trying to portray this whole weird… fame-storm that’s happening to me as
realistically as possible,” she tells me. “Because people don’t understand it. I don’t
even understand it, and I’m, like, doing it. I want to show them that this is beyond
weird.” And how do you deal with the haters? I ask. “Well, it’s hard to just listen to
the blind hate and abusive/degrading comments so I just try to tune that out.
However, I think they do motivate me a lot to try and prove them wrong when they
say things like ‘oh your music is rubbish’ or ‘you’ll never be as good as some other
singer’ and that just makes me want to try harder. And in the end I’m doing this
because I love it and the haters could never stop me, so I just focus on the support
I’m getting from my fans and trying to give back to them as much as I can.”
We move to the end of our interview so I ask the question everyone wants to know:
what are you doing next? What’s in the future for you? “At the moment I’m just
writing tonnes of new songs, working on the next album. It’s not coming out anytime
soon though, maybe late next year or early 2016. Also, I’m coming to tour the UK
soon, I can’t wait!” Angel Stirling will be coming to tour the UK in spring of 2015 and
is super pumped about it, as many of her fans obviously are because most of her
performances have already sold out! “It’s unbelievable to think that so many people
want to see me sing that they fill out whole stadiums! But man I’m so excited to do
this, connecting to people through my music is all I’ve ever wanted to do and now
that I’m going on tour I can do it every day and I’m so excited I can’t even put it into
words.”
You can see what dates of Angel’s tour are still available at our website
www.wire.com.
