06 February 2021
Newsdesk
In his latest 'At Home With’ conversation on Apple Music, Zane Lowe is joined by Celeste who breaks down her acclaimed debut album ’Not Your Muse’ and shares selections from her 50+ song playlist of soulful inspirations. She also discusses why she loves vinyl, being drawn to Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse’s influence, learning from Tyler, The Creator and Outkast, and more.
Celeste Tells Apple Music How She Feels Following The Release of Her Debut Album ’Not Your Muse’…
Well, it's a weird feeling. On the day it actually came out, I described it as it's like waking up on your birthday, but not getting to see your friends yet kind of thing. It's kind of like that. You don't feel that different at first, but now it's been a few days. I just feel really happy and hearing what songs people like, I feel quite relieved that it's just out there now kind of thing.
Celeste Tells Apple Music About Success and Taking Things a Day at a Time…
I think that even in conversation and just taking the stance to just be as honest as I possibly can, I'm getting on with people more actually. And I think that people are getting to understand me in my ways and the way I actually am, even if it's awkward sometimes or all of those kinds of things. And I think in doing that as well, I've felt a little bit less pressured by those things that you mentioned, like BRITs and that kind of stuff, because people get to say stuff to me. I think in the week leading up to performing and doing that, all I was thinking about was that how I'm going to sing certain bits and certain phrasing, what the lights were going to look like and what I was going to wear. And that was literally all I thought about. And then after I started speaking to people, mainly press and that kind of thing. And people would say, "Did you know this person won that, and this person won that and you're going to be a superstar?" And I just used to just think, well, I think even so when people say it to me now, I just think it's a bit silly really, because I just kind of know, I don't know. I just think it's silly basically, because as well and myself, I just try to go with the flow and take things day by day. So I just never really think of what that final thing is. I just sort of set myself goals of the things that I want to do to feel fulfilled from what I'm doing.
Celeste Tells Apple Music Why She Loves Listening To Music on Vinyl…
I think most of the artists and performers that inspired me, I discovered them from listening to them on vinyl. And there was a charity shop near where my mum lived, and I think it's still there. And I used to go there, and I'd be the only one that bought the vinyl because it was in an OAP area. So it was all bungalows, one floor. And I was one of the only kids that lived in the neighbourhood. So everyone was getting rid of their vinyl. And I was like, "Wow. There's so much of it there.” And yeah, so that was kind of like the first time I really heard Shirley Bassey and those kinds of things and Stan Getz, and I'd listen to them on vinyl. So I think something about that has come into my way of thinking and how I want to make music. But it's maybe not so conscious, such a conscious decision to go, "I want this to sound good on vinyl," but it's definitely my favourite way of listening when I have the time to go and put something on.
Celeste Tells Apple Music About Being Drawn To Aretha Franklin’s Voice…
It's just that she allows herself to explore and express the rawest part of her emotions. She doesn't really hold anything back. So I think from a young age, I was just really drawn to it because it's arresting and it demands you to listen. There's no way you can hear one of those songs and just pay no attention to it. So I think that's why I've really, really enjoyed her voice and taken a lot from listening to her. And I guess, as I've got older, I have toned down my voice a bit where I don't really sing as loudly anymore. And I don't try to do as big of notes. And sometimes it comes out in some songs here and there. But when I first started taking things serious, when I was 16, every time I sang, I'd be like, "Ah. Ah." I'd always tried to do the most loud, like Etta James-style, Aretha Franklin. So they definitely were quite good in me just trying to be quite bold. And those were my measure of whether I was a good singer or not, if I could reach some of the notes that they could in comparison, singing along with them and stuff like that.
Celeste Tells Apple Music About Amy Winehouse’s Influence…
Well, I think just in the UK and I'm sure the rest of the world too, but you feel it in London so much that people just so completely admire her and adore her, whether that's people that have never come into contact with her, but just absolutely love her music. And it's almost like a blueprint for them and what they do. And anyone that you ever come across that's met her holds her in such special place in their heart. But I just found that actually I really understood her music when I was more like 18, 19. So I think when those albums first came out, I was like 10 and 12 and it was the kind of thing that my mum had a CD of it. And I knew I really liked her voice and I'd have "Rehab" in my head because I'd see it on the video channels. And I remember hearing "Stronger Than Me," but it wasn't until I was older that I really understood where she was coming from and what she was really talking about. And that's when I learned to appreciate it so much more. I think when I listened to her, it does remind me of that, that like, ultimately you just have to write something that is true to your existence and your thoughts and your feelings...Definitely that, both of those albums, Frank and Back to Black. I don't know at the time if they were as appreciated as they are now, I'm sure they were, but like they are complete classics. Like to me, nothing really comes close to the writing and the sound and her voice on those albums and every single song. It's just, as soon as I turn one on, actually I always end up listening to the whole thing. And then listening to the... Yeah.
Celeste Tells Apple Music About Being a Fan of Tyler, The Creator and Learning From Him…
I think I was about 16 when I first heard Tyler, The Creator. And I think he had like a website where he had two or three albums already uploaded for free. And I remember listening to them and I was like part of a bit of that like frenzied teenage group of people that would just think he was like a god. I remember hearing songs like "Fish" and "Tron Cat." And it was kind of so outlandish, but then there was a tenderness too at the same time, because you could tell it was like fraught. Again, there was so much raw emotion, everything he was saying. And I remember hearing people say so much stuff about him as though it was so offensive and that... I didn't find that within it. I understood the nuance to it and the different voices of this person. I guess a lot of teenagers at that time that are into it - and I still am as a 26 year old - that you kind of felt there was someone that understood you in all of your insecurity and displacement, because of like all of the stories that he would tell. And I think something else I was really drawn to in all of it was the chord progressions. Yeah, I remember watching a video one day on YouTube and he was just... He broke down one of his earliest songs on piano and the chord just sounded so jazzy to me. And then I was like, I know I liked this for a reason kind of thing. Yeah. When you find those little moments in contemporary songs that kind of murmur back to sounds of the past that you're familiar with, you can really begin to sort of analyze them and it can teach you a lot and how you want to get to your own thing. I think when you stop doing it. And I think even now, I still go back to listen to those early albums because you just learn a lot and you can sort of then track the progression, because now we're blessed with, like you said, Igor and Flower Boy, and you get to see the evolution, basically.
Celeste Tells Apple Music About Outkast and Sly and the Family Stone…
Well, I think that when you just see two individuals like that really being themselves. I remember seeing Andre 3000 at a festival and I was like 17 and he came out wearing a grey wig and that top that said, "My dad has better CDs than you" or something like that. And I don't know, it was just embracing the weirdo, it definitely is one of those things I'm drawn to in person. And I think when I was a kid, obviously I liked, "Hey Ya" and the pop songs, like "Roses" and "Ms. Jackson.” And you kind of know now that I guess... we'll hear that there's nods to Motown and blues and funk. And I think that as I've got older, kind of how I mentioned earlier, when I can sort of draw these parallels between something from the past and something in the now, it really helps me to kind of unravel how I want to do and approach my own thing. And I've always listened to Sly and the Family Stone, my mum's boyfriend showed me Sly and the Family Stone and used to play it around the house a lot when I was younger. So it kind of seems strange, but I heard Andre's verse on "Pink Matter," on the Frank Ocean album I guess quite a long time ago now, 2012. And that's when I really, really realized the intelligence of this person and what that is in his music. And that's when I really started to go back and listen to stuff that came out when I was quite a young kid. And then yeah, kind of drawing comparisons, and I guess like Sly and the Family Stone.Songs like. "Thank You" and "If You Want Me To Stay," and "Just Like A Baby" and just those slow, percussive rhythms that they have an attack, but it's very subtle how it gets you.
