Introducing Debbie Aramide: A fresh faced singer/songwriter from North London, determined to make her stamp in the UK’s music scene.
From the age of six she has been crafting her talent, attending theatre school, trained by Tameka Epsom and has become a regular performer at Somerset House, now as 22 year old law graduate, she has performed at LoveBox Festival, opening for artists such as US chart sensation Aloe Blacc and Dionne Bromfield for over 3000 people.
“Trying to balance being a law student and a performer is very difficult, if I’m not in the exam room, I’m in the studio. My passion is always knocking on the door, I’m writing constantly, singing along the road, whenever it comes to me, it comes.”
As a critically acclaimed upcoming artist after the recognition of her self-produced mixtape Breaking Point (2009), Debbie is now preparing to promote her new EP, The Tide. Being influenced by Toni Braxton, Beyonce and Coldplay, Debbie describes her sound as being indie meets soul.
“This EP definitely shows my growth, not just as a person, but as an artist. My first self produced song had more of a pop, soulful house beat; the material on The Tide is an influx of new energy, that’s elements of a soulful/indie vibe. There’s more thought into the lyrics now, a definitely more mature sound from my previous work.”
“I don’t care if you’re offended, you’ll still find it funny!"
Various jobs allow me to make great friendships with a lot of talented people.
One being Ola the Comedian, that I first met at the Choice FM Comedy Club who ended up following me home, or because, as he says, he also lives in the same area... *side eye. Coincidently, four years later, I’m able to walk around the corner and say hi, congratulate him on becoming a fiancé and intrude on his wedding ideas! So to me, he’s just Ola, I don’t know Ola the Comedian to well, so I just had to ask...
What makes you Ola the Comedian and not just a comedian?
Good question, wow! I’m just me. I don’t wanna be ill conceived, you know me! But I’ve learnt that you have to be yourself! You could try to be someone else, but you’re always gonna be beaten doing that. No one can be you, but you! You have to make your material stand out. Some people may think my material may come across smarter than other comedians that they’ve seen, but it depends on the individual; it depends how lively you wanna be, how controversial that you want to be, the key is finding your own unique setting.
So when did you find your own setting and thought, ‘I can do this, not as a hobby, but as a living?’
I had been doing stand up comedy for about a year; at that point, everything was going wrong for me. I failed a year at LSE, I didn’t get any of the internships that I applied for, I tried to get into investment banking and all I got from the employers is that I didn’t give them the impression that it was the field I had passion for. And they were right. What I wanted to do, is the thing I’m doing now. The final push the thought was on my 21st birthday when I had a show, and thought, this is just a small element of what I want to do.
So now you’re a signed, agent- represented comedian, what’s the difference?
You can’t get gassed up on being signed, but it’s great being managed by a company established in the comedy scene that sees your talent and has as much passion as you do, and also, they’re much the wiser – they have the knowledge from working with various, and bigger clients to get me in regular, nationwide sets, whereas in stand-up comedy, you’re doing the same stages for a long time catering to the same people.
So now you’re aspiring to be more mainstream, how would you say it’s different, with regards to the way they receive your material?
Mainstream crowds are more open, they don’t like the same topics being joked about, they want to hear something different – they seem to know more about comedy. It seems that they are more about the content of comedy whether it be politics or current affairs , rather than how loud you can make the crowd roar.
The content of your comedy is acclaimed to be quite controversial, has it ever been more of an issue than what how you first thought it would be?
Not really, I always have an idea about a crowd to try and figure out how the audience may react to certain things. As a stand-up you read the crowd. But I still say it, knowing that this could be the joke that potentially ends the show for me, or the joke that looses them! I do it with the thought that they’re not going to like it or someone will be offended, so if they love it, it’s even better. So now, I don’t care, and I’ve found that when you don’t care, they find it even funnier!
Go on...
I did my joke on my views of homosexuality, based on my Christian beliefs. As it was a joke, there was some ‘funny’ in there, but kit was way too much hassle for what it was worth, because it wasn’t productive, but it was a hot topic issue, not to be taken lightly because it’s easy to be labelled as a homophobic, and that’s nothing I care to associate myself with.
When you writing, do you isolate yourself, or let it come naturally?
Normally it’s natural, but there have been a few instances of a stroke of genius when I have sat and put my head down. They may be two different points from two different days, but I can build on the potential from that.I may find something hilarious, whereas someone else thinks otherwise; it’s all about perspective and potential. Like when I saw a dude on the tube with a pint glass, which may be normal to some, but in my head I’m thinking ‘it’s 7.30pm, how much of an alcoholic are you to have your own glass on your way out?’, and I ran on that.
So you have an agent, do shows nationwide and abroad, have a DVD, what’s next?
More shows across Europe and establish myself as a headliner, rather than an opening act and maybe do more TV, more sketch writing, perhaps some comedy writing.
More TV...?
I did the FHM talent competition on ITV4 ‘Search for a stand up hero, in which I came third and also on Kojo’s Comedy Fun House on MTV Base, and also The Jason Lewis Experience.
I haven’t done any formalised writing but have written with Jason Lewis, which is more of me giving ideas. I met him while working together in retail and learnt that we both had a passion for comedy and therefore was able to bounce ideas and views off each other – it was a meeting of the minds and he asked me to jump on board.
Any one else you’d like to work with? Top two?
Dave Chapelle and Steven Colberg
Favourite film?
Coming to America, without a doubt. The comedy element is great, it’s timeless, and it’s a film that shows Africa in a good light. Eddie Murphy is my favourite actor. And Soul Gro its self is iconic! You know it! Everyone’s sung the song! But why Coming to America?
Are you genuinely questioning my love for Coming to America? From the first scene where he’s in the bathroom, getting cleaned?? That right there is iconic! SEXUAL CHOCOLATE! So if you had a once in a lifetime chance of remaking, or even changing the film in the slightest, what would you change?
Ah man.... I couldn’t! It’s art! I wouldn’t touch it! It would be almost disrespectful – it’s timeless!
Since its establishment in 1994 The Big Chill Festival has been home to multiple locations in the UK before being brought by heavyweights Festival Republic. Throughout its history, The Big Chill has showcased a variety of different music, up-tempo as well as ambient. Recently, live acts and DJs like Norman Jay, Mr Scruff and of late Calvin Harris are regular performers, and more dance music is heard, but the festival also provides a wide range of music from folk and jazz to dub step and jungle to cater to their own ever-growing diverse culture.
In saying this The Big Chill festival has really stepped their game with regards to the acts they have headlining their stage. In the last few years crow
ds from across England merged to see Lily Allen, Isaac Hayes, Aim, Basement Jaxx, Mr Hudson, Plan B, Tinie Tempah and Massive Attack.
This year The Big Chill Festival opens its gates to The Chemical Brothers, Kanye West, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Jessie J, Robert Plant, Crystal Fighters. Calvin Harris, Aloe Blacc, Janelle Monae, Chipmunk, Katy B & Example.
The camping experience was one in itself!
Travelling to Eastnor Castle in Hereforshire and pitching a tent for the first time without a hammer was definitely a skill I learnt (learnt that if you try to use a bottle, the bottle will burst)!
But we got the job done!
By ourselves might I add, there were so many people, tens of thousands of tents and caravans but nobody wanted to help us – imagine that!
BBC Radio 1 and XFM favourites Crystal Fighters performed tracks off their 2010 debut album Star Of Love for their biggest audience to date, and they were sensational live. Their use of txalaparta and the danbolin seemed to be a crowd pleaser with their fuse of electronic guitars.
Also on the main stage was Janelle Monae. Now to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of hers at all, because to me, all I seem to hear is a lot of shouting, but her vocal control is very impressive with regards to her energy on stage. But yes, she was wearing the same (yes, it may be trademark, but it’s also tired) black and white ensemble with the same hair style and the same shoes as you’ve seen before, so if you’ve seen her once. Don’t do it again – just hit record.
She also done a Michael Jackson cover and did the moonwalk, but even after that, I can’t say she would make me go to YouTube and favourite any of her material.
Also on the Revellers stage was Katy B and Delvin. Devlin amazed the young crowd encouraging them to go “*$£”king mental!” and that they did as the young lyricist performed his bars on the mic while Katy B did a short set and blamed the production team and had little girls crying their eyes out. Wouldn’t you for £75 a ticket??
Now, I’m not going to bore you with all the infinite details about each and every act, because, well, who has time for all that?
But I will say, I used to be a big fan of Jessie J until her second single. Not that it was to be unexpected, but I can’t hear her raw talent in her music anymore. So in addition to that, she made me roll my eyes, when she was escorted to her big velvet chair on stage with a cast on her foot, which seems like it’s been broken forever. Somehow it felt like a big act and a cry for even more attention. That’s just me. Conversely, her vocals were very good, and unlike a lot of the other acts, she outsung her band, so you could close your eyes and just listen without rolling them.
Grammy Award-winning Kayne West, critically acclaimed as the most arrogant man in hip hop, with some other strong candidates was obviously not going to be on time, but that didn’t stop the herd of people bombarding me from my comfortable patch on the floor to being practically under the armpit of somebody that was obviously not utilising the hygiene facilities on the campsite.
Now, I’ve never been a fan of West, but damn, he was actually worth the wait even though we did boo him when he eventually arrived. For you ‘most important show of the summer’ you shouldn’t be an hour late; and I also have reason to believe he was high, read on....
Kayne West had an entourage 75 people, half of which must have been his troop of professional trained contemporary ballet dancers that were incredible from start to finish. I was told by fans that he puts on a good show, but his performance was almost theatrical and far from the dancing I was expecting from your run-of-the-mill rapper.
He started his performance on top of the sound stage on the middle of the park with Power which got the crowd out of control and made them forget he was late (as he said, ‘they say good things come to those who wait, so I’m at least gon’ be an hour late’). Reason being, as he blabbed on to explain, “He’s a perfectionist, just making sure he gives what the fans deserved”.
That he did, he put on a great show, until he started to talk...
... And BOY, can he talk! He literally whined on stage about how the media portrays him, how “I walk down the street, and people look at me like I'm a monster in some way ... like I'm Hitler or some &^%, how award shows be serving him bull (*&^$ as he explains he was conned into making an appearance at an MTV awards show and some babble about wanting to make the same changes to music as Michael Jordan did for sport and blahblahblah, almost begging to the audience in coherent sentences.
Amongst this pleas, he went on the totally rape the auto-tune, and croaked, all throughout Heartless. Which was actually entertaining, after this political broadcast from the man himself...
Aside from this, I have to raise my hands and say that he is a very creative artist and the energy was apparent through his catalogue of hits such as Flashing Lights, Love Lockdown, Through the Wire and Good Life.
However, I would have considered ending the show on Gold Digger or Stronger as these are West biggest UK hits to date. Instead, he just drugged the vibe by going into yet another heart wrenching anecdote about how his ex fiancé went to a party and met Amy Winehouse and playing Back to Black.
Finish.
*that is the end of the article; I thought it would be creative to use my artistic license and end the West Way.
