Q&A - An interview with: Shesaid
Based in London, Shesaid is the solo project of Italian singer-songwriter Eleonora Stolfi who is in the midst of completing her debut EP, 'Fish Out Of Water'. Having already mystified us with cuts from the EP such as 'Organo Song' and 'Whispers', we decided to get to know the artist behind the music a whole lot better.
1. Hi there! Why have you chosen to go by the moniker of ‘Shesaid’?
"Shesaid means something accomplished by me. Since when I started with music in high school and even before I've always shared my sound with someone else and in the end the result was a contaminated sound because it was belonging to me and the other person working with me. I needed at some point to cut off with this habit of sharing and tell the truth about myself and to myself."
2. Describe your sound in three words.
"Gloomy, surreal, multifaceted."
3. Imagine you could go back in time and write the soundtrack for any film ever made. Which film would you pick and why?
"Requiem for a Dream"...definitely! That movie shocked me so much that I could start writing music for it any time."
4. What is the concept behind your music?
"It's not actually a concept I guess. I've promised myself not to be worried about charts or just what people want to listen to. Art for art, that's the strength where everything I'm doing starts from. Need of making, creating no matter what, no matter if it's "outcast". If you loose this - the pleasure of creating - you loose the point of doing art."
5. Let’s play a game, imagine you are hosting a dinner party. You can invite five famous people of any professions, dead or living. Who would be sitting at your dinner table?
"I would love to be sitting with PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, David Lynch, David Bowie and Demetrio Stratos... a creepy dinner ;)."
6. How do you go about writing a song?
"I could start either from music or words, it depends on my inspiration and mood. I'm practicing with electric bass and most of the songs were born from it."
7. What are your major influences?
"Shesaid was born in a specific time of my life when I was "pulling the drawer out" memories like Twin Peaks soundtrack that I still love and Pj Harvey's songs. So these probably are my influences. Moreover grunge and trip hop music. That's why I like to mix electro sound and rock.... I think."
8. Which album inspires you the most and why?
"I was inspired by lots of albums but if you want me to pick one of them I would say 'Is This Desire?' by PJ Harvey....sorry I know I got hooked with her :D"
9. What message are you trying to get across through your music?
"I would like to deliver the importance of creating freely by using our entire background, because we all experience different things in life and it's funny to put them together even if they apparently don't match. I think my way of doing music is the way to make a collage - different images from different places, time and people all in one."
10. What are your plans for this year?
"I'm planning to get my first video clip done in Rome really soon and mixing the other tracks for the EP, but most important is to start playing live shows."
Interview by Wolfgang Merx and Karla Harris.
3. Imagine you could go back in time and write the soundtrack for any film ever made. Which film would you pick and why?
"Requiem for a Dream"...definitely! That movie shocked me so much that I could start writing music for it any time."
4. What is the concept behind your music?
"It's not actually a concept I guess. I've promised myself not to be worried about charts or just what people want to listen to. Art for art, that's the strength where everything I'm doing starts from. Need of making, creating no matter what, no matter if it's "outcast". If you loose this - the pleasure of creating - you loose the point of doing art."
5. Let’s play a game, imagine you are hosting a dinner party. You can invite five famous people of any professions, dead or living. Who would be sitting at your dinner table?
"I would love to be sitting with PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, David Lynch, David Bowie and Demetrio Stratos... a creepy dinner ;)."
6. How do you go about writing a song?
"I could start either from music or words, it depends on my inspiration and mood. I'm practicing with electric bass and most of the songs were born from it."
7. What are your major influences?
"Shesaid was born in a specific time of my life when I was "pulling the drawer out" memories like Twin Peaks soundtrack that I still love and Pj Harvey's songs. So these probably are my influences. Moreover grunge and trip hop music. That's why I like to mix electro sound and rock.... I think."
"I was inspired by lots of albums but if you want me to pick one of them I would say 'Is This Desire?' by PJ Harvey....sorry I know I got hooked with her :D"
9. What message are you trying to get across through your music?
"I would like to deliver the importance of creating freely by using our entire background, because we all experience different things in life and it's funny to put them together even if they apparently don't match. I think my way of doing music is the way to make a collage - different images from different places, time and people all in one."
10. What are your plans for this year?
"I'm planning to get my first video clip done in Rome really soon and mixing the other tracks for the EP, but most important is to start playing live shows."
Interview by Wolfgang Merx and Karla Harris.