Meet Alani, a singer-songwriter born in London with French, Lebanese, and Brazilian roots. She is an overthinker, older sister, and John Mayer fan since she was seven and the next alternative pop artist to watch.
We love to talk about liminal spaces. There’s nothing like the liminal space between friend and (potential) lover. It locks your heart into unending longing and your brain into the realm of possibility that you can only seem to imagine and never truly vocalise. Alani chooses to vocalise.
Her latest single, “More Than Friends” from her upcoming EP, Somewhere Between Saying It, delves into ‘what could have been’ and the things that haven’t been said. While Alani is addressing someone she can’t reach, she is singing it loud and clear.
Throughout the course of our chat, we talked writing, performance, emotion, and life as an eldest daughter.
Q: To begin with, if you had to pitch Alani to someone who doesn’t know her yet, who is she?
A: Alani is your girl next door that loves to write in her diary. She is the person that’s very much extroverted but at the same time has a lot of thoughts that she just can’t get out of her way, and that she needs to sing about. If I were to picture it from a more musical standpoint, I would say that she is a mix of alternative pop blends and your next undercover, underground new sound in alternative pop.
Q: You were born in London and have French, Lebanese and Brazilian heritage. Growing up, how did that influence your listening habits, and do you see a correlation between how it informed your music taste and career choices?
A: It really does have an influence on me. I remember growing up and listening to a lot of Francis Gabrielle, who’s a French artist that my dad used to love. [Being raised around French music,] it impacted the chord progressions and melodies that I would later on choose when writing my own music. There’s this romantic touch to French music that doesn’t necessarily exist in English music.
In terms of my other heritage, I feel like growing up in the UK is a big aspect of who I am as an artist today. I got influenced by my favourite UK alternative pop artists. I’ve been listening to The 1975 since forever. When you listen to a few of my songs that are coming out soon, you’ll see that there’s a strong influence from them.
I try to write in French but I haven’t released anything in French yet. There’s also a lot of Brazilian music that I’ve listened to like Maria Gadú and Ana Carolina. Thematically, especially for the French and the Brazilians, [music] is love-focused, and that’s something that I touch upon a lot.
Q: That’s so interesting, because now when I’ll go back and listen I’m going to be picking up on what you’ve just said. Do you think that you will get to release tracks in other languages eventually?
A: I’m really planning on it. There is one song that mixes English and French, and I feel like it could be really interesting for audiences.
Q: You have pursued the talent show path and also studied at NYU’s Gallatin School and Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. There’s always been this tension between formal study and practice through performance. Having done both, what did you learn from each experience?
A: I was performing at a very early age to be quite frank. When I went on The Voice I was 14, and before that I used to compete for other talent shows. These experiences taught me how to be perseverant and self confident as an artist.
At only 14, I didn’t expect to go so far in [The Voice]. The fact that I didn’t make it through after that was a make or break moment for me, because I was asked myself, is this it? Am I supposed to abandon this dream of mine?
Putting yourself out there when performing, and sometimes getting rejection or criticism, is so crucial as an artist because it pushes you to continue and to evaluate if this is really what you want to be doing. Getting that exposure so early on toughened me up.
From a more academic standpoint, it does clash with the more performative side of it. But I really enjoyed my time. The classes I took at Clive taught me how to write, especially when it comes to my songwriting, in a way that is so much more collaborative. I used to write on my own before going to university. I wrote a couple of songs with my dad, but other than him, there was no one else.
When I went to NYU, I got to really experience collaboration and learn ideas from other people. The best music is written when you’re collaborating with people. Even the little techniques and songwriting workshops we would do pushed me to write more and to improve my writing. If you take my writing before NYU and my writing after it, you can really see the difference and how mature I’ve become through my time at university. I’m very thankful for that.
Q: I’d love to hear more about writing with your dad.
A: We’ve been writing with each other forever. We joke about it a lot because obviously, there’s Billie Eilish and Finneas, but for us, it’s father-daughter vibes. I wrote my first song ever with him when I was seven. He’s a very good guitarist. I came up with a melody, and since that day, when there was a thought that I needed to get out, I would just write it as a child and come to him.
Over time, it became a routine of ours. I would just pop up in his room and we’d both pull out our guitars and start strumming. The next thing you know, we’d have one of my new songs, which is pretty magical. [For] some of my best songs, he has always had input. There’s a song that I will be releasing on the 4th of July called “Dancing Through the Madness”. I was writing in New York, and I came up with a melody in an elevator. The first thing I did was call him, and it was destiny that he was in town. [He] said, “I’m coming over to yours in 20 minutes.” We finished the song together. He’s a great writing buddy.
Q: That’s awesome. It’s like a ritual. In your latest single, “More Than Friends”, you unravel heartbreak as it resides between friendship and something more. The lyric, “I should’ve known this day would come, no one calls their friend number one” stood out to me in particular. In terms of telling a good friends-to-lovers story, how do you balance the familiar elements of that dynamic with your own experiences and perspective to make the story feel fresh and personal??
A: I feel like a lot of us, even most of the population, end up having feelings for their best friends sometime down the line. And it’s just a terrible and dreadful experience to go through. I brought my personal story with my own fresh take. Those were words that were uttered out of my relationship with my best friend. They might have either taken it in a romantic or platonic way, which leaves you confused. The song is very much based on how people [feel when] you’re asking 10,000 questions at night saying, “does he like me back?” Or “are we just friends?” The most important part was to be true to myself—my experience—although it does touch on a common trope.
Q: I got the impression that the songs in your EP are about existing in these in-between spaces—of events that could happen or have happened and since passed by. How did you settle on the title of the EP, and how do you feel it captures your overall ‘thesis statement?‘
A: I love that question because initially my EP was just supposed to be titled Alani. Originally, I thought that this was a good enough name. It’s my first EP, but I haven’t released a body of work yet. I just sat with my dad and was saying how it was so boring. I don’t feel like this is who I am. These four songs or five songs, in their essence, don’t represent my full life story. They represent most definitely the last 4 years, but my life story? I don’t see that for myself. Maybe once an album comes along, but not right now.
My dad was asking me questions like, “what are you feeling, and why did you write these 4 little songs over a couple of years?” Every single song on this album always ties back to a story or a life experience that I’ve lived. It always ties back to the simple fact that I have never been able to communicate my emotions in the moment. Some of these songs are self confident, angsty, emblematic anthems. It is about me bottling up so much rage that I choose to, like, dance through it.
I thought the best way to name the EP was Somewhere Between Saying It because I haven’t said most of this stuff, and I’m saying it now in those four songs. Maybe my next work is gonna be called Just Saying It.
Q: Yes. Or even, There, I said it! Having written the tracks during your time in both London and New York, do you find that some feel more distinctively like one city over the other?
A: The 2 tracks that have been written in London are… actually PR team will kill me if I say it, so you’ll wait for that one.
One of [the songs] was written in London, but “April Showers” was also continued in London. The first verse I wrote in New York. I feel like those tracks, to me, are the most vulnerable, raw, and ambient songs of all on the EP. These are the songs that I actually wrote in my childhood bedroom. One of them was before even going to university. I started in 2021, finished in 2022. The second song was post-university.
They have a different atmospheric feel to them, and they’re just so much more raw. There has to be a correlation of how intimate and how vulnerable I was allowing myself to get in the space that I was writing. I feel like being home in London it allowed me to reflect on my emotions in a much deeper and vulnerable way, where I wouldn’t be threatened.
In New York, there was this element of threat because I was not with my inner child, or in my room and little bubble. There’s nothing more personal to someone than a childhood bedroom—the room that you grew up in is the place that holds the most memories and emotions.
Q: You have said that the EP is “almost like reading your older sister’s diary, the one you weren’t supposed to open.” Firstly, are you an older or younger sister? And how do you think the dynamics you grew up with shaped the way you express yourself through your songwriting and performances?
A: I am an older sister. [Older sisters] have been through it, we’re the blueprint. I actually have a younger sister who has read through my diary, so I do know the feeling. I forgive her. I’m describing my EP like someone reading through my diary because a lot of the emotions that I tend to write show the growth of Alani as an artist.
During the past 4 years, I wouldn’t directly tackle my emotions or express myself in a linear way. I would just bottle it up and add it to my diary. I have this weird book where I sometimes write how I feel, but most of the time I just write lyrics. This EP is like you opened a book and read through it.
As an older sister, there’s so much emotion that you go through, especially frustration from holding back and biting your tongue. There are other people you are having to take care of, or you don’t want to disappoint and burden. Ultimately, it is about biting my tongue and how I don’t want to do it anymore.
[This is the part where I suggested and raved about Hayley Williams’ song, Kill Me, and Alani responded, “this might just fucking cure all of my eldest child problems.”]
Q: What are some of your upcoming Alani projects that fans should look out for? Is there a particular subject matter you wish to delve into your music but haven’t had the opportunity to yet?
A: Following this EP, I’m excited because the next songs are so different from the ones that are coming out now. The difference is so striking. They’re so much more bold, straight to the point. There’s a confidence that has grown in me and “I’m saying it”. Yeah, that’s gonna be the new title.
I’m so excited for that chapter of my life to arrive once this EP is out. I am working on some potential gigs here and there in London. I currently do not know if I’m going to be based in London or New York in the next couple of years but I think that wherever that is, I’m very excited to start gigging and performing my music in front of my fans that are listening. Stay tuned for that.
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS:
- An artist everyone should know about – Trist1n
- A dream collaboration or collaborator – a writing session with Lizzy McAlpine or write a song with Ian Fitchuk
- A genre people wouldn’t expect you to listen – UK rap, Grime (“I’m the biggest fan of AJ Tracey”)
- Favourite album cover – Older and Wiser by Lizzie McAlpine (“not the deluxe”), Gracie Abrams’ albums
- A song to listen to in the morning – Your Body is a Wonderland by John Mayer (Alani’s favourite artist)
- A song to cry or feel sad to – Glimpse of Us by Joji or Honeybee by Olivia Rodrigo (me too, Alani!)
- If one of your songs could be used in a film or television show what would it be – Begin Again (2013) starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo
Alani is gearing up for her EP, but she’s got her eye on the future. To borrow wise words from Sofia Isella, “she looked the future in the eye, it’s mine, mine, mine, mine”.
At the end of the conversation, I felt like I had just talked to a friend. Alani’s EP, Somewhere Between Saying It, which consists of 5 tracks, comes out on August 14 and I will be listening—I strongly suggest you do to.
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