AMIE BLU ON HER LATEST EP : ‘CRUMBS IN MY BED’ [@AMIEBLU]

photography: Kat Friar

Rising artist Amie Blu makes music that’s both gentle and vulnerable. After performing at Mahalia Presents and Glastonbury this year, it’s safe to say she’s off to a phenomenal start. Having just dropped her latest EP titled crumbs in my bed, GUAP sits down with her for a chat.

Kat: How did you come up with the name Amie Blu? 

My friends started to call me Amie and it just stuck and then I just added on Blu. I don’t have a cool story about it. Everyone calls me Amie and I threw on ‘Blu’.

Kat: After writing, do you feel lighter once you’ve been able to express yourself?

The main thing I like about writing is that I often end up discovering things about myself. I could think that I don’t know how I feel about a situation, next thing you know I’m writing about it and get some clarification. It’s really cool actually,  just learning things about yourself by accident – so in that sense finding clarification on the situation, I feel much calmer. Now I can go forward with a level head. It feels nice. It feels good. 

Kat: Talk us through your relationship with frequent collaborator Humble the Great?

We met almost four years ago through a friend and had our first session at Abbey Road Studios where he used to study. We just got on really well. If you’re not already in the industry and don’t know anyone, it can be really hard to get into it ‘cause it’s so exclusive – so finding him was really nice. Then we started working together regularly and I actually started making stuff I liked. It’s so cool as well, ’cause when we first met we were both so s**t but now watching each other grow together is the nicest thing in the entire world. I’m really grateful for him and his friendship.

Kat: What inspires the production you work with and what inspires the lyrics?

This project is executively produced by Humble, which means I have the privilege of working with someone who knows me so well – he just knows what to do. When I’m working with new people, maybe I’ll give a reference or we’ll talk about what we are listening to – just getting a vibe or a feel. When it comes to lyrics, I mainly write about things I go through personally or what I watch other people go through, which I think is the greatest thing. The song I’m the most proud of is ‘powder’ ‘cause I think that’s such an amazing thing as a songwriter to be able to tell a story from someone else’s perspective, which I’d love to do more. 

Kat: You’ve had some amazing performances this year from Mahalia Presents to Glastonbury – what’s been your favourite and why?

I have different things for each of them. Mahalia Presents – she’s built such an amazing supportive community that turn up each time, so it’s just nice to be invited to be part of that community. I felt grateful to be there. With Glastonbury, it was a stressful journey. By the time I got there, my adrenaline was so high, so I feel like I wasn’t necessarily that present on stage – but it’s still Glasto! That’s so cool, and it was a good turnout. Also, Glastonbury is so fat so the fact that I still had people come up to me afterwards on different days was so cool to me. I also supported Warpaint at Royal Festival Hall as part of Christine and the Queens’ Meltdown Festival. That one I loved ’cause the venue, the engineers and the production team were f**king insane. When you’re in the early stages of your career with a small team you have to do so much on your own or with limited resources so it was amazing to play in such an iconic venue with such a professional team. I really liked it just ‘cause everything was so smooth.

Kat: You have a great presence on TikTok, with the street interviews you do to promote your music. Have you got any funny stories from shooting them?

People take [the mic] and just go on their own rants. Somehow I find a lot of drunk people. I’ve got like six minute videos of people who just don’t want to give the mic back to me. I had one actually where he just snatched my phone and said “I don’t want this, I want your number,” and I was like, “Oh, if I grab my phone back, you can have my number if we finish it?” But actually no, I don’t wanna give you my number.  I asked someone what’s the last thing he dreamt about and he started telling me about a graveyard in his garden. Weird answers, weird people –  the weirder they are though, the better it will be. Older people give the best replies.

Kat: What made you decide on the title ‘crumbs in my bed’?

The songs are me trying to find reasons as to why I was feeling so sad and why my room was so messy – ‘cause it is. When I’m sad I just live in it so it’s very literal. It just means actual crumbs in my bed ’cause I was just living in my state of sadness.

Listen to the full project below:

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