The Beat Surrender

Karen David is a young woman who seems to have the whole world at her feet righ now. Not content with starting to make some waves in the acting world (more on that later), she is also lining up her debut album for release, hopefully later this year.

Before you start thinking actress turned singer, oh God. Think again. This is someone who has worked her way up musically from a young age and has paid her dues in both professions. She’s also already released an EP that was recorded entirely live in the studio. Entitled Live Sessions EP its a smooth mixture of eastern and western music, with an incredibly soulful voice.

I caught up with her recently in between recording and filming to find out which of the two was her main passion, what the rest of the year held for her…and even got some flattery back in return, making this probably my favourite ever Beat Surrender interview!

You recently released the Live Sessions EP, a collection of songs recorded live in the studio without computers etc. That shows a great deal of confidence in your own ability and everyone else around you, how did you find the recording?

KD: This was an exciting project for my team and I, as I have always wanted to record my songs live off the floor just like they did back in the early days when bands had to record right from the beginning til the end and hopefully not make any mistakes, otherwise it was back to the beginning again for another take! I think recording live off the floor, all in one take, allows for a lot of spontaneity which can make for a great recording, especially when you have a band that are hot. Not to be biased, but my band are hot! :)

We’ve been playing for quite some time now and we’re in sync with each other and that’s the most exhilarating part of performing with them be it live or when we were in the studio recording. My parents used to take me as a little girl, to all these live concerts in town and there I saw, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Donnie and Marie Osmond, and Kool and the Gang, and I was inspired by their live performances and thought I’d love to capture that in some way with my recordings, and voila, The Live Sessions EP was created. My myspace fans were really happy as I have not toured yet all over the U.S or Canada or some areas in England, so this way, they felt they could be a part of the live experience by popping in the EP in their cd players and I was right there with them in their living rooms!

It’s a very mixed EP in the sense that it fuses together jazz, eastern and classic soul vocal influences, did that make it easier or hard to write and record?

KD: I never thought of it that way but you’ve got me thinking about it now! . :) I’ve been brought up on a “healthy diet” of mainstream pop influences, mixed with motown and classical training. With my EP, I wanted to blend my mainstream pop influences with the exotic fusions of my Chinese and Indian roots. Some of the chord structures in some of my tracks has a jazz feel to them but when I’m writing music, my mind is in a whole different world so those challenges never crossed my mind. A good track can cross over, that’s the real tell all sign if it’s a good song when it can “wear” different styles! I call my sound “exotic pop” and that’s what I wanted to achieve with the EP and the album.

My personal favourite on the EP is Pink Glasses, can you tell me a bit more about how that song came together?

KD: I’m so glad you liked Pink G’s! :) This song is very bittersweet for me as it takes me back to a time in my life when life was truly awkward! for me! Those pubescent teenage years can be pretty tough and on top of that being this “mixed breed” of a kid didn’t help, and the kids had a right field day with me.

I got picked on left, right and center. I was quietly ambitious which made them think I was being mysterious, but all it was, was me working hard to make a few childhood dreams come true and not have a big mouth about it. I come from a very humble and normal family and my older sis and I were brought up to dream big but to make sure we backed it up with the work!

I pulled out a photograph when I was about 14, and it just zapped me right back to that place and made me a bit upset…I was wearing my pink rimmed glasses, and my face was covered in acne, but I was smiling, yet looking at that photo, I could see everything that was going on in mind at that time, and I could feel all those feelings I had when I took that photo. So I propped the photo up against a tissue box and I wrote Pink Glasses.

In hindsight, and I know it may sound cliche, but I’m so glad I went through all that. I think all the bullying and being a bit different, made me more ambitious and wanting to prove to myself if anything, that I could make something out of myself, that maybe one day I could be the cool girl and not that awkward looking, ugly duckling! ;) Writing Pink Glasses was really good therapy for me, so I guess I killed two birds with one stone! :)

Do you have a favourite track on the EP yourself and if so why?

KD: My songs are like my babies. I could never choose between them, cause they each have meaning to me, as all my songs are about different moments in my life and tell a story. I think it’s more about a song having it’s “shining moment” for me..so saying that, I think “All I Need” had it’s “shining moment” on the EP. The string arrangements which Steve Bentley-Klein put together for the song, was pure magic.

It’s clear that you have a really varied background both in the music you’ve listened to over the years and in the places you’ve lived and travelled to, how have those two factors influenced how you approach writing your music?

KD: You ask really good questions! :) For all those reasons you’ve mentioned, my roots, places I’ve lived and traveled to have played a huge part in the artist that I am and what my music says both in composition and lyrically. I often find that when you write about very personal stories, or journeys, all of a sudden it becomes universal. I’ve learned so much about myself when I’m on the road and I have met some wonderful people and some interesting ones along the way as well, but it’s all those experiences that give me the creativity to write songs.

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