I dream of collaborating with Q-Tip and Timbaland - it's all producers. I'd really like to work with Drake and DRAM. The Weeknd would be dope. The list goes on and on. If Michael Jackson were alive, I'd love to collaborate with him.
Amber Mark
I want people to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I like to write things that are a soundtrack to my life so if I am experiencing that moment, I want to portray what would be playing in the background.
I ended up having an epiphany that no body of work I put out will ever mean as much to me as '3:33 AM.'
When you lose someone that's really important to you, I feel like it's something that never really goes away. It's almost learning how to live with an empty feeling; it's weird. Something's always missing, but you kind of get used to it.
After my mother passed away, I felt as though I would never have a relationship as strong as the one that I had had with her. Then, after a lot of ups and downs, I started dating again - but I realised pretty quickly that I was never going to write cheesy love songs.
Writing by myself in my bedroom is definitely where I feel most creative.
I've heard stories of other people that are similar stories to me - their mother or father passing away. People have come out to me on Instagram. It's amazing that they can tell me and confide in me. I always want to take the time and write these long messages telling them how much that means to me.
My mother was born in 1953, my brother was born in 1983, and I was born in 1993. Then, my Mum passed away on June 3 at 10:23 P.M. in 2013. Since then, I'd see threes everywhere.
People are entitled to their own opinions and what they believe in, but it's very hard when it's something that logically does not make sense; but talking about it is always good.
You know that melancholy feeling when you watch the end of a movie and you're crying - but also there is hope? I wanted that feeling in 'Monsoon.' I don't want people to be like, 'This is a really depressing EP. I just want to cry the whole way through.'
Just politics in general is a disgusting thing.
I studied a lot from bossa nova, and I used to listen to it a lot as a kid because my mum would play it. I even wanted to learn Portuguese in high school so I could sing in it.
I stayed in Miami and New York until I was about nine, and then we moved to India and stayed there for about four years and eventually moved to Berlin. It was definitely a cultural experience in its fullest, and I absorbed a lot. I don't regret any of it.
I don't meditate anymore, and I wouldn't call myself a Buddhist nowadays, though I do chant mantras here and there depending on the situation.
'Lose My Cool' is the second track on my EP dedicated to a stage in the grieving process. This track represents anger. I really bottled a lot up after my mother passed, and one day, I couldn't handle it anymore and just exploded on all of my friends and family. It was a very passive way of dealing with things, not very healthy.
My friends and family unknowingly tend to get in the way when I'm in my creative zones.
After my mother passed away, I really felt there were things that I hadn't said or things that I did say that I kind of regretted saying.
My mother was a Tibetan Buddhist.
When I wrote 'Monsoon,' I always imagined the music video being shot in India. The song had so much to do with my time in India with my mother as well as leaving her in India during the monsoon season to visit my family in N.Y. It really was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to shoot in India.
Music can be a way for me to think back a lot of the time, almost like an opening into all the nostalgia I never express.
My mother definitely plays a big role in my life and in my work. The majority of what I've created has to do with her passing and how I dealt with losing the most important person in my life.
I would say the first concert I ever went to is my earliest memory. I was four and already obsessed with Michael Jackson. We were living in Munich at the time. My mom, being the best person ever, somehow managed to get us two tickets to the '97 Michael Jackson History World Tour.
I get so insecure about studio sessions.
I put a lot of pressure on myself.
'Heatwave' just fits the feel of summer for me.
I need quiet when I'm recording because I don't want any noise in the background.
Making music was always a big interest for me.
Once I accumulated a bunch of sounds and learned how to use Logic, I was like, 'Wait a second, I don't need to work with any producers. I can do this on my own.'
I think I have a harder time writing about things that I am not actually going through.
'Conexao,' which means 'connection' in Portuguese, is about exploring the more nuanced highs and lows of romance.
I could never know someone who could hurt someone else and not feel like a horrible person.
I love seeing the videos of people who go and talk to these neo-Nazis because they're like, 'I'm just here to have a conversation and understand.' Having a conversation about it and talking about your emotions without judgement. You have to be able to be completely open, because they're not going to be, but you could turn a new leaf in their life.
I'm trying to get every experience possible in a studio environment, because I want to be comfortable there. There are people that I dream of working with, and I don't want to walk into that situation feeling like I'm not good enough.
I was always in love with the idea of making music - and always wanted to be involved in either the creative side or the industry side.
I went down the creative path in my teen years, and when I was in high school, in my junior year, I would perform at this program that was very similar to 'School of Rock.' That was when I started writing and realized that's what I wanted to do.
I do talk about hard times, but I also try to bring out the light.
