All Eyes On: Singer Kamille wants to readdress the balance of women in music: ‘We need more female producers’
There is a huge lack of female producers in the music industry, with only a few big names holding their own against their male counter parts.
And Kamille is hoping that will change.
Being a woman in music is a struggle anyway, but with such a lack of female representation on the producing side, Kamille decided to teach herself how to produce so that she could help readdress the balance.
‘There are hardly any female producers, especially black female producers,’ she told Metro.co.uk. ‘There’s one girl [I really like], an incredible producer from Toronto. She’s massive over there. We’ve been connecting and I’ve been learning about production and writing.
‘It means a lot to me and that’s why I’ve learned to write, I’ve learned to produce. I wanted to show other girls you can do it.’
Kamille, real name Camille Purcell, added that in a male dominated world, it’s important for women to feel they can do anything men can.
‘When you’re surrounded by men every day you’ve got to be really strong,’ she said. And you really have to stand your ground. It’s not easy. But the industry has been very accepting of me as a woman and very welcome to my talent. It’s been a positive experience but I can definitely see there needs to be something about it, there’s not a lot of women in production and songwriting.’
For Kamille, the Time’s Up movement, while initially aimed at the movie industry, has had a huge impact on the music industry too as it’s brought female musicians together instead of pitting them against one another.
‘I think there’s a lot more solidarity,’ she said. ‘I’m a friendly person and get along with a lot of women, but I have had experience of artists in competition and that can be isolating. But I think that’s calmed down now.
‘Now when people put things on social media women will put positive messages to each other for example.’
The singer/songwriter/producer has been in the background for many years as a writer and producer, working with the likes of Rihanna,Clean Bandit, Jessie Ware, Jess Glyn, krept and Konan but now she’s coming to the fore with her own music for a three pronged attack, proving she can write, produce and perform all in one.
Her music is genuine, and that’s because she truly cares about what she puts out there. Her song Body comes with an equally thoughtful and thought provoking video, with a host of women showing off their scars, stretch marks and disabilities.
‘I care about what people listen to,’ she explained. ‘When I listen to music I want to feel something. And I care a lot about how people are feeling.
‘With all the insecurities I have, I know a lot of girls have them too. And that’s the thing, everyone feels the same as you it’s not just you on your own.’
And this creative lady, who originally did an economics degree and went into stockbroking before moving into music, is not one to be pigeon-holed. She can’t be shoved into a box for a genre much like she won’t pick one strand of music making to work on.
‘I can’t [put myself into a genre]. I think of myself as more of a playlist, that’s the only way I can describe it because it’s so hard to pigeon-hole me. I’ll let you decide!’ she laughed.
For Kamille, it’s important to let the music flow and not over-think it by trying to squeeze it into a genre.
‘My music takes on a lot of RnB, there’s a lot of pop in there. It’s hard one, I’m just going to make what comes out, I don’t even want to think of it.
‘It makes it more interesting! It’s not like before with the pop charts and the urban charts, everything is pop. The charts are just whatever is popular. There are a lot of artists having thais discussion because it’s just down to what you feel and what works at the time.’
It’s a good approach,otherwise music is at risk of sounding forced. And in the same vein, Kamille pulls on personal experiences to create her sound.
‘I went through a really horrible break up so I’ve written a lot of heartbreak songs, but I write anything with emotion, so either really really happy or really really sad,’ she said.
‘I was working with Clean Bandit and we wrote about three heartbreak songs, it’s more the mood I’m swayed by when I’m writing.’
But personal songs can be hard to perform, as she confessed that sometimes she can be taken right back to the time she was compelled into writing the song in the first place.
‘Everytime you perform it you go right back to that moment. That’s a sacrifice you make when you sign up to the job,’ she said. ‘I think the song helps you heal, every time you sing it. It makes you stronger. I get stronger when I write about it in a way.’
But she still has a huge love of producing as well as writing her own material.
‘I love it,’ she said with enthusiasm evident in her voice. ‘I love producing so much. If I couldn’t produce there would be massive massive issues about what I want to do. I can be so creative with it. It’s 100% creative. I learned to produce because you can’t call a producer up in the middle of the night with an idea, but I can just do it myself.’
She has new music coming very soon, which she said will keep fans on their toes.
‘You can expect stuff you didn’t expect,’ she said. I’m never doing what people expect. I’ve worked so hard and I’ve got so many songs I didn’t know what to put out. The next few sons will be really exciting.’
This year is set to be a big year for this talented lady.
‘I want people to respect and feel like the music is great,’ she said. ‘I care that people think the music is credible. All I want to do is have people respect the music I make. I think this year I want to make music people love.’
MORE: All Eyes On: Billy Lockett’s music is guaranteed to touch your soul, and here’s why
MORE: All Eyes On: Ramz is just a lad from south London proving anything is possible
MORE: All Eyes On: Madison Beer is a woman in charge of her own destiny
[contf] [contfnew] 
METRO
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
