Mental Health in Songwriting and Going Back to Her Italian Roots: An Interview With Am.i
September 20, 2021By Laurine Payet, Music Journalist
This month we are introducing the theme of travel at myGwork and this is the perfect time to platform queer artists from all over the globe. Laurine Payet has met up with Am.i (she/her), an Italian singer-songwriter currently based in London. After coming to London to study music in 2015, Francesca released her first single ‘Millenial (0219)’ in 2019 under the name of Am.i. She has since then made a comeback with the EP ‘Product of Procrastination’ and recently released the bop ‘a party’. Laurine spoke to Am.i about her creativity, her will to go back to her Italian roots and queer politics in Europe.
“Am I enough? Am I good enough for this? Am I pretty enough? Am I going to make it? Am I good at this job? Am I a musician? Am I a singer? ‘Am I’, there you go.”
Francesca did not become Am.i out of nowhere. Her journey through the constant questioning of her identity, but especially her place in the world and within her environment is the origin of Am.i. Experiencing this questioning and asking herself all these questions at a time where it was incredibly important for her, made her becoming Am.I. This is an artist accepting her self-doubt. For Am.I, her name also relates to the content of some lyrics she writes; the topics of mental health and struggles.
“When you embrace yourself, and you accept yourself regardless of your mental state, it’s liberating. It’s amazing.”
Am.I mentions the beautiful feeling of accepting your struggle with mental health. Being diagnosed with anxiety disorder, Am.I wants to create music that will be relatable to a large number of people, the same way she is looking for artists who talk about what she is feeling herself when listening to music by other artists.
“Fresh, real and relatable.”
This is how Am.I describes her music. Her will for writing relatable lyrics comes from the envy of creating a community in which people feel the same way and all support each other. As much as Am.I’s song writing and relation to creating music makes it mainly lyrics oriented, she does keep the focus on creating a vibe representing what she is looking for when people listen to her. Her songs are moments, they’re here and now and it’s all that matters.
“Every time Lana Del Rey writes whatever she writes, it's just a new moment and you can just feel her moment regardless if it's something you've lived before or not, you just are in her moment and it's insane.”
Am.i’s tracks are centred around her voice and accompanied by a minimalist aspect to the instrumental. She proves songs can find power in the efficiency of their production rather than the complexity and abundance of sounds within a track. It has a similar effect to someone she names as one of her main influences: the American singer Banks. Alongside Banks, Am.i also mentions the inspiration she gets from melancholic artists such as James Blake, FKA Twigs or SOHN. The genius of spreading melancholia and nostalgia through her songs is Lana Del Rey, and it is the reason she is Am.I’s dream collaboration. She writes the way Am.i aims to touch people, giving life to her own stories inside strangers’ bodies and hearts. What you thought you haven’t experienced happens through music and Am.i aspires to get as close as possible to this. She also mentions the Italian pop artist Mahmood to be a big goal in terms of a possible future collaboration. This new appreciation for music from her country of origin led to her wanting to write in Italian for the first time in years.
“When I started writing, it was in English and I never thought I could do it in Italian. But now it's actually happening and I love it, it's crazy.”
After spending the past six years in London, Am.i mentions her will to work around her Italian roots for the future of her career. She finds similarities between the nature of Italian music and her work. From the importance of songwriting to the strong presence of bass in the sounds, Italian music had always had a special part inside Am.i’s work. She was always able to appreciate the metaphorical and poetic aspect of it, but never as much as she is appreciating it now. She will continue to write in English, but she took the decision to focus on writing in Italian for the near future, and it is exciting. Italy’s win at Eurovision with the rock stars Maneskin made the rise of Italian music in the worldwide industry even more important. We hope Am.i will be a part of the wave.
“I never hid my sexuality. If I want to say girl, if I want to say boy, if I want to say anything, I write and I don’t give a sh*t.”
Being bisexual, Am.i is unapologetic about her sexual identity. She talks about queer love, writes about queer love and sings about queer love because it’s her life and experience. She will not refrain from writing about being herself, even if it means slowing down her career. She mentions the good evolution of acceptance of queer love in Italian music. However, it has for now only been possible for artists and bands who already had a following, and therefore had the power to do so.
“Italy is not as bad but every country has their issues with LGBT rights and that's why Pride is so important. It's literally fundamental, it has to keep going and there has to be more of it. Not even like just June. There needs to be more awareness in schools, education and workplace, everywhere.”
Am.i’s view on Pride is nuanced. As much as it is important, Pride should be all year round. With the end of Pride Month a few days ago, we can already see the change of behavior from big corporates who seem to not care about queer rights after the last day of June. As much as Am.i is glad to see some things changing, she is aware it is still not ideal for queer people. Some Eastern European countries are the center of the focus because of extreme situations in which the LGBTQ+ community is fearing their lives, but even her own country is not perfect. After making same-sex marriage legal - only 5 years ago - Italy is struggling to pass the DDL Zan law. This project of law is supposed to protect victims of queerphobia from any verbal or physical discrimination. However, the LGBTQ+ Italian population is struggling to get the law to pass and this shows, for Am.i, that a peaceful life for queer peers is far from happening, no matter the country.
The difficulties faced by independent artists are slowing down Am.i’s original plans of single releases. However, she promises to spoil her fans with singles during the autumn.
Find Am.i:
Am.i’s personal playlist is also available here.