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Get To Know: Amber Mark

This week, we get to know Grammy nominated singer-songwriter, producer, and global citizen – Amber Mark...

Amber Mark is a genre-bending R&B pop artist whose first mainstream attention derived from bedroom Soundcloud releases that demonstrated her real raw talent, and her breadth of influence stemming from her vast travels, from the very beginning. Even at that early stage you could hear the broad influence from musical traditions as far reaching as Brazil, India, Germany and Nepal – all worked into a base of western R&B.

Now, a few years on, having released the album '3:33AM', Amber Mark has had time to find and develop her individual voice – which has led her to her latest EP 'Conexão'. Continuing from her previous record, she breaches hard to handle topics with tenderness, but isn’t afraid to break out of melancholy and embrace the brightness of R&B.

Amber Mark
Amber Mark

The EP includes a cover of Sade’s ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride’ which she really takes into her own hands – it’s not a complete departure from the original as some covers tends to err on, but instead it’s an injection of her own personality into the songs core foundation, and it fits seamlessly amongst her own writing. Her own unique track ‘Love Me Right’ is perfectly exemplary of the juxtaposition in her style – it has pop-y R&B instrumentation and layered vocals which give it swing and makes it naturally very dance-able, while all the meanwhile keeping the earnest passion and soul she has always conveyed.

Get to know Amber Mark below, and make sure to check out her brilliant new EP 'Conexão'.

1) For those who don’t know about you and your music, tell us a little bit about who you are and where you’re from…

My name is Amber Mark, I am a 24-year-old woman, an artist and I’m from New York.

2) Describe your sound in three words...

World, soul, R&B

3) Who inspired you to start a career in music?

I don’t know if it was necessarily one person. I think it was my love for music. Making music was always a big interest for me.

4) Who are your biggest musical influences?

Prem Joshua
Nat King Cole
Joao Gilberto
Gloria Estefan
Earth Wind and Fire

Amber Mark Press Pic
Amber Mark Press Pic

5) Tell us about the writing and recording process for your new single/album…

All the writing happened in my little bedroom studio. When I first started writing (post putting out '3:33AM') I really wanted to make something bigger, more emotional and more meaningful than the EP I had just released. So, for months I wrote a lot of ideas and threw them away out of frustration because I felt they weren’t meaningful enough or big enough. I ended up having an epiphany that no body of work I put out will ever mean as much to me as '3:33AM'. So, once I let go of that I was able to just talk about emotions I was going through around that time.

6) What can we expect from your live shows?

Lots of dancing, singing, some tend to get a little teary eyed, because of the subject matter. But I always like to end on a happy note.

7) What has been your biggest career highlight so far?

Having fans singing along to my tunes at shows.

8) Have you met anyone and been totally starstruck?

Yes - the first time I met Beyoncé and JAY-Z. I was working for his sister and she introduced me to them. Kindest, most polite people I’ve met. Especially for having to deal with people constantly trying to grasp just a hello from them. I would see them a lot in the office and at Carter outings so It just became normal after a while.

9) What’s on your iPod/playlists that people wouldn’t expect?

Tchaikovsky, Craig David

10) When can we see you live?

I’ll be on tour at the end of October opening for Leon bridges in Europe

Words by Alex Beach

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