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PC: Rashidi Noah

We love when old friend come to visit, especially when they are a witty & cheeky talent with a British accent who streams gregarious energy in a way that makes life feels so full. On, AMA, the namesake of the singer and latest album, a vexing combination of honesty, R&B sultriness and perspective unfolds over thirteen tracks highlighted by the smash single, "Need It Bad." With a classic sound (think peak Brandy) Ama capably indulging the listener into a tent of nostalgia and relationship realness that begs repeat plays. Excited to host her in our content confessional room, we chased a bunch of insights into the album and more:

OnesToWatch: Who are you right now? 


Ama: Who am I right now? I’m that girl. 

Oh! That’s it?

That’s it. I’m quite a specific person, so if you want a different answer I’ve got to know what angle you’re coming from. 

This one's just genuine curiosity. You’ve changed a lot since we last talked!

I’ve always been secure in myself, but since then, I’ve become much more outlandish. In my day-to-day life, people know me as someone who often speaks my mind.

So you are the pink elephant. 


I have the pink elephant by a lead. I'd be collecting other people's pink elephants, dragging them into rooms. Right now in my life, it feels the most appropriate to hold everything that's happened to me accountable. I feel like my brain is developed, and before this album, I was so distracted by problem solving that I wasn't really able to sit with my emotions. I got to think about how I wanted to present myself as an artist, I'm way more deliberate now and way more relaxed. 

Chaotic good energy, it seems.
What have you learned in that time? 

To have the ability to discern what's going on around me and not react. 


How has that been for you? 

Blissful. I'm naturally a very logical person, maybe more than is normal. 

After listening to the record, I wouldn't think that, but that's awesome. 


Why? 

Because it feels like a lot of emotions. 


See, this is the thing. I'm the least emotional person. I'm very sensitive, but inwardly, but I'm actually not expressively that emotional. I have a lot of emotional people around me, which I feel like I can live through... I would say the emotions come from perception and awareness. I'm not soulless in any way. But I feel like I'm only able to articulate the depth of emotion because I'm not so far into it that I can't see. 


You're a vessel. 


Yeah, 100%. I think in a way, art is that, right? We don’t always acknowledge things until art does it for us. When I'm writing, I go into this weird space where the words feel like they’re coming from the sky or I'll write the future for myself. I'll write a song about a relationship and certain lines won’t be exactly true to us, but then six months later it’s my exact situation. 

Speaking of writing, has anything changed for you in terms of your process and how you go about creating a song? 


For sure. As I said, I've always been a super aware person. Because of that, I’ve always tried to understand why my past songs had success or not. For example, my last album I think is brilliant, but it's very intense, and I have a hard time listening to it. There's so many cryptic lyrics, your brain is working overtime to understand what's going on.
The production is extremely complicated and makes it hard to listen to an entire album like that. There were just so many feelings. I felt like I had something to prove. After that album was done, I was so exhausted and actually couldn't write anymore. I've never not been able to write and I was like, that's not going to work for me, but maybe this is an opportunity to find out what I haven't been able to look at because I always have writing to turn to. 


I love psychoanalyzing oneself. 

With this new album, I wanted it to be easily digestible and fun. I obviously enjoy complicated music, like Weather Report and Jaco Pastor’s whole discography means a lot to me. But on a day-to-day basis, I listen to what everyone else listens to, and I didn’t think I had created that universal album yet. When I was 11 and started writing, I was doing extreme pop structures. I was listening to Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus. These were my girls. That's my schooling, so why was my music not reflecting that? And so with this album, I really try to make it as mainstream as pop as possible. It was even to a point where I would write something and run it past my engineer –a straight white man, married with kids– and have him be my filter. I love him, he’s one of my best friends. He was able to tell me if something made sense to the universal listener. I ended up with a project that was still very me-sounding, but easily listenable. 

Was there a theme for the album? Did you write off of a certain concept? 

I pulled a lot of inspiration in that time period where I couldn’t write. I would listen to a lot of music. One of my favorite’s is Brandy’s 1998 album, Never Say Never. Dark Child produced that and from top to bottom, it runs into each other so seamlessly, but every song is not a blur. They really do have their own personalities, but you can't really tell when it re-starts and that's the framework of what I based this album off. 

Beautiful. Do you have a personal ambition for this record? 

I'm going to try to go straight to the top, my friend. I want to be heard. I want to be seen. 

I think that's the best quality in an artist. What about an ambition for your audience? What do you hope they take from the record? 

Ultimately I want people to understand me better. On my last album, I had a song called “RIP,” which is about my relationship with my parents and it's very raw. It's already pissed a lot of people off in my DMs – people are getting personally offended by it, but it's just an insecurity around their own from parental-child relationships. They want to project it back on me instead of looking within themselves. But there’s that song, and also “Life’s Better,” which is about regret and depression and the shame of not moving forward with your life, but still feeling hopeful for more chances. This is both for the purpose of being vulnerable, but also for my audience to understand that you can be messy and but the end result can be polished and beautiful. 

Love it. Your album is 13 tracks, how many did you cut? How did you self-edit when trying to make a seamless record like Brandy? 

I can think of myself pretty objectively, maybe from directing when I'm watching edits. It's like I'm talking to the editor. I just do the same with my music, I look at my songs as an editor. I try not to create with an ego and I don't like creating with people who have egos, because it just gets in the way of the best the song can be. It's a bit being a very egotistical, narcissistic parent, you're going to fuck up the child if you keep getting in the way. So when it came to choosing the songs, I actually had never done a process where I made loads of songs and narrowed it down before. That was also new in my process. With I Came Home Late, every song was written just for that album. There were no cuts. 

I'm gonna pivot to some random questions to reveal your current state of mind.


If I haven't exposed everything already. 

Well, you have been doing the good work. 

If you could be at your most zen right now, where would you be? What would you be doing? 

I’d be doing this. There's not one aspect of being an artist that I don't like. I've often had people like, what would you do to relax? I wake up and do music, it's not an obligation. It’s what I do in my off time, too. So I'd be doing exactly this. I'm so grateful to wake up every day. I'm not joking. I woke up, and when I saw the foggy clouds when I went, “Oh, I get to live and do what the fuck happens today.” I think I spent a lot of my life living in the future. I was living in end goals. I'm very goal oriented. Someone described me that to a friend the other day, said “She's very focused, isn't she?” I was like, wow, I still have that reputation. That's cool. But I’m balancing it out. 

I love that you can balance being focused and enjoying just the process of writing and being an artist. Not everyone can do that. 

My therapist always says I’m addicted to healing. I’m obsessed with getting out of my own way. 


Addicted to healing. I've never had that. 

The more you heal, the more of a bitch you become. It’s armor. 

What is the best gift you've given or received? 


Oh don’t I love to give a gift. It's like crack to me. Honestly, I've never been able to talk about this before. I have a fetish for giving gifts. It's my favorite thing to hear someone say they want something. I log it in my brain and buy it. Even if their birthday is 9 months out. Or I’ll custom-make something. I am a gift giver. I study my victims. 

That might be a subheader right there. 

What's the best gift I've given? I've made custom jewelry before that people have lost from their parents, like from a picture. 

Oh, wow, that's very special.

Or I’ll invest in someone's dream, buy equipment that they need that's really expensive, or I'll buy someone a gown that they would never need or buy for themselves because they were thinking too practically about it. But then to have it in their wardrobe, it makes them feel great. 

That's amazing. 

It makes me feel good, and I don't really require gifts from other people. I don't feel a lot of that. I feel so appreciative. Like my grandma recently bought me all of these thimbles with clowns on them from a random store. They're very inexpensive. She just saw them and gave them to me.
I nearly cried. Because it's so specific, and I just love a tchotchke. I love something to put up on the shelf. I like random thoughtfulness, but I'm also okay with not receiving gifts. 

If I were to give you the gift of creating your dream festival, who would you perform with? 

I really want to see James Brown. 

I had the chance too. He was amazing. He played Montreal Jazz fest when I was a kid.
It was amazing. 

I feel like every time I see videos of him, it's electric. I would obviously have Beyonce, the first time I saw her when I was little, I absolutely bawled my eyes out. Let's bring Kurt back from the dead. He just had so much to give. I don't think a lot of people that have been given so much talent can process the pain that it also brings, of being so aware to be able to channel that. I think it eats you alive living with that awareness all the time. 

Yes, I think there's a reason mythology usually has something about power that destroys you. 


I do understand that. But I also have to note, when I first saw Mk.gee live in London, the sound was fucked. It was this little venue in 2024. It felt like the closest I’d get to seeing Kurt Cobain live. So I'd have Mk.gee. 

This is a great lineup. Last couple of questions. I would love a non-music recommendation. It can be a place to visit, something to eat, cool workout, technique for sewing, anything. 

I'm pretty good with skin care. I have so many recommendations. This one product, PDRN Essence by VT. It’s Korean skincare. 

We’d also love a music recommendation, something up and coming. 

You know who I was listening to? 
Yana. She's a singer-songwriter, still in her discovery bag, but her song “Call Me Back” is so good. Also, Hayley Williams’ recent album is so good. 

Awesome. Lastly, we’d like to end on your words!

I'd really love for you to listen to my album and then tell me what you think about it. Feedback, please. 

Just general from everyone? In the DMs? 

Yes! From the world. The more the better. 


Positive, please. 

Eh. 

Thank you so much for your time.