by Kennedy Blair Miller
Photo credits: Ben Reason
I’ve always felt an affinity with Ally. We’re both from Southern USA (Ally’s from Nashville, Tennessee, just one state over from my home state of North Carolina); we both studied music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and now, we’re both graduate singers at the Royal Academy of Music, where Ally will complete her MA in Vocal Studies this summer. We also both happen to write our own music. Sitting down to talk with Ally, therefore, I had a lot that I wanted to discuss. Under the name Ally London, Ally has released her debut EP Kaleidoscopes in the summer of 2022, and recently a new single, ‘Stole from Heaven’. I talked with Ally about her existence in seemingly dichotomous musical worlds and her process of writing, producing, and releasing her own music.
Kennedy: You grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, a sort of Mecca in the music/songwriting world. Was your upbringing a catalyst in your decision to start songwriting?
Ally: Definitely. I was born in Memphis, actually, and I lived there for about seven years – but I’d say I’m from Nashville. Both of those places, but especially Nashville, had a massive impact on me. The running joke about Nashville is that every single person there is in the music industry in some way, shape, or form. I think being around that energy and so much live music all the time was a constant source of inspiration. But also, I think the pandemic was a big reason why I started writing. I had nothing to do, so I picked up a guitar and tried to teach myself to play. Once I did that, and something about the immediacy of guitar – which is my favourite instrument to write with – songs just started coming after that. So, that was probably the biggest catalyst, aside from where I’m from.
What about classical music? When did you start singing opera and how did that come about?
I started singing pop stuff that I heard on the radio when I was 12 or 13. Towards the end of high school, I was looking into colleges and music programmes, but there weren’t many commercial music programmes whereas there were a lot of classical programmes. Because of that, my teacher at the time was like, ‘Let’s start thinking about going classical’. I had never even considered it. I’d never listened to opera or classical music at all; then, when I was 17, I suddenly started singing classically. But something about it clicked. I really liked the style and the idea of singing in my head voice all the time – it sat in my voice really well. So, I kind of fell into it accidentally!
So, you have these two musical identities that you’re really passionate about. Do they inform one another? Or do you consider them to be completely different sides of you?
This is something I think about all the time. I think, especially when I first got to RAM, I was so scared to seem illegitimate as an opera singer that I tried very hard to keep them very separate. I kept the pop singing and the songwriting stuff under wraps at RAM and I thought of them as very separate halves of my identity. These days, I’ve kind of done a complete 180 on that and I think that the two serve each other. From a technical standpoint, having that classical foundation really helps me sing pop stuff. But on the flip side, I’m currently working on letting the pop style inform my artistry in classical music. I feel really comfortable taking creative agency in pop music, because the rules and forms in pop music are a lot less strict than in classical music. I feel a lot more free to experiment and to trust my instincts in pop, and I’m trying to achieve that in opera as well.
You released your first EP during your first year at RAM, in the summer of 2022. How was it received?
Really well! Everyone was very nice about it, and a lot of people expressed admiration that I have multiple musical interests since they only do classical. But the grass is always greener, I think, because I always feel very torn. I’m constantly in an identity crisis about which type of singer I want to be, and I sometimes envy people who are just in the classical world or just in the pop world. But I suppose the other side of that is that some people wish they had the versatility or the option to do either or both. I’ve tried to develop a more positive perspective on it recently.
Fast-forward to the present, and you’ve just released a new song called ‘Stole from Heaven’. What was the process for writing it?
I started writing ‘Stole From Heaven’ in 2021, but I just had the first verse written. In 2022 I finally finished it and was happy with it. As far as process goes, in this case it was a lyrical/conceptual idea that came first and then I built a melody and a chord progression on top of it. I’ll typically hear a melody that I like and then I’ll grab my phone and record it and try to fit lyrics around it. For me, it’s usually music then lyrics. But sometimes, like with this latest single, it’s the lyrical idea that I’ll expand upon.
Are your lyrics always based on your own life and past experiences?
It’s pretty much always based on personal experiences. I’m also really into reading, and sometimes I’ll read something and be struck by a sentence or a love story and I’ll get really fixated on it and be like, ‘What if I wrote a song about that?’. So yeah, there are a couple of outliers where it hasn’t been fully inspired by my own life. But what I’ll tend to do if a song is adapted from a book at first is to somehow apply it to my life and be like, ‘Oh, that actually fits right now’, and go from there.
Do you have a song you’re particularly proud of or feel especially connected to?
They’re all so special to me and I love them all for different reasons. As far as stuff that’s already been released, I think ‘Not Ready’ is one that I’m most proud of because it came from such a genuine, earnest place. Also, I feel like it’s a song that’ll always be relevant to my life because of the feeling of not wanting to grow up and being terrible with change. I was really happy with the arrangement of that one – I think it’s truest to my style. But there’s another song coming out soon that is probably my favourite song I’ve ever written! I’m really excited about it.
That’s so exciting! I was going to ask if we could be expecting any new music from you soon.
Yes, later this year! In fact, the first half of my new full-length album is being released on June 23rd. ‘Stole from Heaven’ was the first taste of the kind of direction I’m taking with the album. So yeah,that’s pretty exciting!
I’ve always been curious about the production process. You obviously write your own music and lyrics, and then you take it to your producer and band, right? What’s that collaboration like?
Collaborating with my band is probably my favourite thing on Earth to do! They’re just brilliant. I really lucked out being introduced to Tad, my producer, who then introduced me to my former guitarist and drummer. They’re all such nice people and I love collaborating with them. A lot of times when I take something to the studio, I have really specific ideas about what I hear. But my problem, not being a producer and being a very limited guitarist and pianist, is that I can’t execute what I hear. I need people who are much more advanced players and producers to make it happen. I get so much inspiration from collaborating with them, and I think it’s just so fun. It makes me feel like the luckiest person ever that I get to share with them the things I’ve written, and then they get infinitely better by working with other people.
Would you ever get a band together here and perform your music live?
This is something I really want to do, and it’s a huge goal of mine this year to do that. I know I need to perform more gigs to get my stuff out there and meet people and network. I need to do that… But I would need a guitarist or a drummer or something. In fact, can I just put a blind call out? If anyone’s interested in collaborating or working with me, please reach out!
Ally’s Instagram handle is @allylondonmusic, so if anyone’s interested in collaborating with Ally (and you’d be crazy not to), DM her!
To pre-save ‘In Plain Sight’, Ally’s upcoming release on Spotify, follow this link: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/allylondon/in-plain-sight-side-a
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