signing her to their management company. ‘She was under 18, I had to sign for her. So I went up to the offices and they explained what they were going to do for her and they explained they already had offers from five, six publishing companies, five or six recording companies who were interested in signing Amy and we signed with them ….
‘What was going through my mind was that Amy by now had left the stage school and she was in a situation where she had to earn money to live and she was also at the time working for an Internet News Agency, a companycalled “WENN” [through Juliette Ashby’s father]. She was writing articles as a journalist there … getting about £150 a week or something in those days, not enough to live on, so I was having to give her extra money, which you do as a parent. You do as a parent right?
‘She was okay. She had enough money to get by. … There were fairly decent advances. Nothing to retire on, but enough to enable her not to work anymore – and enough so that I didn’t have to give her any money anymore. She could look after herself from the advances and … she had five or six offers from all different kinds of recording companies and they settled on Island Records 6 , which is a part of Universal …. They are people who nurture their talent … and they are not looking for an album every six months. They are looking for longevity in their artists and they saw that in Amy … somebody who perhaps could have a long career ….
‘There … was no pressure on her to produce the album quickly. They said take your time, no problem, we will support you or help you and finally she produced her first album, which was Frank and it is my favourite album.
‘She only produced two albums, but I prefer Frank to … Back To Black, because Back To Black deals with certain subjects, which I am uncomfortable with. Whereas the first album … was pretty innocent.’
what is it about men
If you believe in luck, then Amy’s luck was at its height when she met Nick Shymansky, 19 Entertainment Ltd’s A&R man, and they began working together. From the beginning Shymansky realized that Amy’s talent would be best nurtured if she worked with a producer who understood her voice, background, range and diverse influences – from TLC, Mos Def and Nas to Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan – and who could help her develop her songs and lyrics. Amy’s choice was a West London-based producer named Major, who had worked with trip-hop legend Tricky 1 . Shymansky brought them together.
Major and Amy worked hard together from the first time they met in September 2001, creating mesmerizing and attention-grabbing music – songs in which Amy would, with often disarming and heartbreaking honesty, document her life, her thoughts and her world for everyone to hear.
It was for this that Amy would become best known, particularly after the release of her album Frank , which she recorded after being signed by Darcus Beese, the influential A&R man at Island Records and Major’s friend.
Frank’s production and road to release wasn’t a smooth one, however. In 2002, manager Nick Godwin arranged for Amy to work with a pair of young songwriters, Stefan Skarbek and Matt Rowe. Composer Felix Howard also occasionally worked with them. At the time, Amy was also experimenting with music, listening to all types and genres, from music picked up on shopping trips to shops like Oxfam in Kentish Town.
Amy, Skarbek and Rowe ended up recording a lot of material for what they thought would be her debut album. Some of the music they produced during that time shows Amy’s quirky sense of humour and observations of life. Word games between Amy and the boys formed the mainstay of the lyrics for the songs that they produced together.
As it became increasingly likely that Amy would sign with Island records, the pressure increased to have a unified, clear body of music that could form the basis of a successful debut
‘What was going through my mind was that Amy by now had left the stage school and she was in a situation where she had to earn money to live and she was also at the time working for an Internet News Agency, a companycalled “WENN” [through Juliette Ashby’s father]. She was writing articles as a journalist there … getting about £150 a week or something in those days, not enough to live on, so I was having to give her extra money, which you do as a parent. You do as a parent right?
‘She was okay. She had enough money to get by. … There were fairly decent advances. Nothing to retire on, but enough to enable her not to work anymore – and enough so that I didn’t have to give her any money anymore. She could look after herself from the advances and … she had five or six offers from all different kinds of recording companies and they settled on Island Records 6 , which is a part of Universal …. They are people who nurture their talent … and they are not looking for an album every six months. They are looking for longevity in their artists and they saw that in Amy … somebody who perhaps could have a long career ….
‘There … was no pressure on her to produce the album quickly. They said take your time, no problem, we will support you or help you and finally she produced her first album, which was Frank and it is my favourite album.
‘She only produced two albums, but I prefer Frank to … Back To Black, because Back To Black deals with certain subjects, which I am uncomfortable with. Whereas the first album … was pretty innocent.’
what is it about men
If you believe in luck, then Amy’s luck was at its height when she met Nick Shymansky, 19 Entertainment Ltd’s A&R man, and they began working together. From the beginning Shymansky realized that Amy’s talent would be best nurtured if she worked with a producer who understood her voice, background, range and diverse influences – from TLC, Mos Def and Nas to Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan – and who could help her develop her songs and lyrics. Amy’s choice was a West London-based producer named Major, who had worked with trip-hop legend Tricky 1 . Shymansky brought them together.
Major and Amy worked hard together from the first time they met in September 2001, creating mesmerizing and attention-grabbing music – songs in which Amy would, with often disarming and heartbreaking honesty, document her life, her thoughts and her world for everyone to hear.
It was for this that Amy would become best known, particularly after the release of her album Frank , which she recorded after being signed by Darcus Beese, the influential A&R man at Island Records and Major’s friend.
Frank’s production and road to release wasn’t a smooth one, however. In 2002, manager Nick Godwin arranged for Amy to work with a pair of young songwriters, Stefan Skarbek and Matt Rowe. Composer Felix Howard also occasionally worked with them. At the time, Amy was also experimenting with music, listening to all types and genres, from music picked up on shopping trips to shops like Oxfam in Kentish Town.
Amy, Skarbek and Rowe ended up recording a lot of material for what they thought would be her debut album. Some of the music they produced during that time shows Amy’s quirky sense of humour and observations of life. Word games between Amy and the boys formed the mainstay of the lyrics for the songs that they produced together.
As it became increasingly likely that Amy would sign with Island records, the pressure increased to have a unified, clear body of music that could form the basis of a successful debut
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