Interview with PRINS
Alannah Prins is an Electro Pop singer and song-writer.
Why did you want to be a professional musician?
I've always loved music. It's always been a massive part of my life and I've been doing dancing, singing and acting forever. Naturally, it just felt like the natural progression. I guess, to go into singing. Just playing in cover bands and stuff has really inspired me to want to do live music, so yeah, I love it. I've always loved it.
What do you like about Electro Pop?
I like the energy that it brings. I love when you go to shows and it's really high energy and people will want to dance and stuff and I've always wanted to write my own music to be quite upbeat and dance. I guess I've just always gone to the dancer side of pop, which I love.
What things get you in the mood to write songs or do lyrics come spontaneously?
It's a mixture of both. I usually get inspired by situations that have maybe just recently happened, An argument with someone, for example, which is what Something New was initially about. Yeah, it kind of just comes. I think inspiration is better for me. I don't really like to sit and try to force anything because I don't find that I do my best work when I do that.
What is your favorite song that you've written?
It would be Something New, the new release. It means a lot to me what the song is about, so the fact that it's doing as well as it's doing over just over the last couple of weeks, it makes me really happy and I'm really proud of that song and what it stands for.
Do you like writing songs with other people?
I do prefer to write songs with other people. I think the power of collaboration is better for everyone. I feel like sometimes, when you sit in an idea for too long yourself, you can overthink it and I think having people to bounce ideas off is a lot easier to get the best outcome for the song. Yeah, I really like writing music with other people.
How do you want your music to affect people?
I want people to be able to connect to the lyrics especially, and I just want people to feel inspired and uplifted. I don't really tend to write songs that are negative or sad. I just don't feel like there's any point in doing that. Maybe later in my career, if it makes sense. But at the moment, I want people to be happy.
How do you decide what your music videos are made up of in terms of themes and special effects?
That's a great question. I've been working with the same director for the last three music videos, including Something New, which is actually coming out on Monday, in two days. It just depends on the vibe of the song. It depends on what the song is about. Sometimes, I like to go down more of creating a narrative and a storyline, which I felt was appropriate for Something New. I thought that was a better idea. And other times, I feel like the songs are not as deep and they don't need as much of an explanation. They can be more just creative and fun and visual. It really depends on the song and it depends Owho I'm working with as well.
Do you test out your songs before releasing them? And if so, how do you do this?
Sometimes I do. I have been known to test a few live before I've actually released them. And then, other times and what I've done recently is actually strip down the song to just a basic acoustic. I usually play with my guitar, so we do an acoustic version of the song and I put it up online and I see how people react to it, really, whether people like it or whether they don't like it. You can usually tell pretty quickly after it's been out for a while whether people are interested in it. But it takes such a long time to create a song that sometimes, you get to the point where you need to release it and you don't actually have enough time to sit on it and just wait to put it out and see whether people like it.
How do you prepare for a gig?
I do lots of warmups. I like to have a glass of red wine if I can, just one. And I just spend a lot of time getting ready and making sure that I'm dressed for the part. It helps me get in my stage character. Yeah, I just chill out. I'm not too stressy about anything. I feel like I've been doing gigs for long enough now that that's not the hard part.
Has there been a reaction to one of your songs that you've been surprised by?
I was really surprised with the reaction to a song that I released last year, the first song I released last year, called That's The Thing. It was quite different from anything that I'd released before, so I wasn't really sure whether it was going to go well. I think I had been sitting in the song for too long and I wasn't sure if it was good anymore. The response that I had from that, especially from America, which I hadn't had any traction in before, America picked it up a little bit and it was going really well over there. That was a very surprising reaction for me. I was not prepared for that. It was exciting.
What are some ways that you promote yourself?
I use social media a lot. I think that's the easiest way to connect with people on a more personal level rather than it being so formal. Although I do have an email subscriber campaign that I run for people that want to be quite involved, but yeah, mainly social media. And in person. I just love seeing people in person.
As a young recording artist, what are your biggest challenges?
That's a really good question. What are some of my biggest challenges? I think, honestly, one of the biggest challenges is, being based in New Zealand, it's quite hard to break out of a small country. That takes a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of understanding about things like digital marketing, and also your network. We are quite isolated in New Zealand, so it does take time to build relationships with people in other countries, which can be quite a challenge. And then, the other thing, I would say, that is the challenge, is funding, actually finding the money to be able to do it all to the level that I want to do it. It's definitely getting up there.
What have been your favorite places to tour?
Oh, that's such a good question. I actually toured the Philippines in 2019, which was a very, very fun, crazy journey. I took my band over there, and we spent three weeks playing in the Philippines, which was very, very different. Other than that, I love playing in my hometown. I love playing up in Auckland and in Christchurch. They're always really special shows, and I manage to get a good few people out to support, so the shows are always very rowdy, which I love. But I don't know, I love every show. I just love shows so much.
Why did you decide to be part of a record label?
The record label that I signed to, which is Big Dog Recordings, is run by my manager, who's also my partner as well. We wanted to keep things in house as much as possible and have the benefits of having labeled behind you, but also enough room to be able to choose what we wanted to do with our time and to say yes to opportunities if they came up. You can't always do that when you're with a bigger label. They're sometimes a little bit more controlling in having to balance different artists and things like that. We still wanted the freedom, and that's why we decided to do that.