Ellie Levy-Pepper, an up and coming 22 year old vocalist and songwriter, who has just begun to grace the Brighton jazz scene with her smooth vocals, shares some words on the jazz revival, stage anxiety, and sexism in the music industry.
So, how did you first get into music? To be honest, I never really wanted to be a musician until a couple of years ago. I used to be really into drama and performing arts, and I guess that eventually translated into music for me. The acting life was too much pressure for me, and music allows me to be free, and I can sing about whatever I choose. There’s no script in music.
Wow, that’s quite recent. Were you ever curious about music before you decided to pursue it as a career? Oh, definitely. A lot of my influences are derived from when I was younger, and I have always loved singing and performing. I suppose I didn’t fully realise it was what I wanted to do until recently, but it’s always been there.
Who would you say are your main influences? Has it changed as you’ve gotten older? I originally started singing because of Amy Winehouse, and she’s definitely still my main influence, but I find a lot of inspiration from a lot of jazz classics as well now. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Nina Simone, Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington. Their experiences as people and as musicians fuels a lot of the subjects I cover in my songs, and I always remember wishing their kind of music still existed. That’s my aim, I want to bring proper, old jazz back, you know what I mean? I want to full on Frank Sinatra it!
Haha, amazing! So do you think you want to be at the level of fame that they were? Definitely not. I respect them so much, but I could never be famous. All that attention, it would kill me. I would rather keep making music for me, that’s what I’m here for. If people like what I do, then great, but that’s not important to me. I make music because I love it, it’s my passion.
That’s really cool, doing it for you and not anyone else. Have you ever come into any unwanted attention then? Oh, of course. I mean, I’m a chatty woman from London, and I like to think I come across as quite confident, so definitely. I say that, but I always get so anxious before performing, so I suppose that draws attention to me that I’d rather not have. That, and being a woman in this industry always brings with it some kind of attention.
That must be difficult, with performance being part of the job description. How do you deal with it before and during your performance? Have you ever met someone with similar experiences? It really is. I haven’t really found a coping mechanism that works, I just try to use the adrenaline in a different way to why it’s actually there. Instead of freezing, I try to power that energy into my performance. It hasn’t failed me yet, and putting on a different persona on stage always makes it easier. That way, it’s almost like acting, and I’m very familiar with that from doing drama when I was younger. I’ve met so many people with the same problem, but it manifests in different ways, so some people deal with it differently. It’s so common with musicians, I think it’s that anxiety of sharing something so personal with a bunch of strangers, it’s not your normal everyday experience.
I think it’s so important to spread awareness of these things. Props to you! You mentioned being a woman in the music industry always brings some kind of attention, do you feel that being a female in a supposed “mans world” hinders you in any way? Oh, yeah. It’s difficult enough to be a woman as it is, but music is so different. All women in music are seen by men to have to be vocalists. I’ve seen some people get so confused at the idea of a female drummer, or brass player, it’s quite funny, really. I also feel that women have a definite pressure to look and act a certain way, and when you’re on stage, that pressure it amplified. I’ve heard before that you have to be skinny and a model if you want to be the main focus of a band, and all I’ve got to say to that is, what about Aretha Franklin or Etta James. They never cared what people thought of their appearance, and they are absolute icons.
So what would be your advice to someone struggling with the same issues? Keep your head up, because guaranteed, they ain’t got nothing on you. If you believe in what you preach, keep doing it, because that’s what matters. We need more women standing up for our right to be heard.