Almero is a South African singer, songwriter & poet. In this interview he shares more about his creative process & challenges within the creative industry.
1. What/who inspired you as a child/teenager to become an artist/writer & musician?
I started piano lessons in Grade 3 and fell in love with music, especially the acoustic music. It wasn’t really until high school that I found some artists that inspired me to compose my own music. Damien Rice, Matt Corby, Florence and the Machine, all these artists gave me a feeling that I wanted to explore creating it myself. Unrelated to songwriting, in Grade 10 I found a video by The Piano Guys, a mostly classical cover of a modern song, and the amount of excitement it gave me to listen to the heartfelt sounds they created encouraged me to get started on making covers myself. I never really thought of it as something that I could pursue as a career. Things never really clicked for me that I was doing this as a career, until I looked back a few months ago and realized that I had been doing this for the last 5 years and that I had gotten opportunities that the teen-me would have seen as massive and career defining. I still look at my career as a accidental mishap and I regularly feel that someone is going to “out” me for being a fake.
2. When you write music, how do you come up with a concept? Do you write the melody or the lyrics first?
The process is really different each time. Mostly, I tend to start with the words, as I usually just write poems or letters that later gets turned into music. I see myself as a more skilled writer than a musician, but the past few months I have started exploring other ways of songwriting. By starting with just a musical progression, or “skeleton” for a song’s music, I get really interesting melodies when I start writing lyrics after the music is done. Personally, though, the lyrics are a massive part of what makes my songs unique and true to me, so I like to start with an idea or theme or even a question. I write about the things that interest me, personal things I go through or experience. It is mainly just a way of figuring things out in my own life.
3. What do you do when you face a creative block?
I let it be. I have found that my songwriting happens in short sprints. For a few weeks I can write loads of songs. And then I get dried up. But I think it’s natural to get a little exhausted after a while, so I just tend to stop writing for a bit until I feel that new inspiration or creativity has arrived.
4. What do you find the most challenging about the music/artistic industry?
The industry is really egocentric. The audience tends to focus on the artist, instead of the art. This is tricky for me, because I started this career thinking that my art is the only thing that matters. I did not start to become a celebrity. The idea of that much focus and attention on me, instead of the things I produce, makes me really uncomfortable. I’d like my songs and music to do the speaking, not me. (Things like this interview is part of the gig, but I would rather answer each question with a song I wrote.)
5. You produced a incredible poetry book, what would you say is the secret to a successful poem?
I don’t really think there is something like a successful poem. For the LIEFDEWEN poetry book, we received thousands of poems, but our only criteria was to choose the ones that felt honest and unpretentious. In my own poetry collection, I only published the things I felt I wrote from a place of honesty. Poetry is just story telling in a strange format. And as long as that story is heartfelt and honest, there will be someone that likes it.
6. Where do you like to go for inspiration?
Other people really inspire me to write. Their stories, lives and experiences. I know a lot of people that like to use nature as inspiration, but for me nature just calms me down up to the point that I no longer want to write or say anything. Writing is a strange things that for me comes out of an uncomfortable feeling of trying to make sense of something that bothers me, interests me, plagues me. So generally, anything that disturbs me or makes me uneasy, will lead to a song.
7. After a hard days work as a creator, what do you do to relax?
I feel really guilty about the idea that I get to relax after creating, because it really is a pleasure to create. But to relax, I like to listen to music, paint or draw, or go to the beach.
8. Is there any other creative fields that you would love to pursue?
I would love to get more involved in filmmaking.
9. If you could choose a favorite song of your own, which song would it be and why?
I really don’t have a favorite song of myself. Usually the song I am busy with, is the song I most believe in.
10. What artist do you look up to the most and why?
Bouwer Bosch has been a mentor of mine for the last 5 years and besides the fact that he is an amazing human being, he is also a great musician. As a side note: Deon Meiring’s voice always makes me jealous.
11. What is your favorite restaurant/coffee shop in your hometown?
Rust en Vrede, in Durbanville. It is a few metres from where I live and the atmosphere always calms me. The owner also sometimes gives you vodka shots in the morning!
12. Where can readers follow you to keep up?
Instagram (@almero_welgemoed)
Facebook is also a great way to see where we are performing next.
Thank you for joining us!
Bren
B R E N 