Gabrielle Aplin on Lou Reed and Her New Album ‘Light up The Dark’

Stephanie Hernandez

22-year-old English singer and acoustic guitar maven Gabrielle Aplin is taking a step into the light with her sophomore album. Originally of YouTube fame, Aplin’s heartfelt and often melancholy covers of top 40 pop singles amassed a well deserved online following. Eventually moving away from the screen to the stage, Aplin released her debut album “English Rain” in 2013 on her own label and under her own terms. Blending her love of acoustics and classic piano lines, the result was a quietly beautiful collection of highly personal pieces.

For the second time around Aplin took an admittedly more laid back approach. “Light Up The Dark” was recorded with no time line or record label pressure and best of all in the freedom of her friend’s in-home studio. The record begins with its eponymous title track “Light Up The Dark,” a beat heavy and soulful piano take over of the senses. With the vocal power and lyrical poetry one would come to expect from alternative rock powerhouse Florence Welch, Aplin does more than an amazing job at carrying the magnificent symphonics behind her. Charging right into territory we have not heard the artist venture into on recordings before, Gabrielle continues her burst through the practice room and into the piano laden and symbol crashing world she has created. “Skeleton” and “Fools Love” follow with fast paced, joyous verses and even brighter choruses. “Slip Away” brilliantly gives soul to the record, with more arid instrumentation, the track truly allows Aplin’s voice to shine over the cleverly restrained guitars and steady bass line. “Sweet Nothing” flows in and ignites an almost insatiable need to clap and sway along, a nice upbeat carefree moment, Gabrielle has no doubt created a top 40 hit of her own with this cheery pop infused song. The first half of the record must be the light Aplin is talking about, emanating sunshine throughout, Aplin shows her ability to capture the listener’s attention and keep it there.

Lightly distorted lo-fi guitars bring in “Heavy Heart,” bringing the pace down for a moment, you are allowed to breath as Aplin softly whispers tales of heartbreak over lightly plucked chords and ever so softly fading symbols. “Shallow Love” continues the theme of second half of the album, personal struggle, failed love affairs and the desire for someone else to end the consequences of your own miserable choices. Slower, more focused on lyricism, Aplin seems to be telling us something, life is not all fun love and butterflies but a bittersweet mix of it all. Ending the album with a slow and heart wrenching beautiful “A While,” Gabrielle gives herself the space to highlight her composition skills as well as the range of her voice and the highly personal nature of her words. Sounding like the final break up scene of film about a passion filled, hopeless romance ended by unfortunate circumstance, “A While” closes the door to the room Aplin has let us occupy for the past hour, effectively putting the dark into her album’s title. Beginning with the light and ending in the dark, Aplin has successfully taken us on a journey through the human heart, not bad for a twenty-something YouTube star gone pop icon in the making.

In the midst of her sophomore album hitting shelves this week, the busy and no doubt excited Gabrielle Aplin took the time to sit down with Entertainment Voice to discuss her journey from YouTube star to live performer, her favorite covers and the process that led to “Light Up The Dark.”

When did you first discover your passion for music and who were your major influences early on?

Well for me, I first picked up a guitar when I was eleven and I didn’t play it for ages, it was a bit of a phase. I left it for a few years; I was doing artwork and writing poetry, all that sort of stuff.  Then I got a piano and I realized I could fit all three of those things together in the process of making an album. So when I was bout 15 I started writing songs and putting it all together, at the time Joni Mitchell really inspired me. She was huge for me, she was writing poems and putting music to them, painting her album covers, the way she was putting all those mediums together inspired me more than anyone else.

That’s wonderful that someone like Joni Mitchell was an inspiration, because that’s definitely something you don’t hear a lot of teenagers saying at that age, especially now!

(laughs) yeah, well you know I didn’t grow up with the internet, I guess if I did it might have been a bit different but I just had what my parents had.  I’m so lucky for that!

Your name started getting attention a few years ago on YouTube from your covers of various artists like Paramore, Sia and more recently Sam Smith’s “Money on my Mind” on the BBC Live Lounge – Who has been your favorite artist to take on thus far?

I guess for me it’s them all. With BBC Live Lounge it’s a bit different, I knew everyone was going to hear it and it was going to be around forever, so I knew I only had one chance!  But when I was doing my YouTube videos it was just so, I’m loving this song at the moment I’m going to put it online, then I’d get over it and get onto the next one. So they’re kind of different, I love them all at the time I’m doing them and then I think of the next one and then that one becomes my new favorite. But, I guess if I had to choose, I did a cover of Lou Reed for BBC 2 a few weeks ago and that was very fun. Lou Reed’s songs are just so weird and really cool in an eerie way, it is always fun to play with those.

When did you begin writing your own songs? What was it like when you first started putting your own material out there?

Like I said I sort of started writing songs when I realized I could put poetry and pianos together at 15. Once I began developing and learning how to write, I was putting those songs online and getting great feedback from fans on YouTube. It was really when I started releasing my music independently, putting EPs out that it truly started to feel like the real thing. It was great to feel like I was a part of a project that I was organizing because it was all my own.

Were you just putting these tracks online? Or was there a point in time when you moved away from that and started performing them all live?

Well, there was a point before I had signed a record deal that people had started asking me to come and play places they were also asking me for recordings of songs. So I started recording my music properly, I set up my own label so I could release my music, so with touring I sort of decided to just do it about five or six years ago! I said, well I’m going to put a tour together, release an EP and see what happens. I kept doing it and it kept growing each time, and now I’m here! It was definitely a gradual build.

Your album “Light up The Dark” is due out this week, what was your mentality going into your Sophomore album? Was there anything you were consciously doing or not doing on this record to differentiate it from your past work?

I took it a lot less seriously than my first album, in a good way! With the first album I was all “this is my first album I must be doing all of this, Oh. My. God. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” With this album, maybe I should have had the whole second album pressure, but I didn’t at all! I recorded it and wrote it in my friend’s house, there was no pressure, I was really happy at the time, really high on life because I was making music every day.  I had just gotten off a two year touring phase and all I wanted to do was go in and write and create, without not having to not sleep in my own bed, you know (laughs)?! It was amazing, I felt so free.

Which honestly is probably the best way to do it. So many artists now get caught in the pressure and expectations of others that it ends up holding them back. But, your album really does just sound like you were having a great time!

We really could just sell ten copies and I’d be like okay, I’m happy with it! Yay!

At least ten people got it, hell yeah!

Honestly, I’m so happy. I’m happy with the music and with where I am.

You’re currently on tour in the UK, any plans to make it over the pond?

Yes definitely, I probably won’t make it over this year; more like early next year but it’s definitely a priority to get back over!

So many of your fans have grown with you online, what can they expect from your live performances?

Well, what I really, really wanted to do with this album, that I didn’t think about on my first record, was thinking about playing it live. So I was layering and layering all this stuff and it’s just me playing all the instruments so I couldn’t record it live, so when it came to playing it live I literally didn’t have enough people to play it! I made the logistics of it all too hard to figure out and it felt to me a bit contrived, so I really wanted to write something this time around that would be great to play live. So the whole album is recorded live pretty much, I’ve tried to recreate it as much as I can. So overall the shows will be very energetic, with loads of intimate acoustic moments, and of course I love to throw in a cover or two into the live shows as well!

Gabrielle Aplin’s “Light Up the Dark” will be available on Apple Music Sept. 18.