Arlissa is an English singer-songwriter, of half German and half American descent, yet raised in Brixton, London. Her passion with song writing began in school, and at the age of 19 she signed to London Records. Her representatives played some of her music to Roc Nation in New York City, as a result Jay Brown agreed to sign her.
Arlissa accumulates attention via social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, but Youtube is where she was most noticed. 'Hard To Love Somebody' gained attention from artist Nas who then approaches Arlissa to feature on it. The collaboration was recorded in person in Los Angeles, and was chosen as Scott Mills' record of the week in November 2012. Arlissa was named as one to watch out for in 2013 by the BBC, when she made the longlist for the Sound of 2014.
"Sticks and Stones", Arlissa's first official single, was described as a, 'stomping break-up anthem' and a 'fierce pop song'. In April, Arlissa was moved from London Records to Capitol Records UK. 'Into The Light', was released December 16th in 2013, and was used as a feature in an advert for Littlewoods.
In 2014, 'Stay Up All Night', was recorded with Belgian DJ Netsky and the song was performed live on tour in 2014 Reading Festival and SW4.
Not only has popular artist's collaborated with Arlissa, Nelly Furtado covered song "Sticks and Stones" for her sixth studio album.
Discography:
Singles
As lead artist
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [11] | IRE [12] | ||||||||||||||||
| 2012 | "Hard to Love Somebody" (with Nas) | 165 | — | Battles | |||||||||||||
| 2013 | "Sticks and Stones" | 48 | 89 | ||||||||||||||
| "Into the Light" | — | — | |||||||||||||||
| "—" denotes single that did not chart or was not released. | |||||||||||||||||
As featured artists
| Year | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | "Heartbeat" (Wilkinson featuring P Money & Arlissa) | Lazers Not Included |
| "Long Gone Memory" (Friction featuring Arlissa) | Non-album single | |
| 2015 | "Something About You" (TC4 featuring Arlissa) | Something About You |
| 2016 | "Paradise" (Schiller featuring Arlissa) | Future |
| "Touch" (Tough Love featuring Arlissa) | Past Present Future | |
| "Stay Up With Me" (Netsky featuring Arlissa) | 3 | |
| 2017 | "Champagne On Me" (Lotus featuring Arlissa and Flo Rida) | Non-album single |
Other appearances
| Year | Contribution | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | "You & I" (Crystal Fighters featuring Arlissa) | Cave Rave |
| "Tornare indietro"[13] (Guè Pequeno featuring Arlissa) | Bravo ragazzo |
Writer/co-writer for other artists
| Year | Contribution | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | "Spring Day" BTS | You Never Walk Alone |
Internet & Websites:
Videos
- http://arlissa.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/ArlissaMusic/
- https://twitter.com/arlissaxx?lang=en
- https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/arlissa/id553435139
- https://soundcloud.com/arlissa
- https://www.instagram.com/arlissa_xx/?hl=en
- https://open.spotify.com/artist/7wzaSKTsjE9HnuDuZTX452?autoplay=true
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDSK7Idte3m-wreujxnGRiQ
- https://goo.gl/aZBBAA
Videos
Interviews
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/feb/09/arlissa-interview-sticks-and-stones
"Preview tracks from Arlissa's debut LP, including the stomping break-up anthem Sticks & Stones, have led people to make comparisons with Florence Welch. Exactly: her stuff is all bazooka vocal over urgent, tribal drums. Lyrically, it's heartbreak city. Arlissa explains: "When I broke up with my first boyfriend, I tried to steer away from writing about it. I wanted to be like Regina Spektor, writing cute, quirky songs, but I couldn't do it. Whenever I tried to write I poured my heart out."
She is verging on very good things, I think. She must, by now, be just fine with being tall. "Still a bit iffy," she says. There is a tattoo of a bird on Arlissa's right hand. I ask if it has any meaning (tattoos reliably do). "I've always been self-conscious, especially about my height. This tattoo was meant to be a meadowlark, which is supposed to symbolise being happy within yourself, a native American thing."
Annoyingly, the tattooist couldn't manage the required detail for a meadowlark. Arlissa got a swallow instead. Even so: "Whenever I'm singing I can look at it and think: it's going to be OK."
STYLE OF MUSIC: My influences are people like the Crystal Fighters and Vampire Weekend, along with Peter Gabriel. I wanted the music to be as organic as possible, so I used a lot of big drums and real sounds, as opposed to artificial ones. I'm quite proud of the sound we have created.
MUSICAL BACKGROUND: I do come from a musical family. My mum sings a lot and my dad, he's really weird, he's never learned how to play a single instrument in his life, yet somehow you set him on a piano and he'll be able to play it incredibly. And the guitar as well. I play the piano. I can accompany myself on the guitar to an extent, but the piano is definitely my main musical instrument. I haven't yet played on stage—I'm still so nervous on stage, bringing a piano into it might freak me out
FIRST SONGS: I remember the first song I had ever written, which was hilarious because it was so bad. It was called "Falling for You." I was 14 and I had my first boyfriend. I wasn't falling for him at all, I just thought, "Oh, this is the time when you write a song about your boyfriend." So I gave it a go. I had been listening to a lot of Regina Spektor at the time, so I tried to write like her. When I was 14, I thought I was so much cooler than I actually was—I tried to listen to loads of indie music and unheard-of music just so I could be like, "Oh yeah, this artist and this artist."
FIVE-YEAR PLAN: I basically just want write and sing and when it's all over I'll hopefully write for other people. It would be a joke if I could write a song for Rihanna; that would be awesome. I like writing music for people who are the complete opposite to me because then you get in a completely different headspace.
