When it comes to Alice Chater, one thing’s for sure: she was born to be a star. She’s been performing ever since she was little, dancing after school every single day and constantly singing. Practically everyone in her family is a ballerina, but she wanted something more, so she left her tiny little hometown when she was only sixteen and moved to London to make her dreams come true. And her star has been rising ever since!
She released her first couple of songs two years ago, including “Hourglass”, which now has more than 2.3 million views, and her debut EP “Aries” came out earlier this August. We spoke to Alice via Zoom about her EP, her inspirations, what it was like to work with Iggy Azalea, her coping mechanism, and she even revealed what she would do if one day, she woke up in wonderland – exclusive interview with Alice Chater.
We’ve heard you’re in Sweden!
Yeah, I’ve been in Sweden since March. I’ve been here a long time. I’ve basically filmed a music video in LA at the end of February, and then I had to decide whether to go back to London or to go to Sweden. My boyfriend lives in Sweden, he’s Swedish, so then I decided to come here so I’ve been here ever since. It’s so stunning! I love Sweden, I do all my music here. I’ve been backwards and forwards to Sweden for about 3 years. When I first came here, I fell in love with this city [Stockholm], it’s so beautiful here.
Coming from a family of performers, has it always been your dream to become a performer yourself?
Yeah, it has, actually, since I can remember! It was the only thing I was good at. I was really bad in school, and I had major concentration issues. I was just very bad at all the subjects apart from singing and acting and dancing. I’ve always wanted to perform, so my mom took me to an audition when I was 5 or 6 for this show called “Honk!” and I got the part, it was a little duckling. Since then, I was in loads of shows growing up in my hometown. I was dancing after school every single day, and obviously my family are all ballerinas.
I love ballet, but I also love singing and acting and other types of dance. I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself into just being a ballerina.
Tell us a bit about the beginning of your career! How did it feel when your first single came out, and you had your first video shoot?
It was amazing! I was so happy and obviously super-super nervous. The first video shoot was “Wonderland (My Name Is Alice)”. Even though that came out a while after, that was the first music video that I’ve ever shot. Obviously, it was quite big production, and I remember, for the first time I saw myself on the screen, I’d never seen myself in a music video like that before. I’d been in music videos before growing up as a backing dancer, but seeing myself in the music video, and I was the artist… I actually cried! I was like, this is so amazing, this is so cool! I didn’t expect that! I thought I was just gonna walk to a plain studio, and there wouldn’t be that many people, but there was a whole crew and a whole team! It was really special to me.
Congratulations on your new EP, “Aries”! It’s your first one, and it’s been a long time coming. When did you start working on it and what were your main inspirations making it?
Yeah, a long time coming! I wrote the title track “Aries” years and years ago, like four years ago. That was kind of the track that’s changed everything for me, really. When I wrote that, it was passed around to lots of record executives and record labels. I was then getting known, so then that’s how I kind of got signed to Universal. That song is about when I was younger, I used to have a lot of panic attacks, and I was dealing with them on my own, not having to rely on a boyfriend or my mom. I was constantly attached to my mom since I was little, she’d have to come to every show that I was doing, musical theatre shows or whatever… I couldn’t go to any sleepovers with my friends, for example, because I’d be so scared, and I had no idea why. “Pretty in Pink” is about having big dreams. I come from a small, little seaside town Ramsgate, and hardly anybody gets out of Ramsgate.
My dream was, when I was at school, that I’m gonna move to London, I’m gonna go to drama school, I’m gonna train, and I’m gonna make it! My friends would always kind of laugh at me because they were like, that’s so unrealistic, Alice.
Because nobody really did that. So, the whole EP is about struggles with anxiety growing up, having bigger dreams from a tiny seaside town, and also just heartbreak. That’s why it’s called “Aries” because I’m a typical Aries, so it felt appropriate.
What is your coping mechanism now and what gives you the strength to keep going day by day?
It’s interesting, recently I’ve got a lot better. I think I just learnt how to breathe and not be so scared. Now because I travel a lot on my own, I’ve been in loads of different hotel rooms in various countries alone for periods of time and I’ve had to really deal with it. Moving to London when I was 16 or 17, I lived on my own. I had to really try and deal with it, so I used breathing and focusing on different things. I always did this thing where I would ring my mom – I can do this on my own now – but she’d always be like, okay, what can you see? And then I’d tell her what I saw. And then she was like, what can you feel? If I was on the couch, I’d be like, I feel the pillow or whatever. And then what can you smell? Once you start saying that, it kind of calms me down. It’s like, grounding yourself. It’s just different techniques like that and they really help you.
Who were your biggest inspirations as a child and who are they now?
As a child, one of my first CDs that my mom bought me was Christina Aguilera. I was obsessed with her because she was so tiny and had this massive voice. I was like, I wanna be like her!
I’ve always been super tiny, I’m quite petite, and I’ve always had a big voice.
And then Whitney Houston, I’ve always been obsessed with her because she had the big ballads so I’d be constantly singing those growing up, and all my neighbours knew who I was because they would hear me every day, so loud! Céline Dion, I’ve always sung her songs. She taught me how to sing, I really practiced from her. And Mariah Carey, obviously Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, there’s loads… But definitely all the big vocal-led singers. And then Madonna, I love her artistry, she’s really inspired me. She’s just such a good pop star, she’s always reinvented herself every era, every album, and that’s really inspiring to me. Her music is so well-written and she’s so controversial, I love it. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and she’s still doing it right now, she’s still a pop star, I have so much respect for her.
Let’s talk about your collaboration with Iggy Azalea. How did the song “Lola” come together?
I think we had a couple of mutual fans on Twitter that kept tweeting my “Tonight” music video. First, I think she saw that and was like “wow, she’s amazing”, she really liked me. Then someone did this stupid article saying “Alice Chater is coming for Dua Lipa’s throne” or something, the most ridiculous thing ever. So, some fans were like, “who is Alice? who the hell is Alice?”, and I was like, who wrote this thing about me? It caused a little bit of a stir on Twitter. Like, I love Dua Lipa! I don’t know, it was just someone trying to cause something, or whatever. I think Iggy also saw that and was like “who is Alice?” so then she looked into me more. She just tweeted “slightly obsessed with Alice Chater” and then she messaged me on Twitter, and was like “hey, I think you’re incredible, oh my God, here’s my number, I would love to collaborate with you”. That same night, we started texting, and she said let’s write a song together. I was like “actually, I have this song that I wrote that I think you might like”. I sent her “Lola” that I wrote a year before that, I took out some of the verses and she was obsessed with it! She was like let’s go into the studio together in Atlanta and write the verses and the bridge together because I had the hook already. We went into the studio with my cowriter, Kee Ingrosso, and we all wrote the song together. Then I went to LA to shoot the video with her, and me and Iggy just really clicked. She’s from a very-very small town in Australia, she had really big dreams when she was younger, and she has really fought to be where she is right now. She used to work in a hotel, she moved from Australia when she was really young… I respect how hard she has worked to get to where she is now. We just really connected. I think she’s amazing, I absolutely adore her.
You became quite close friends, and it’s so good seeing women supporting women in this industry, especially considering that at one point, Iggy got a lot of hate. Did she give you any advice on how to handle negative criticism and hate?
Yeah, she’s very good at blocking out. You have to not read everything, because it’s so easy to just sit up at nights and read negative comments, keep reading, and get in your head about it. It ends up being terrible. The best way to avoid that negative energy and negative space is try not to read it and completely ignore it. Whenever I get any negative stuff, I just don’t read it, or I won’t be on my phone. I think that’s what other people do, as well.
We’re human, you know, it’s not nice to read negative things over and over again, it’s not good for our brain.
Just don’t even read it and ignore it.
You said that you’d do another song with Iggy, but besides her, who are your dream collaborators?
We’re definitely gonna do another song together so that’s very exciting! My dream collaborators… I would love to collaborate with Ariana Grande because she has an incredible voice and I really respect that. She’s very techniquely gifted and amazing. I love The Weeknd. I adore his voice, it reminds me that of Michael Jackson’s, and I’m a massive fan of Michael Jackson. The Weeknd’s aesthetic and everything is really cool. I would also love to do a big Disney ballad with Celine Dion or Andrea Bocelli! I would love that!
Your art is very theatrical, almost like a different world. Let’s say, one day you wake up in wonderland. What would be the very first thing you’d do?
I would probably fly somewhere, like fly to a pasta island that only had Italian food. Just pasta! I’m obsessed with pasta. I don’t know! There’s endless… but I would love to fly!
You’re coming back to live shows with a headline concert in London this November. Are you planning something spectacular for your fans?
Yes, it will be the biggest headline show for me so far. I’ve missed performing so much this year so I’m super, super excited for the show. I will definitely be planning something more spectacular than the other shows that I’ve done. I’m gonna have some guests that are going to perform with me that I think people would like. I’m organizing it now and I’m definitely gonna make it one to remember, for sure.
What was it like to perform your very first show?
I’ve performed since I was super little, but as an artist, the first show that I did was at the Palladium, I supported Seal. He did a whole kind of jazz concert, so I did “A Man’s World”, “At Last” by Etta James and a couple of jazzier numbers. That was nice for me because that brings me back to my roots and the songs I used to sing when I was little. And then to do my own songs, as well, which was amazing! I was super nervous, and it was the first time I tried in-ears because I would always perform on stage with wedges, which is like, the speakers, instead of having in-ears. When I was in soundcheck, Seal was like “stop! where are your in-ears?” and I was like “I don’t have any, yet”. He was like “you need to practice with them, this is important to practice with in-ears, and this will be a perfect time for you to start”. I told him I hadn’t done that before, but he said I didn’t matter. So, he got someone to bring an in-ears for me and I was like “what?! oh my God, I can hear!”. It was so amazing for me, I’ve never sung with in-ears, so it was an experience. That was the first time with everything, really… My whole label was there and my whole team, so I was super nervous because obviously I wanted to perform amazingly to them, and nobody knew who I was then.
When nobody knows who you are in the audience, you have to make a statement. You have to win them over.
But it was a really good show… My parents were there, they were in a little box and they were so proud of me, so it was a really nice moment.
What was your most memorable encounter with a fan of yours?
I think I was in LA at a famous gay club, the Abbey, I think it’s called. I was just dancing with my friends and then this guy comes up to me, he’s like “oh my God, are you Alice Chater? me and my friends are obsessed with you” and he started doing the “Hourglass” choreography, he knew all of it! I was like, what?! It was so amazing because I didn’t think anyone really knew about me in America and this guy was doing the whole choreography… And then he brought his friends to say hello to me and they were all big fans. That was a really nice moment for me because I didn’t think anyone really knew me, especially in America, and for them to do my choreography and actually do it really well! I loved that, it was nice.
If you weren’t a performer, what job would you like have?
That’s so hard because I’m literally not good at anything else! I’d probably be a designer because when I was younger, I always used to design my own clothes and then I got a sewing machine and I would make my own clothes. Yeah, I think I would probably be a designer or a stylist. But that’s still kind of in the performing world!
Which song of yours would you show a person that doesn’t know you yet and why?
I think “Two of Us”. Firstly, I because the song in itself is more stripped back and you can really hear my vocals well. I think the music video was so well done and so raw, I’m so proud of it. There are hardly any cuts in it, it shows long takes of me dancing. I have nothing to hide behind, so you can see that I’m a performer and I’ve been dancing since I was little, and this is my passion. I love to act, as well. I think that music video just brings all three, acting, singing and the dancing all together as well as the fashion element to it. I really loved the outfit. I was inspired by Mugler, I love Mugler. Also, the top was inspired by Cher, as well, so there’s just little things in the outfit and I love the details in the music video, as well, they’re really special to me. As an artist, I think it’s a good representation of what I can do without hiding behind anything.
“Pretty in Pink” is about little Alice with big dreams. What advice would you give to aspiring performers who dream of making it big?
My advice would be, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, how you grew up, whatever situation you’re in.
If you have a dream and you enjoy something and you know you have talent, I would not give up, ever.
Don’t take no for an answer, because you’ll get so many rejections on the way and they’re not always about your talent. It’s very political, this industry, and I think you just have to keep pushing and keep going because around the corner, you never know, it could be your big break. Keep going, never take no for an answer!
Is there a message that you’d like to share with your Hungarian fans?
Thank you so, so, so much for your support! I see you guys on Twitter and I’m just really thankful that my music is reaching lots of different places. I would love to visit come your country one day. I would love to come visit and do a show, that would be amazing. I love you guys so much, thank you for endless support and thank you believing in me.
Of course, we couldn’t let Alice go without teaching her at least one Hungarian word. Luckily, she liked the idea because when we asked her if she knew any, she excitedly exclaimed “no, I don’t! teach me some!”. Unsurprisingly, we chose the word “szeretlek” that means “I love you”.
Alice: Okay, could you say it again slower?
MD: Sze-ret-lek.
Alice: Szerekle!
MD: Kind of, it’s sze-ret-lek.
Alice: Sze-ret-le!
MD: Yeah, kind of, sze-ret-lek.
Alice: Sze- what’s the middle part?
MD: Ret. Like, r-e-k.
Alice: Okay, so szeretlek!
MD: Yeah, that’s it! Alright, thank you.
Alice: Thank you, I’ll be practicing now! I’m trying to learn Swedish and I’m not too good at that, either. I have to practice my languages, for sure! Sze-ret-lek! It was so nice to speak to you guys, thank you so much and thank you for the support in Hungary!
