Last year, our US team announced our newest artist interview series, Unfiltered. Now, we’re excited to introduce this installment for our Canada fam! 🇨🇦 With this video series, we’ll chat with some amazing Symphonic artists and get a closer look at everything they’re working on, personal stories, passion projects and so much more. Read the full interview with Prince Amine below…
Unfiltered Canada: Full Interview with Prince Amine
Alejandra Marroquin from Symphonic (A):
“Who is Prince Amine, and how did you get to where you are today?”
Prince Amine (PA):
“Oh, that’s a good question. Yeah, so Prince Amine. As an artist, Prince Amine is someone who is influenced by a lot of cultures. So like a melting pot of different parts of the world. Prince Amine is someone who likes to groove, party, have people in a good mood. Also There’s the sad side to that artist where it’s expressing personal occasions that had happened and but it’s more always the fun stuff, you know, the lively artists.”
“And how did I get to where I am today? Honestly, honestly, it’s been a lot of work and still there’s a lot of work to be made and to be done. And there’s a long way to go. But it’s just been consistency. A lot of time in the studio, a lot of shows from shows, shows from when there’s only 20 people in the room up to shows or just like three, four or five thousand so far, you know.”
“It’s always working, putting that work in, and it’s just not music at the end of the day. And that’s something that I really would like for other artists to understand is that, yes, you could be a good musician, you could be a good singer, whatever it is, but it takes a lot more than just that. It’s the work ethic, yeah. So that’s pretty much it.”
A:
“That’s amazing! You mentioned that you lived in different parts of the world. How has each one of these places influenced your music?”
PA:
“On a musical standpoint, growing up, well being born in Africa, North Africa. There was already a specific type of rhythm that I was used to hearing, you know? And then going to Spain, being there for a while with my pops, I was exposed to flamenco culture, you know what I mean? And that’s another thing, which is the reason why I love the guitar so much, is because I came from that flamenco background of listening to that type of music very often… And then my father being originally from the Caribbean but growing up in the States, I got the Caribbean type music. The hip-hop the soul, you know the R&B from him and then coming to North America, that’s when I found different niches to the Caribbean music. It’s not just dance hall. There’s a compa. You know what I mean?”
“So it influenced it a lot, being the melting pot of my cultural background myself and also experiences meeting people living in specific areas. And honestly it’s something that I wouldn’t take back for the world because it’s just amazing to me.”
A:
“You’ve explored various genres such as hip hop, like rap, R&B, drill. What draws you to experiment with different styles and how do you approach blending them into your music?”
PA:
“What attracts me to try it is when I would hear a song, I would hear a song and I’m like, ooh, this slaps. You know what I mean? I’m like, it sounds nice. And I picture myself on the track. When it’s too nice of a track, I’m like, oh, what if I did, you know, what if I add a little bit of my own style? And it’s always me being curious as to what I would sound like on such track. And it’s not even to copy the artist themselves. Because that’s not the point. It’s just an inspiration as to, okay, this artist sounds pretty decent on that. Let me see if I take my own melting pot of what I do and put it onto that track. But it’s mostly, yeah, it’s mostly the beat that speaks to me. The production is something I have the most attraction to first prior to hearing the artist and then when I hear the artist, depending on what they’re saying, their voice and everything… Yeah, it’s what inspires me. It’s like, oh, I want to get clever with it and try something new.”
A:
“That’s really cool! You have all these experiences in your life and you try different things. That’s such an amazing thing to do. So as an artist, what do you hope your listeners take away from your music, especially considering all your influences and different styles and everything?”
PA:
“Thank you. I have an appreciation for my upbringing. So I would always bring little touches of what I know, my background, and put it into there. And it always reminds you, oh, okay, yeah, that’s true. Like he did this, or he’s from here. And a lot of people who are, let’s say they speak Spanish, or are Arabs, or whatever it is, when they hear the track.”
“Even though it’s probably 95% English, at a certain point I’m gonna be like, oh, this is familiar, this feels like home, I like it. I could embrace this type of music. So it’s always welcoming, you know what I mean? That I love every type of genre of music, well, except heavy metal. That’s, I can’t do that in punk, but anyways, but like, I have an appreciation for all types of music where I like to take everything and put it into my own.”
A:
“So looking ahead, what are your goals and aspirations? What is coming for Prince Amine?”
PA:
“So this year a lot of shows finally after this covid bull you know finally more shows I’m gonna be heading to South by Southwest I was selected to be performing there in March which is pretty huge. So far I have three shows in the week that I’m there in Texas. After that I got booked to go perform at Rotterdam in the Netherlands if I’m not mistaken.”
“European shows because Afrobeats is pretty prominent there. So yeah a lot more shows I’m going to be working on an album for sure and right now what I’m having fun with when it backtracks to like the inspiration of songs and all that right now for content wise I want to be a lot more active so what I’m doing is I’m doing remixes of songs people either suggest to me or songs that I and add my style to it and it’s all types of songs, all types of genres as well. I want to tap into that and you know showcase the talent. So that’s the plan for this year and yeah and it’s just full-time music from now on the dedication is 110%.”
A:
“That’s so cool! Do you have any musical guilty pleasures? We all have one.”
PA:
“Wow, that is a good question. What is, actually what is yours? What is yours? Let’s see, let’s see, let’s see.”
A:
“Now that I think about it, it’s not like I’m really ashamed of anything that I listen to but I can go like pretty heavily on the Disney songs and just like yeah…”
PA:
“Okay. Um, Disney music, okay, like Frozen type musicals… Um, honestly, me, I could sit literally months just listening to Motown soul music. And that gets to me and some… I’ve been saying this and for one day I will come with an album where I get the clearance where I could sample all of the tracks, but I would like to make a rendition of most of the songs that I grew up to listening. And yeah, it’s just I would love to just cook up some Motown music, but my guilty pleasure is being able to bleed out that era of music and just forget everything else. That is just my soft spot.”
A:
“Cool! And last but not least, how many tattoos you have? Do you know?”
PA:
“I stopped counting after I know I have more than 40 tattoos yeah because like yes I have a sleeve but my sleeve is not it’s not one piece you know what I mean it’s like I got different things for in different moments of life and I’m still young so and I’m running out of space so I don’t know what I’d look like by the time I’m 40 but yeah no I have over 40 tattoos my one of my favorite ones… Hold on, let me just pull up my sleeve here. I don’t think you can see it properly on the camera. Yeah, it says “Still I Rise” with the hands chained up and Still I Rise is a poem from Maya Angelou, who was an African-American poet. And my dad, once again, was somebody that showed me her work and it’s just listening to her dictate that poem.”
“… and just the meaning behind it. The reason why I put it on my arm is that no matter what I’ve been through or my history of people have been through, there’s a tunnel. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, you know, and we’re gonna make it or I’m going to make it. My family’s gonna be all right. So it’s like, and I put it here because why I put it like this way is growing up in Morocco, in Islam, when you pray, you set your hands out like this. You know, so when I look down…. It’s something that I always see.”
