AMforte Interview !
AMFORTE Clarity is well-known on the grid for her original music and soulful voice. Despite her hectic schedule, Virtual Music Magazine managed to track her down for an interview. If you are interested in seeing her live yourself, daily gig postings and press information are available at www.amforte.com. You can also like her on Facebook.
We started the interview by talking about her career, both on and off the grid. When asked how Second Life has helped her music career, she replied: "I have gained some real fans and helped me write a lot more." She has also collaborated with other musicians on the platform, including Raspbury Rearwin and Stratus MacTavish, and hopes to work with such amazing musicians in the future.
After a friend brought her to the grid, she spent some time to learn the basics of getting around, and then went forward with learning the technicalities of performing on Second Life. Now that she has all the experience under her belt, she says: "There aren't many technical challenges of playing live shows." She believes managers here have a lot more to offer than technical help, also finding new bookings for their artists and organizing their gig schedules. "You just have to find the right manager for you." Good advice to apply to any reality.
I asked if she used any guitar effects, to which she replied: "I don't use any guitar effects. It's just me, my guitar, my mic and mixer with reverb. That's it!" A very brave thing to do, especially when trying to play
heavy music. She hopes to get her hands on an electric guitar for a number of reasons. "Electric guitars can be loud but as for an acoustic guitar, sometimes, I wish I had an electric because I can probably show more of my emotions. It's hard to do with an acoustic, to me anyway."
One of her main influences is the band Radiohead, a love I share. When asked which of their albums she liked best, she gave an unexpected answer. "I don't think it was just one album. There are so many songs off each album that I just love. They made me realize that you don't have to stick with one genre." She then explained some of the ways she gets emotion in her music and lyrics: "Your music really can be anything, whatever you feel. Music is really an amazing tool for a musician. When you learn how to make the music, you learn so much more about your inner self and what has been locked away for probably years. Those feelings and emotions just come running out of you when you start writing. Things you haven't thought about in years, emotions that you've never cried about or other things that you put on the shelf or skeletons in your closet that you finally decide to face. Music...is the key to my survival. Radiohead is an amazing group. I never understood them before but the more I listened to them, they helped me through so much."
AMFORTE came from a very musical upbringing, with both her mother and sister singing around the house all the time. She did not get formal training, however, instead letting her sound develop naturally through plenty of practice. Emotion is what she uses to create her sound. Often compared to Alanis Morrisette, this is also who she thinks she sounds like, though I get the impression she is tired of the constant comparisons to her. AMFORTE has her own sound, brought to the grid by "just the basics, mic, mixer, and guitar."
She hopes her stage fright will stop coming with her soon.
