The UK’s answer to Destiny’s Child; Sarah, Hannah &
Bukola or Ebony Align, as they’re known by their fans, have had a whirlwind of
a year. Slowly they’re making a big impact in the music industry, here’s their
exclusive interview with BEATS on all things Ebony.
Your career is going
from strength to strength. You've recently finished your summer festivals from Reading
Festival to Glastonbury and your first single has gone to number one. Did you
ever imagine any of this happening to you?
Sarah: No way! Never in a million years!
Hannah: We literally sang together to have fun, we never
thought that we would sing for a career.
Bukola: We were preparing for our A-Levels and were planning
to go down the academic route and go onto university. Becoming a girl group was
never our initial plans.
What made you decide
to become a girl group?
Bukola: My uncle is a small time producer and when he heard
us singing he thought we had something that should be heard on a bigger
platform. He encouraged us to upload
videos of us singing online and from there that’s how people started to know
who we are. We sing covers of other artists’ songs but we would put our stamp
on it by maybe adding some rap into it our changing the words so we can sing
the song as if it was personal. Our current record label came across us on the
internet and wanted to hear us out and see if we could make a career out of it.
Sarah: I thought A-Levels were scary but that was the
scariest thing ever. We didn't want to embarrass ourselves so we put our all
into that.
Hannah: We’re grateful that someone saw something in us.
How do you feel being
called ‘the UK’s Destiny’s Child’?
Sarah: When we sang we would think we were Destiny’s Child.
I was always Beyoncé [snaps fingers and laughs].
Bukola & Hannah: [shouts] I was Kelly!
Hannah: No I was Kelly; I've got the short hair!
Bukola: The amount of times we've argued about this is
actually hilarious.
Sarah: I think we are similar to Destiny’s Child in a way.
They had a strong ethos for female power and independency and that is what we
want to represent. We want to be the logo for female power because we have a
first-hand understanding of the struggles females go through.
What do you mean by
that?
Sarah: We've been raised by single mothers with no male
adult role model and we know we’re not the only ones that have been raised
under these circumstances.
Bukola: Our mothers had to support us financially and
emotionally as well as themselves in order for us to have a good life.
Hannah: We owe our mothers everything.
Do you like the way
female artists are being presented in the media industry?
Sarah: Personally I feel that female artists shouldn't feel
the need to wear minimal clothing in order to be noticed or in order to get
attention.
Bukola: Music should be about the lyrics and the meaning
behind it and not what a person wears.
Hannah: Plus I don’t think our mothers will let us parade
around in our birthday suit [laughs].
How would you
describe your clothing style?
Sarah: We've
grown up wearing high street clothing. So we usually tend to shop in places
such as Topshop, New Look, River Island, etc.
Bukola: We’re
all about the fur and bandannas, especially Hannah.
Hannah:
Don’t hate, appreciate! Anyway, aside from that, [rolls eyes at Bukola] if it’s
casual the denim jeans and trainers are out. But when we've got a reason to
dress best believe we go all out. The heels, the hair, the make-up, everything;
we don’t mess about. [All laugh]
If you could have any
career aside from singing, what would it be and why?
Bukola: I've always been interested in criminology. I had a
phase where I would constantly watch all the CSI’s so CSI New York, CSI LA, CSI
Miami and CSI all of it. I feel like it’s a job that will never get boring because
of the types of cases you deal with. The final outcome, so when you discover
the cause death and paint a scenario for what’s happened, is always the most
intriguing because it makes you think how far people would go to end someone’s
life.
Hannah: I feel a bit boring saying my career choice. [Bukola
laughs] Well I've always enjoyed maths so I wanted to go into accounting and
finance but I'm not 100% sure because I don’t think I will be able to handle a
desk job. I can’t stand silence. I spent a week in Barclays Bank for work’s
experience and I swear the only voices I could hear were mine and my mentor’s.
I couldn't hack it.
Sarah: I'm the only one that still isn't sure what they want
do as a career. I don’t really have a strong subject where I would actually
want to take it that one step further. I would need to look at the options I
have and choose something that would seem like it would interest me. I never
really sat down and mapped out my future.
What can we expect
from your first album?
Sarah: We've been able to get collaborations with two big
names in the industry right now but we’re not allowed to say who. But what I
can say is that it was such a shock to think that these artists wanted to
collaborate with us because they have collaborated with a LOT of people in the
industry.
Bukola: Our album is full on R&B. It’s the genre we’re
familiar with, seeing as we've grown up with the genre of music playing around
us. We've got the slow jams going on and some upbeat songs which you can dance
to in the clubs.
Hannah: We've written 3 of our songs which are included in the
album and in the songs we talk about different things. There’s a song that’s
about the struggles single mothers have, which we feel a lot of people can
relate to because that’s how they grew up. We've got another song that is about
female independency and how women don’t need men. That’s kind of what we’re
representing as a group because we feel women objectify themselves to men when
they don’t need to. The other song that we wrote is one of the upbeat songs
which is basically saying forget about the stress from the week and turn up for
the weekend.
What is the biggest
thing you would like to happen to Ebony Align?
Hannah: I wouldn't mind having a sold arena concert because
at least then you know you've made it. I wouldn't mind having a sold out tour
but that’s just me being ambitious.
Sarah: I think making it in the states would be a massive
thing because of the fact not a lot of British acts make it. The biggest
current one I can think of is One Direction but when it comes to female girl
groups, I don’t think any has anything like that but they are getting there
slowly. I think America needs us to be honest.
Bukola: To still be in the industry in say 10-15 years and
to have a global fan base would be amazing.
What can we expect
from Ebony Align in the future?
Hannah: We’re going to going around the country to do some appearances to promote our new
single ‘Hear Me’ then in March 2014 we’re going to have our first tour hitting
all the major cities around the country.
Sarah: We’re really excited for it all.
Bukola: We hope all our fans come to see us during our tour.
