Interview: CIMORELLI, Brooklyn Bowl, London (Part 2)

Read on for Part 2 of my interview with Cimorelli (you can read Part 1 here, and a review of their London concert here) – we talk about Little Mix, underrepresented artists, life advice, and leaving a legacy.

CC: I’m back with Cimorelli! So ladies, I’m interested to know, in terms of music, what kind of artists are you listening to at the moment?

D: I really like Little Mix right now. I love them.

A: I love Sam Hunt, Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan. We all love them.

CC: It’s interesting you mention Little Mix, Dani, because they’re obviously one of the UK’s biggest girl groups, so maybe you two could do a joint tour at some point in the future.

D: I would cry.

C: That would probably be really good. Like our fanbases are probably really similar too. I think my favourite artist right now is Astrid S – she’s from Norway. She’s my favourite right now. It’s kind of like chill electronic pop. I’m obsessed with her.

CC: That’s cool that you’ve picked her because I’m really interested to know if there’s any underrepresented artists that you think are out there who deserve recognition.

C: Oh yeah, definitely Astrid. Like some of her songs are really big, but she personally isn’t a super well-known name and she should be. Everyone should love her.

La: I think this group called Wet are so good, but they’re not very well known. They have songs in like TV shows but they don’t have mainstream success yet.

CC: And obviously you guys did your whole music career quite uniquely by coming through YouTube even before that became a thing. Do you think that’s a good way to get your name out there?

C: Yeah, cause I mean anyone can do it, but it is rough.

D: It’s definitely harder now. I guess you could say it was a little easier for us – this was before I’d even joined the band – but when these guys started posting videos there was not as much competition, but now everyone is seeing that it’s a good idea, so everyone is doing it.

La: And it’s interesting because even record labels are telling their new artists to go out and build a following on social media, so it’s like the way to do it now.

CC: Well we’re all glad that you managed to get in there ahead of the curve then! And you mentioned at the start Katherine that you’ve also got a book coming out soon. Can you tell me a bit more about that?

K: Oh my gosh, I’m so excited for our book. Basically, our book was kind of born of our fans asking us for advice all the time. So literally on Twitter, people would DM us and be like “I need advice, can you please help me with this problem?,” thousands and thousands of them. And it was all different things, like family advice, life advice, boy advice, friendship advice. So we sat down one day about a year ago and were like we should write a book of advice. And we brainstormed what topics people asked us about and what would be helpful. We started writing it probably five or six months ago.

C: Kind of stuff that we wished we’d know, stuff that would be helpful for other people who are like “who do I ask, I don’t have an older sister, I don’t know what to say, I can’t ask my family.” What we realised was that a lot of the fans, they’re not very close with their families, a lot of them don’t have anyone to go to, so we were like we need to give them something that  they need that we wish we’d had when we had the same questions.

K: Yeah, so it’s called Lessons Learned, and it comes out in December through pledgemusic.com/cimorelli – you can preorder it, and I think it’s going to be so fun! We 100% wrote the entire thing, and I edited it, so it’s 100% our writing.

C: We were waiting for a while and then realised all you need to do is just write it!

K: It’s really cute! I’m so excited for it to come out.

CC: Do you feel a lot of pressure having to provide advice to your young fans?

C: I think so, but we don’t come at it from an angle that’s like “this is all the answers to life.” We more come at it saying, this is what has happened in our lives, this is what we know you’ve been asking about and this is what we wish we’d have known. So here is what we’ve been through, take it or leave it, but it’s helped us and hopefully it helps you! If not, then sorry, but if it does then great!

L: Yeah, there’s even like a disclaimer in there that we’re not mental health professionals, we can’t advise you on a mental illness, but here’s our experience, and if that helps you then great! There definitely is an amount of pressure but you have to get over that and just realise you can be helpful, even if you don’t have all the answers.

C: It takes a confidence to put myself out there and my ordinary experience out there. Most people are scared and think their ordinary experience can’t help anyone, it’s too average, but that’s a bad mindset to have. You might as well try, you know?

CC: That certainly sounds like it’s going to be useful for a lot of your fans. One thing which might not be mentioned in the book, but I’m sure a lot of people would love to know is aside from being very talented singers and songwriters, do you have any secret talents that your fans might not know?

D: Lauren is really good at drawing, but she never shows anyone her drawings because she doesn’t think they’re that good, but she’s so good! And Lisa’s really good at painting.

La: Amy’s really good at sewing, and no one knows that!

A: Dani’s really good at making clothes and costumes and things, it’s kind of crazy.

K: This is quite random, but I’m really good at fundraising for a cause. I’m happy to go up there and talk to people about the cause because I’m really passionate about it, so I’m good at that!

CC: So creative! And then my final question for this interview is what’s the one question you wish you were asked in questions but never have been?

C: Ooh, that’s a good question! I have no idea…

L: I just wish people would ask more about my political views and my religion…No, I’m totally kidding!

CC: Haha, I might leave that!  

D: When I was younger I always used to want people to ask about boys, and who our celebrity crushes were. Cause then I could talk about Luke Hemmings.

CC: Well, 5 Seconds of Summer did manage to make their way into the conversation today!

C: What about like what’s the legacy you wanted to leave? If you were on your deathbed… I would hope that people would want to be more courageous because of things that I’d taught them, and they’d want to be more out there with their feelings and their true selves. They’d be brave enough to put themselves out there.

D: Yeah, I think we’d all second that. Just wanting people to be proud of who they are and to know that they’re not alone. We all deal with this stuff, and we can learn from one another.

CC: I’d have to say that’s one of the most interesting answers to that question that I think I’ve ever heard – it’s no wonder your fans ask you for advice! Thank you all so much for taking the time to join me tonight, and I look forward to seeing all of the exciting things that come for you over the next few years!

All: Thank you so much!

Thank you to Cimorelli for being so accommodating and answering all of my questions – I hope you enjoyed learning more about Cimorelli as much as I did! Stay tuned on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more reviews and interviews, and make sure to check out @cimorelliband if you haven’t already!