We sat and talked with the wonderful Lola Carmel and keep dreaming. She is multi-talented, multi-faceted and a hard-working woman. She is unstoppable. For sure, an inspiration.
1) Hi Lola. How have you been?
Good thank you just very tired from working hard in my 9-5 and trying to keep on top of my music and blogging.
2) Could you describe a typical day of you?
I work 3 shifts morning, afternoons and nights on rotation so my sleeping patterns are very odd. If I don’t get enough sleep or too much a typical day consists of waking up and going to work (a car factory) then returning home blogging, answering emails, making plans for my music. When I wake up on time I normally go to the gym.
3) You recently released your new single ‘Dreaming’. What is the story behind this song? Let us know about the writing and the recording process.
Dreaming is about a past relationship when after all was said and done we managed to remain friends (at the time we are now no longer friends lol) but at the time I really did just wish him the best. I listened to the instrumental a few times before I decided to write to it reminded me of a Whitney Houston song for some reason ‘I will always love you’ the instrumental was actually called dreaming so that’s where I got the title from. I wrote dreaming whilst in the bath during my time off work recovering from a knee op. It took me around half an hour to write the basic lyrics it reminded me of lyrics Alicia Keys would sing. I recorded this at my local studio along with around 22 other songs I wrote at the time. Which was for my first project out next summer ‘When life gives you lemons’
Listen to 'Dreaming' HERE
4) Are you a ‘dreamer’ in your real life?
Yes, I daydream a lot and I am definitely a big dreamer, I always have very BIG dreams and ideas but I like to make dreams into reality and really bring them into fruition. I had a dream board I created as my screen saver on my phone with things I dreamed to do and achieve I guess you could also say they were goals. One was to release my first song which I did, another was to go to Florida which I did also and paid for my brother to go too, we visited the Disney parks, universal, all the water parks and Tampa Bay Busch Gardens, I also had a dream to run my own business which is slowly becoming reality through my blogging. I have a dream catcher in my bedroom and I love to sleep! Recently I purchased a dream journal which has the Yggdrasil tree embossed on the front (the tree of life) which was very interesting indeed as I had literally come across the same tree that day for the first time when looking at a tattoo on the late Xxxtentacions forehead. Then the next day when using my oracle cards (tarot cards) came across the same tree and then to top things off my mother told me the following day she wanted to buy a painting for her front room she showed me a picture.. It was the exact same tree... very odd lol. At the time I was looking into lucid dreaming and astral projection. No joy so far with the later but I did start meditating, purchased crystals and started listening to binaural beats before I go to sleep which seems to have a very calming effect on me and put me into a very deep sleep...so deep that I was late for work today!
5) Even though you had a knee injury and were bedridden for 9 weeks, you did not stop working. You wrote 26 new songs. Talk to us about this period in your life. Do you have plans to release them?
I was bedridden for around 2 weeks I was off work for 9 and then returned on light duties. As soon as I knew I was having this op I planned to write songs and eventually record them all and release a project. As soon as I could I started going to the studio every week and made plans to shoot my first music video. I was inspired by Japanese anime and manga. I watched countless clips for ideas. I auditioned dancers for the music video, searched for actors, looked for accommodation and came up with ideas for other music videos and artwork. At this time I started blogging about the music industry and grew my Instagram page to 17k followers. I have released 2 of these songs so far and plan to release 6 more plus a remix od dreaming and my first project when life gives you lemons.
6) Do you have specific themes that you like when you are writing your songs?
Lol, the theme always seems to be love and relationships! I guess that’s what I can relate to and have experience in and that’s what comes to my head when I start writing or it could be those are the emotions that are evoked within me when I hear certain music.
7) Let’s go back to your latest single ‘Dreaming’. Your new music video is amazing. What’s the story behind it and how did you choose the place in Cornwall?
The story behind shooting the video in Cornwall was that I had just paid for my sister to do a videography course as I wanted to cut out the middle man and get my costs down plus my sister does photography so it made sense to me that she would be good at videography, on top of that she is very determined, professional and meticulous.
My family planned to go to Cornwall like they do every year and I thought that would be a great opportunity to shoot the music video as I would be with my sister, we used to frequent Cornwall as children with my ex who the song was about and the places we were going has breath taking scenery especially Kynance cove its very dreamy indeed. The rest of the places we decided to shoot were literally right next to where we were staying.
8) Your sister had a significant involvement in this project because she was the director of the video. Let us know about your relationship. How important is in your life?
I guess we can say we are co-directors I come up with the idea for the scenes and how I want to look and my sister directs me on what to do and how it looks in the moment. I have a very good relationship with my sister she lives in London and I live in Birmingham but we speak every day. My sister is a vital part of my music visual as she obviously shoots the videos now and does all my photography. She also shoots my live acoustics, she spends countless hours editing unpaid and travels with me to places across England shooting for up to two days for free. Working longer hours then, any other videographer I have worked with would be prepared to do. She also gives me feedback on all my songs, honest feedback which is really helpful. It goes without saying, my sister, is a very important person and part of my life I love her unconditionally and even more so for helping me achieve my dreams so selflessly, last year I got her a course to learn how to DJ and I really hope it inspired her to go for her dreams too, she is now doing level 2 and buying her first set of decks so I really hope to see her do her first gig next year lol I will definitely cry! Tears of joy of course.
9) Your debut single ‘Nublet’ had a totally different sound and style in comparison to ‘Dreaming’. What do we have to expect from you?
I really hate to put myself in a box when it comes to genre. I can rap, I can sing, I have pop songs, house songs, rock songs, R&B, I even made a trap song lol I love to just express myself in different ways using different styles and genres.
10) Who are your favourite artists? How do you incorporate their work in your sound?
My favorite artists at the moment are Lil Peep & Trippieredd. At the time of writing these songs for my first project I was very much into Xxxtentacions album 17. I think I was inspired by ‘f*ck love’ a song by Xxxtentacion & Trippieredd when I wrote nublet. I looked into using samples as well inspired by xxxtentacion which you can hear in nublet. I was inspired by Cardi bb and Stormzy to get into writing my own raps. I have always loved rap music especially artists like Tupac. GRowing up my biggest inspiration to sing was Mariah Carey and artists like Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion & Shirley Bassey.
11) Any plans to tour in UK?
I hope to start gigging soon
12) Do you have a special message for your fans?
I love you all, remember to try and stay positive you get back what you put in, look into karmic cycles. Never give up on your dreams anything you want in this world you can have. If you really want it. Always be grateful and say thank you. Believe in fate, everything happens for a reason and I hope your dreams come true :-)
13) Lola thank you very much for the interview.
Thanks for having me guys!