F  L  A  U  N  T

24 year old Celeste has the wisdom and the controlled quivers of someone far beyond her years. In the classic spirit of the soul greats, a listen can easily evoke thoughts of Ella, Etta, Otis and even Amy. The LA born songstress spent her formative years in West London with her mom and grandparents. By the time she turned 18 she began to sing with friends covering a broad spectrum of artists from The Clash, Alice Coltrane, Janice Joplin and Ray Charles, before striking on her own with a set of original songs. Recently while touring around the states we caught up with her to get to know more on this soulful voice of Gen Z. **What artists are you listening to right now?** Right this second I’m listening Peter Sarstedt a song called “Where do you go to my lovely” I’ve listened to it two nights in a row before I’ve gone to bed, I also watched a live performance of Edith Piaf singing this song called “Padam” I like how theatrical she can be, other than that I’d say I’m listening to a lot of James Blake at the moment, Solange, Tirzah, Travis Scott, Puma Blue, Menahan Street Band, Connan Mockasin Kendrick Lamar, to be honest I listen to so much different stuff everyday it’s hard to name them all but I’d say these are the things that I’m listening to more regularly at the moment  **How did you start your musical career?** I started writing songs when I was about 16 and taking it more seriously at aged 18, I started off putting some rough stuff on soundcloud and that sort of opened the doors for me going up to London, I feel like my real “career” is really beginning to  start now I felt as though that was almost like a big learning curve. **What are your other passions outside of music?**  I’m trying to learn french at the moment but really when I’m not in the studio I just try to spend as much time as possible around the people i adore.  **What is the inspiration for the song and visual “Lately”?** Lately is a song about how life & love at points can be monotonous, I was really inspired by how old films would romanticise the most simple everyday scenarios  So I came up with a number of scenes that I guess were things that had filtered into my head from my everyday life, I sketched them out and explained to the director Sam Hiscox how i imagined we would build sets in a plain white studio space, he did an a amazing Job on bringing my ideas into reality, we worked together on transitions, how each shot would go into the next, I had a crush on the boy in the background on the telephone in the video so I cast him as the love interest hahaha  **What is your favorite part about being a singer/songwriter?** Getting to meet new  people everyday especially when I’m doing shows, and also the moment in the studio when you realise you’ve made something quite special and it’s mutually understood with the people your working with!   **How did growing up in Brighton influence your style and sound?** I’m not sure if Brighton itself had a huge influence on my sound and style, I think that mostly came from the music I heard growing up, but it definitely inspired my attitude to making music, Brighton always felt free so I never felt like I couldn’t just be myself.  **What do you have in store this year?** Well I have an EP that’s coming out on the 22nd March, definitely more shows, more music and some more visual stuff coming soooon * * * Polaroid photos and collage by Celeste.