Alice Phoebe Lou
Alice Phoebe Lou is a Cape Town 21-year-old singer-songwriter in South Africa has been performing on the streets of Berlin since 2013. At TEDx Berlin, a beautiful performance that same year went viral and took her music beyond the German capital. Towards worldwide fame and fortune? Not if she can help it. Alice talks street performance in Europe, social awareness and protest music.
Through in her captivating vocals and stripped back music, her fiercely independent approach to her music has given the singer songwriter a creative confidence that shines. Developing her bluesy, folk sound busking on the streets of Berlin, she has caught the ears of a community of music lovers the world over with her honest storytelling and raw, beautiful voice.
Growing up on a mountainside in South Africa listening to her parent’s records and indulging her love of theatre, arts and music at a local Waldorf school; a formative time that nurtured her independence and desire to experience music of all styles. Being multi-faceted creative upbringing mixed with Alice’s natural wanderlust and in 2010, 16-year-old she made her first journey to Europe during her summer break from school. By inspiration from watching fire dancers in Paris, she began to perform likewise to get enough money to fund her travelling.
This vagabond lifestyle was a creative inspiration and gave Alice an enduring taste for the immediacy of street crowds. Upon her return to South Africa to complete her studies, Alice’s path led her back to Europe all the way to the German capital – Berlin. The city was intoxicating and she immersed herself the freedom of the creative world out there. She roamed between Paris and Amsterdam that summer; experiencing the highs and lows of street performances’ underbelly.
A small amplifier on a trolley and her mesmerising voice and just her guitar, was all she had began busking across Berlin . Her talent is natural and captivating delivery started to garner a cult street following with people coming to see her busk and buy her records. Uncompromising creative community of Berlin also helped Alice grow musically and she collaborated with acoustic, jazz and electronic musicians; including multi-instrumentalist Matteo who quickly became Alice’s live performance companion. Soon Alice Phoebe Lou self-released her first body of work – the Momentum EP – her first collaborative effort recorded between Berlin and Cape Town with five different producers. Although by now interest was sparked with several major labels, Alice’s desire to maintain the creative freedom she had fostered kept her focus on growing her digital community of loyal fans and imagining ever more interesting settings for her intimate live shows.
Produced by Matteo and Kyson, the album is a testament to Alice’s collaborative way of writing and features musicians from South Africa and Europe lending their musical skills and different visual artists producing art works to match each track. The result is an intricately woven pattern of soul, blues and jazz: scattered with retro, beatnik melodies; soothing vocal harmonies and sleazy brass flourishes. Now having spent two years playing intimate gigs across Europe and South Africa, and supporting established like-minded artists like Rodriguez, 2016 will see Alice Phoebe Lou releasing her first full length studio album. Orbit comprises nine jazz-influenced, eclectic tracks recorded between Cape Town and Berlin that encapsulate the freshness of her live style, vagabond spirit and showcase her distinctive, soprano voice.