SA Teen Arabella talks about her Debut Single & Awesome Video

This is Arabella Latham’s debut single below – “Like This” – and it’s awesome. She’s 16, from Durban and  has the voice of an über cool angel.

She writes all her own music and lyrics, plays guitar and sings. Here the South African schoolgirl – who’s in Grade 11 – talks to SAPeople about her first guitar, the effect of Taylor Swift, and that inevitable first love.

But first – here’s the video: ‘LIKE THIS’ BY ARABELLA LATHAM

CATCHING UP WITH ARABELLA

How did you become passionate about making music?

I was always a music fan from a really young age, having been introduced to most of the genres by my dad. Because I had quite a broad understanding of the different types of music that exist, I always subconsciously knew how my music was supposed to sound.

I discovered Taylor Swift when I was about 12. For me, this was massive. For so long I had listened to pure pop music and embodied “the pop artist” as the ideal musician, but when I heard Taylor’s music, I heard something suitably commercial, incredibly catchy and extraordinarily real.

And I knew that that was the type of music I wanted to make.

When did you start writing music?

I got my first guitar that year (at the age of 12) and although I had written a few little songs on the piano and had already had a taste of what songwriting is, playing the guitar was a catalyst for my obsession with writing music.

Writing and singing was a hobby at first – something I liked to do when I was bored or had a bit of free time – but it quickly became a lot more than that.

I think at the moment, I write music every single day.

Some days I write it better than on others, but it definitely keeps me sane!

What inspired you to write “Like This”?

I wrote Like This for somebody who means a lot to me in my life right now; it’s about young love or first love.

I think the song for me is that should a relationship come to an end, it’s never really over because you will always care for them.

Tell us about the rapping in “Like This”.

Something I did in this song that I haven’t done before is a actually a bit of rapping. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to try so why not take the risk on your first single?

Which comes first – the lyrics or the melody?

Sometimes when I write a song, it’s the lyrics that come to me first and the melody follows. Other times I’ll find a string of chords that sound really cool on the guitar and then I’ll put lyrics to that.

Writing lyrics is definitely my favourite part of the process. I love poetry, and a song for me, is just like a really long poem.

Where did you record the music video for “Like This”?

The music video was recorded in different locations [Die Strandloper Langebaan; West Coast Petrol Station; Wijnlands Auto Museum] on the coast of Cape Town by director Thomas Neunreither. There was a lot of driving and moving around so we all had to be quite patient on the days we were shooting!

More Info:

Arabella’s website: www.arabellalatham.com

On SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/arabellalatham/like-this-arabella-latham