Meet Amanda Brite | Singer/Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amanda Brite and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda, how do you think about risk?
Taking risks is very important. Something I’ve always believed is that you have to have faith. Sometimes I see the potential of something more clearly than the current situation. For example, I saw myself doing better at an entertainment career than I saw myself doing at school or work. Even to this day, sometimes I’ll skip out on making money for the day to record or have a meeting about music. It might look like a risk to the naked eye, but to me it’s a greater risk not to do it. It would be putting myself in a situation where I’m less likely to succeed. So technically, the way I see it, my risks are caution, and my faith is realistic.
 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Well, my music is diverse, to say the least. I’ve made all different styles, from R&B to pop-rock to experimental. I think what sets me apart, though, are my melodies. People tell me sometimes that even though my songs sound different, you can always tell when I wrote the melody. I believe that the production of the song, including instruments, are a big opportunity to convey emotion, too. Yes, lyrics can do that easily, but sometimes having a string part verses a guitar can make you feel a certain way, so I try to pay attention to that and use arrangement and what shape the notes are in (like when they go higher or lower) to get feelings across.

What I’m most excited about, I would say, is travel. I’ve always wanted to use music as a means to explore, travel, and learn about the world and how it works.

Where I am today isn’t super far, but I got here just by learning to be braver and contact people. I built musical skills a long time ago, but planning skills are what got anyone to hear about them.

Something I want people to know about me is that I am very driven, and that I never lose hope, and it’s very hard for me to give up on something. From when I was 5 or so, I consciously decided to divert my brain in a certain way to hear theme music instead of express strong emotions. I worked on developing my songwriting skills and had high standards I wouldn’t waver from until I thought I had reached a point of reliability. I ended up hearing songs vividly, fully produced and finished, and wrote them by hearing them in order, and by concentrating hard enough I could get the song to keep playing.

The most challenging thing I’ve had to do is convert the internal to the external. My biggest fear was speaking out loud, or showing other people something that meant a lot to me, because I didn’t want to be vulnerable and have something I loved be taken away.

The way I’m currently overcoming that is doing just another form of what I’ve always done: inner work. The way I think of it, I’m slowly learning to open my heart, and be less afraid every time people look at me or pay attention. I’m also focusing on words like “peace”, which I used to write down every few days and pray to experience, “boldness”, after I found peace, to work on being verbally authentic, and that’s where I’m at now.

A couple things I’ve learned were these:

1) Be patient with yourself. The more time you allow things, the quicker they can happen (like with developing a skill or praying for peace), probably because you’re putting less pressure on it so there’s room for change to take place.

2)”You’ve got to come down to come up”, meaning the more I let go of my ego on the inside, the braver I appeared on the outside, so by letting go of arrogance you can also let go of insecurity. Subconsciously you’ll start to feel equal to others, which makes everything easier.

3) Inner work, works. Working on a general skill can help you with a lot of things in your everyday life. For example, learning how songs are written helped me get hired for a lot of things. Learning how to experience the vague concept of peace helped me empathize, encourage other people, etc. in more than one instance and way.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
For anyone visiting the area, there is an awesome Chinese Lantern Festival that happens around Christmas time! The best food place that isn’t anywhere else I’ve lived before is called Mellow Mushroom. They have unique pizza, and vegan options. Also, there is a club in Raleigh called Imurj. They’re literally underground, a staircase down from the sidewalk, and they have a bar, a small stage, some artwork hanging on the walls, and an open mic. I like their comfortable seats and warm lighting. Usually it’s a relaxed vibe with great independent musicians that come to play.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out five people, as quickly as I can:

1) My mom, Denise Piese, who you’ve interviewed before for her artwork and who recommended me for this interview.

2) Jenavieve Hawks, another artist who has been a supportive friend and played music with me for the past 3 years.

3) My grandmother, Patricia Touma. She has always believed I could be successful and said I was talented, and was one of the only other musicians in the family when I was growing up.

4) Steven Boyer, who has been a great partner and helped produce, mix and master some of my songs.

5) Zaki Ali, who I’ve been recording with for almost 10 years.

All talented people who I have been lucky to ever have positive relationships with. You can find them online as follows:

Instagram: @earthdesignsstudio
@jenavievehawks
@steveboyerjr
@zakialinj

Google Search: The Adventures of Ish and Mish (my grandma’s books)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda.brite.music/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/search_results/?q=amanda+brite

Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCnrhl728rpYkDeDGDZz0uAw

Other: Personal Youtube Channel: https://m.youtube.com/@amandabrite1267

Image Credits
Jared White (Dress on the ground photo, leaning on the dock photo.) LDO Photography (Costume and stick-holding photos.)