Interview with Crystal Ignite

CRYSTAL IGNITE is about to wrap up her eleven date national run of shows in support of her powerful new single ‘Everything You Break’. With more writing and recording in front of her, the former BELLUSIRA front-woman spoke to Amnplify’s Pauli Dee about the the single, the tour and what the future has in store.

Hey Crystal thanks heaps for chatting to us. How’s your day going?

Yeah really good. Life’s really good. Busy, but good!
I took a bit of a break last year but since January, I’ve really been pumping it.
I mean I’ve been writing the whole time, but now I’m really busy preparing for this!

By “this” you mean your single “Everything You Break” right?

Yeah. So I wrote this song ages ago… I think it was 2015 and it was originally going to be about something else, but then I revisited it a while later and changed the topic a little bit. The chorus melody stayed the same, I just changed some lyrics, so I finished that off, then recorded it in L.A. Originally it was a pop version, but I really wanted to do another version that was more me and more suited to the vibe of my sound. We used some of the original vocals, but we redid some of the sounds, like I wanted live drums, not machined drums. I wanted it to be more real and tribal. I wanted it more about the music and less about the vocals & what Ben (Moody) did with the guitar was just phenomenal. That guy is just amazing. It’s crazy for me to think that the guy that wrote Evanescence’s breaking album worked on my track & you can hear that sound. The song may not sound anything like Evanescence, but you can hear the sound, which is so epic

How are you feeling now that the single’s finally out?

I feel awesome! It’s just the at the beginning stages, you know I’m just getting my name out there and I’ve got publicists on board, it’s going to be quite a process, but we’re definitely on the right track & I’m stoked because now I have music under my name that I’ve released and it’s just my vision. It’s very different to when you’re in a band. When you’re in a band, you have to compromise, even though as a vocalist, you can be perceived as being the spearhead of the project, you still have to compromise, so in Bellusira, I didn’t always love all the songs. Most of them I did, but there was definitely a couple that I had to compromise on & I don’t have to do that now, so that’s awesome! Now if there’s a song that I do, it’s because I love it & it has my tick of approval!

Have you got more recording that you’re in the process of doing now?

Yeah, I’m actually going in to record an EP in June. I have to launch a crowd-funder campaign because I’m funding all this myself. It’s really hard, you know I haven’t had any income coming in because this is all brand new up until I’ve done this tour, so all my expenses have been going on payment plans and now I’m starting to pay it all off, but I have complete faith in what I’m doing. I’m not afraid to max my credit card out because I really believe in what I’m doing, so people, come to my shows! Hahaha

Have you got plans to go back to the U.S?

I will, but probably not until about August. I’m hoping to spend my birthday here & I’m really enjoying it here.
I don’t really need to be in the states until the tour’s lined up. I’ve got a great publicity team in the U.S that I’m working with at the moment and they’re great. They’re helping with finding a great manager over there & a great agent & all that sort of thing, so while they’re all working over there, hopefully I can go over & just jump straight into the tour & then I guess tour season will finish around November. I’m not going to come back to Australia for this summer. If there’s off time from touring, I’ll be using that time to record over there and get the album done.

You weren’t planning to stay in Australia for this long, where you?

No! It’s funny how things work out. This may sound funny to some people, but I do have a relationship with my spirit guides. Everyone has spirit guides & I’m very in touch with mine & when I need to know something, they usually let me know.
So I had a fine in the U.S that I forgot to pay & I had a court date. I was a bit hazy at the time, because I had some health things going on and out of nowhere, after not thinking about it for months I came to this sudden realisation at like 9am that the court day was today, so me being me, always doing things at a hundred miles an hour, you know my biggest challenge is to slow down and be patient! Anyway, I jumped the gun a little bit. I had my Visa, but I forgot to go & get the stamp, so I flew all the way to the U.S and because of the stamp, I wasn’t allowed in the country! They were like “yeah thats nice, but you need the stamp, you’ll have to fly back home. You can’t go to an embassy here or outside the country, you have to get on a plane & fly back to Australia!”
So I was devastated. I hadn’t showered over the 2 seventeen hour flights, it was so awful and I balled my eyes out when I got back. I was thinking “I’m a good person, I should have good karma, why is this happening? Why didn’t my spirit guides tell me? They just let it go,” but as fate would have it, it all happened for a reason & it was the BEST thing that could’ve happened to me. I was MEANT to stay here. I worked with Chris and we got all these songs written and on top of all that I got together with my now girlfriend, who is coming over to the states with me. She’ll be doing her own thing over there, but she’ll be there with me, so I’ll be with a soulmate again & I’m just so happy. I was ready to find a new partner, I had spent a lot of time on my own, working on my own self-love and was ready for a partner and it’s just so cool. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I look back now and think “WOW” sometimes things happen & you think it’s the worst thing ever & you can’t see the bigger picture & then a few months later in hindsight, you go “Oh, that’s why it happened, it’s for the better, I knew I didn’t have bad karma, there WAS a greater plan, I just didn’t see it!” and that was it. I launched the band here, it was way better financially for me to do it here and why not launch this thing that I’m doing from here, from home where I’m from before I head over to the states.

Have you got any plans for a video for this single?

YES! I’ve had someone offer to help out with that & Im just sort of working out what to do. If the crowd-funder generates enough, I’ll definitely do a video… so watch this space!