Singer, songwriter, and musician Ali Angel released her debut EP on June 17: a culmination of genres and experiences.

The stage of elementary school auditoriums served as an awakening for Los Angeles singer, songwriter, and musician Ali Angel. A combination of seeking solos in school plays and writing stories led Angel down the path of music.

Angel was influenced at a young age by singers such as Amy Winehouse, Elton John, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and other bands and musicians from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Similar to Angel’s music taste, her debut EP includes songs of different genres from pop to soul.

“My EP is a collection of the strongest songs I had written at that point in my career and the ones that were closest stylistically to what I wanted my sound to be,” Angel said. “I feel like for a lot of artists and musicians when you first start writing, the first stuff you write isn’t always what you want to be writing. … With the songs, it was the first group that I finally felt like ‘Okay, I think I’m getting across the style, the retro, soul, pop, bluesy sound that I wanted.”

When songwriting and crafting the compositions for the pieces in her EP, Angel followed a creative process that entailed recording on Voice Memos. Angel usually writes on guitar, though recently has been writing on piano for her EP’s ballad: “Loving You Lately.” After writing, she takes the song to her co-producer and band to play the song live.

“That’s what gives all my music, at least in this project, the very organic live band, retro, old school sound,” Angel said. “That’s the way we write the compositions. We figured out the drums and the bass and the guitar and everything as a band and how it would sound live, and then base that off of the way we record it.”

While producing her EP, the pandemic struck, altering the way Angel and her team finished the songs. The pandemic caused delays in production, and instead of working with her band in person, they would send pre-recorded takes to each other to piece the songs together.

“It forces you to accommodate not always being in person and as frequent which can be frustrating,” Angel said. “The excitement of the new songs that you just (wrote) fades when it takes longer for them to be worked on and hear them over and over again, as opposed to writing a song, then recording it, and producing it quickly.”

Another challenge that occurred was various creative blocks while songwriting or composing. Certain songs in the record, including “Hideaway”, were written over the course of one or two days, while other songs took months to rework.

“The challenge of not getting bored and distracted and moving on to a new song and letting things be halfway done, that’s what I feel like will happen to me a lot,” Angel said. “The songs are definitely a combination of good songs that came out quick, but then also songs where I was like, ‘Okay, let’s rework it until we finally get it right.’ … The pandemic made our lives a lot more boring, so there weren’t as many exciting things going on, but it made me more introspective. The stuff that did happen and the experiences I did write about were more intense and dramatic.”

Angel often shied away from speaking up during the music composition process due to being “only woman in the room” when working with her band. Angel learned to “trust (her) intuition” through working on her EP.

“Every time I would give feedback that might have been a dramatic change to the song, it always ended up being that everyone was like, ‘Oh, this is better,’” Angel said. “I learned (to trust) myself and my process and what I initially feel about the songs, and also be open-minded to the direction my collaborators want to take it. A balance of allowing the song to change and evolve, and not being stubborn, but then also sticking to this is my music. It’s my work.”

Angel is performing songs off of her EP for live shows, including one in Soho House on July 25 with musician Oliver Roman. In the future, Angel wants to perform as an opener for a touring band and continue “putting out stuff and seeing the growth.”

“Allowing yourself to be open to who you are and embracing it and going after what scares you,” Angel said, referring to what she hopes listeners take away from her music. “This EP was super optimistic and daydream, a mix of my sweet side, but also my sassy side. “I Can Call” is about setting boundaries and ending a toxic friendship and stopping people-pleasing. My next EP is about embracing my sexuality and going through a breakup and being vulnerable. I want to show that it’s okay to be vulnerable, express, and showcase yourself completely and wholly as you are to everybody. When you do, that inspires the people around you to do the same.”