We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amélie G. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amélie, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

One of the biggest risk I took was to leave my country, drop everything (uni, my band, etc) and move to London after winning a scholarship for a music school. When I decided to do this competition, my drums teacher told me I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t have the level for this school. But I knew I would regret it if I didn’t try so I went for it and against all expectations, received an email : congratulations, you start the school in 3 weeks.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

From a small village of France, Amélie started drums lessons aged 6, learning jazz. She quickly found the passion and joined her first metal band aged 14, followed by a first tour two years later. In 2014, her life took a turn. After graduating from a Bachelor’s degree in psychology, she won a European competition for a scholarship to study in the prestigious music school of BIMM in London. She fell in love with the city and developed her career to a professional level while graduating her Bachelor’s degree in Popular Music Performance.
Since then, Amélie toured all over the globe as a drummer from Europe to China, USA and Africa. She discovered hybrid drumming with all its possibilities and specialised in energetic music from heavy metal to pop rock and electronic music.
As well as touring, Amélie built a strong experience in studio sessions and remote recording. When she’s not playing, you can find her backstage working as stage and drums technician, or managing a label for the US charity A Leg To Stand On.
Finally, Amélie compose and records her own music for her solo project.
Today, she provides services internationally from studio/remote recording to live performances, video editing and stage work.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We talked about taking risks earlier.Taking risk is accepting the consequences of the best and the worse, and turn it into the best anyway, cause it doesn’t always turn out the way we hoped. Three years ago I was living my best life in London, living out of music and I got a potential job offer in Berlin for a music school. When Covid and lockdowns started, work was missing and I got the perfect job offer : a 12 months contract with album composition, recording and touring all over Europe. I thought what a perfect way to transition from London to Berlin! So I quit everything in London and started working in Switzerland at the singer’s house. We composed the album but then, all the borders got shot down because of covid. We couldn’t go record it neither tour. Everything fell apart. After over 6 years of living the dream in London, I had to go back to my parents house, in the deep French countryside. All my projects and friends were abroad and with the borders shut, I couldn’t play in any of my projects anymore. For the first time in 10 years, I didn’t have a band. I took a risk and I fell. That was tough, feeling like I’ve lost everything I’ve been building during all these years.

It took me a month or two to accept my new situation. I knew I couldn’t stop music so I thought “let’s start all over again”. I got in touch with musician friends I haven’t seen in years and started building a new network. In the meantime I needed to work but I was determined to only do something music related. So I started to work as roadie for venues around my town.

Three years later, I’m back on my feet. I started a project of my own, I’m touring with new bands, I sometimes work as stage technician and I just started managing a label for a charity. I am more than ever growing, and even though my life took a different turn that I though, I am proud of myself for where I am now, for not giving up and always move forward.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

When I receive a job offer, my main motivation is “will I learn something, or will this job help to improve myself?” What I love about music is that it’s a never ending learning journey. There is no such thing as “I know music” cause there is always something to learn. Every now and then I discover an entire new world of things I don’t know about and that is probably the best fuel to my creative journey. My curiosity brings me to new places, makes me work with different people and try different ways of working.
There is also a part of me who needs to prove to myself that I am capable. The first single I’ve released under my name was mainly as a challenge to myself. As I’ve always played for other people, I needed to prove to myself that I was able to create a song on my own, record it, release it and make a video with it. And thanks to the support of my friends and family I di it! And now a second one is coming soon.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ameliegdrummer.wixsite.com/website
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ameliegdrummer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ameliegdrummer/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliegdrummer/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ameliegdrummer
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDlHCjB85FYpmUcChT0Hzgw
• Other: TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@ameliegdrummer

Image Credits
Alain Boucly 8 Path Studio Rorold