Fresh new soul act Mariella West have just released their debut single – and it’s a corker. They’re unsigned, but are self-releasing the music as professionally as they can. We met with lead singer Ella Machen (confusing, we know) to find out about the band’s history, and to learn about the band’s experience of their first foray into the industry.

Why is the band named Mariella West?
Well, I’ve always been a solo musician and I’ve always written songs on my own. Me and the guys met at BIMM on the same course, and in some ways they are my band: if one of them were to leave, it wouldn’t be the end of me or the band. But in any case, Mariella West isn’t actually my name, although everyone assumes it is. It’s like a stage name for me. There’s a story to it. I’m actually just Ella, but my mum was going to call me Mariella. I’m actually named after Ella Fitzgerald. So then West came along because that’s my nan’s maiden name. Mariella West is essentially a person that I could have been, which I always thought was really interesting as a songwriter, because it gives me a platform where I can be the artist that I want to be, instead of just Ella Machen, which is my real name.

How long were you playing solo before you put the band together?
I was quite a late bloomer with music. I started songwriting only about two and a half years ago, when I picked up guitar. Before that I was always a singer, back to when I was much younger. I started off being really into R&B when I was young, listening to my mum’s music, Jill Scott, Aretha Franklin. So basically I started singing very young, and songwriting very late. When I look at my idols, they all had record deals by the time they were 19, 20. At the start I would write music in my bedroom, trying to learn guitar. I lived with Ben and Chris, my two guitarists, and I approached them and said, “I’ve started songwriting, do you want to hear what I’ve got” – and it went from there, really. We started adding drums, and bass, and building up to a set. We only played our first gig in May last year. So I never actually played solo, it’s always been with a band.

Do the band all write as a unit?
No. Basically I’ll sit down, write a progression, the lyrics and the melody on my guitar, then I’ll bring it to the band and we’ll arrange it together. Our relationship has changed and developed as I develop more as a songwriter, and as I work on my guitar more. But we all have fun, so it’s good.

How easy do you find writing a song?
It can be hard to finish a song. Sometimes they just flow, and sometimes you think “this is good, but I have no creativity right now”. My set is about six songs that are finished. But to be honest some of them are quite old, and I’m just waiting to finish new material. I’ve got endless unfinished songs, and books and books full of lyrics. I find that lyrics are the biggest things for me, and I’m quite comfortable with lyrics, but sometimes I’ll be in the position where I know what I want to say, but don’t know the right way to say it.

What tracks have you released?
Well, my first real single ‘Sober’ is out since the 31st. I released a song called ‘My Little Baby’ – which is actually the first song I ever wrote – last year when I started getting my social media on. But I recently took it down, except a live session we recorded at the Metway which is on YouTube. That’s not on Soundcloud or Spotify or anything, because I like the idea of ‘Sober’ being the first thing most people hear from me. I’ve got loads and loads of other demos, but I’m quite a perfectionist, so I like stuff to be ready, and if I release it I want it to be perfect. That’s why I’m so excited to be releasing ‘Sober’. But I’ve got so many songs, and so many demos, that it’s just getting to a point where it’s the right time to release some material. I was just recording an acoustic version of a song I play live all the time and a lot of people say is their favourite. So I decided to record it and I’ll release it a little after ‘Sober’.

What’s been your experience of releasing something professionally?
This is the first one that’ll be on Spotify and iTunes, and it’s a painful process if you don’t know what you’re doing. I went through CD Baby, because I’m not signed or anything, I’m just a little artist. So I did most of it by myself, although BIMM helped a lot with stuff like what to do with aggregators, which I had no idea about.

Tell me about the other recording of ‘Sober’ that you can find online.
That’s for the Clockwork Owl Sessions. You can hear it with a very different, acoustic arrangement. But honestly, the recording is quite different. It’s very keys heavy, whereas in the band I don’t have a keys player. I had one in and out, but nothing set in stone. Although that’s something else I’d like to develop in my music, make it more keys heavy.

Are you playing a release show?
I was going to do one, but I’m taking a break from gigging at the moment anyway. I’m focusing more on the social media kind of things, because there’s this huge industry-wide technological change going on. You can do so much online, and if you do it right then you can sell out your first gig. In the beginning it was really important to me to play a lot, get my confidence up, and find out what kind of artist I wanted to be. And now I’ve done that, I’m trying to focus on getting a wider appeal online before gigging again. But I do have a gig on the 12th April at a QM Records gig supporting a good friend of mine, Giorgia May, for her EP launch. That’s the only gig on the cards for a while, for me.

What else would you want to work on?
Well I’m not doing anything at the moment, but I’d like to get more into the production and engineering side of things. There’s such a lack of female producers in the industry… I’m not saying I want to be a producer, because that’s a big ask! But I’d like to get more behind the scenes, partly so I know what I’m doing with my own material as well.

You mentioned a lack of female producers. Do you feel that this is a problem across the whole music industry?
It seems to me that there’s not very many women in the middle. There’s quite a few female superstars. Although I do think it’s coming up. You get people like Lapsley, who’s signed to XL. She started off in her bedroom, produces everything herself, and she’s only around 19. I wish I could’ve started out so strong! Then there’s people like Jessie Ware, who were writing and producing way before they got signed. Maybe there’s a lot of women who are working in the music industry that we don’t hear about, and we just don’t know their names because they’re standing behind the artist. It’s hard to tell.
Ben Noble

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Twitter: twitter.com/mariella_west