I like things that are over the top and subtle at the same time.

Andra Day

Categorized in : Like Things Top Time

I'm grateful and enjoying the ride.

enjoying ride grateful

My style icons are Lucille Ball for her bouffant hair and all the updos, James Dean for his rockabilly style - the denim and rolled-up T-shirt thing. And I am also inspired by Dita Von Teese and Gwen Stefani. Their style is retro, but it's still very feminine at the same time.

i-am style hair time

Soul music is true to its name. It's music that connects to your soul, your spirit. When music resonates with people's spirit like that, when people can emotionally connect with something or it helps to heal them, transform them, that never goes out of style. People will always need something to relate to.

style music soul people

I am happy that I can challenge myself in various fields.

i-am-happy i-am myself happy

It's hard to remember my childhood without remembering music.

hard childhood music remember

I think gratitude is a big thing. It puts you in a place where you're humble.

think you gratitude humble

I'm inherently a chameleon... to not evolve is to not live.

inherently live chameleon evolve

I gleaned different style ideas over the years. In Southern California, there is a big rockabilly sub-culture. So when I would go to car shows, I would see women dressed like this. I had a teacher in high school that always had her Bette Paige bangs.

women style car teacher

I search for items that have history, like vintage finds - I love fur kitten-heel house slippers from the 1950s - and pieces from fashion houses that have been around for a long time, like Chanel and Dior.

fashion time love history

That's why I loved Dinah Washington. She sung jazz, but they called her the Queen of the Blues. She had the control and sophistication of jazz in her note selection and how to attack a song or certain lines, but then attacked it with a painful force of blues behind it. That's why I admired her so much, because of that versatility.

queen loved control song

I tell people all the time - I'm a very spiritual person, so I pray over everything that I do including creating music, a new song.

music time song people

At a young age, I wanted to be a prima ballerina and had these grand ideas that I would go study at Juilliard. It's something I laugh about now.

laugh go age ideas

I was heavily influenced by big voices when I was younger. People like Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Patti Labelle really spoke to me. When I got older, I was into Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and Lauryn Hill, but it wasn't until I started working with a voice coach that I really dove into jazz music.

hill me music people

No matter how dark or precarious it may seem, continue to pursue your truth.

your truth matter dark

I loved Lauryn Hill; I loved the Fugees.

lauryn-hill loved hill

As a singer, if I'm in a room that is too cold, I kind of freak out, so I actually like the humidity, and I love the heat.

singer like cold love

I like very, very dramatic eyeliner: I take it all the way out to my eyebrows.

like dramatic eyebrows way

I'm not going to put myself in a box.

put going box myself

Whichever chord progressions move me, whether it's rock, jazz, doo-wop or soul, I'm going to put it together and not be worried about whether people can put it in a lane or not.

me soul together people

I always felt more comfortable with a full face of makeup.

face more always makeup