By Grace Frost
Assumption College Kilmore, ACK, 17-year-old Amelia Vlasveld last month released her debut single ‘For you’ after receiving an overwhelming stream of support from her classmates, teachers and the extended school community.
Ms Vlasveld, who is music captain at ACK, took to the recording industry under the name ‘Valeida’, a combination of her middle name and first letter of her last name.
‘For you’, released on May 4, calls to early 2000s Sam Phillips with indie/folk attributes, before building to an angsty mid-section complete with a guitar solo and harmonies.
Ms Vlasveld wrote the track during the span of a month late last year about the romantic and platonic love she had experienced throughout her life.
“You meet people in your life and they make you want to get out of bed, they make you want to live life and they make you want to better yourself,” she said.
Her mullings were reflected in the opening line of the chorus, where she sings ‘I’ll wake up for you, make my bed ‘cause of you’.
The song came to fruition through ‘a process of trial and error’, where Ms Vlasveld implemented ideas from her teachers and mentors about how the final song should sound.
She said completing the song would have been impossible without the help of her friends, teachers and family members.
Ms Vlasveld credited Corey Mills, a teacher at ACK, for giving her the opportunity to record and connecting her with a producer.
“I’d record all my stems and ideas in my bedroom and send them to my producer through Corey,” she said.
“He was giving me this experience so I’d be able to do it on my own next time.”
Ms Vlasveld said she had not expected so many people to support her with the release of her track.
One of Ms Vlasveld’s best friends, Holly Purnell, captured the cover photo and shot promotional videos, junior music students helped Ms Vaslveld add her lyrics to music services Spotify and Genius, her sister helped run her music accounts and social media, and her mother secured her gigs.
“So many teachers have been showing their classes my song and students have come up to me – people I don’t even know – telling me that they really liked my song and that they’ve got it in their playlist and have been listening to it,” she said.
Ms Vlasveld said she looked forward to helping others with releasing their music when she gets an opportunity.
“I’m so open to helping other people achieve what I’ve been able to achieve,” she said.
Ms Vlasveld also regularly plays at Oddfellows Cafe and the Royal Oak Hotel in Kilmore.
To listen to Ms Vlasveld’s debut single, people can visit valeida.hearnow.com.
To follow her music journey, people can find Ms Vlasveld under her artist name Valeida on Instagram at www.instagram.com/vlaleida.
