Amber Mark On Insecurity, Her Next Album, and Learning to Love 'Old Town Road'

Though a thunderstorm sidelined her scheduled set at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago's Union Park this past weekend, singer, songwriter, and producer Amber Mark hasn't let the rain dampen her spirits. The artist beyond 2017's 3:33am and 2018's Conexão EP speaks warmly and effusively because the weather clears and the sun starts to set on a chaotic summer evening.


Mark, who self-produced both 3:33am and Conexão, has steadily earned crucial acclaim along with a widening fanbase for her stirring alt-R&B and do-everything approach to her music. Although this year, in advance of her next project, Mark is starting to bring other creatives into her fold: April's "Mixer," a bouncy summer groove, was produced by "Shallow" songwriter Andrew Wyatt, while her most recent effort, "What If," is a group effort with Jeff Gitelman, whose credits span from work with Chance the Rapper, H.E.R., And Mac Miller.


Though added specifics on her next album remain scarce, Mark understands where she's headed with the project, as it aims to delve into a three-chapter arc of a rising artist in search of their self-confidence. MTV News caught up with the “S P A C E” singer to learn more as she awaited the Isley Brothers’s closing set to cap Pitchfork’s second night.


MTV News: Your most recent single is “What If.” On Instagram you called it your preference song you’ve created so far. Why is that?


Amber Mark: I think just the complete vibe and the message and… I don’t think it’s the most meaningful song I’ve ever created however it’s certainly the one I bop to the most. I just feel like it’s one of these feel-good songs. Some days, I listen to music, and I'm like, “Fuck, I wish I created that!” And that song is one of these songs to me. I’m so happy I was able to be a segment of it, and write half of it, and help with production and stuff like that. It’s pretty crazy that I get to call it mine.


MTV News: Was there a song had in mind as soon as you were making it?


Mark: No, not at all. [Jeff Gitelman] made this beat from scratch, and I just sang a bunch of melodies and gibberish over it, and wrote a hook, and we did the initial verse. I didn’t work on it up until two years later, and this guy, Lincoln Bliss, ended up writing the second verse because I had to go into the studio the following day and I was in a session prior. I didn’t really have time to write a second verse, so I just had my friend Lincoln write it for me.


MTV News: Oh, wow.


Mark: I was kinda nervous! Because he’s a poet, and I had never seen anything, and he was, like, “I’ll just try it.” And I was like, alright, you wanna try it out? I kinda expected it to not be good, although it ended up being really good. I was like, Oh, I guess I’ll use this!


MTV News: How do you think him?


Mark: He actually is — or was — a bartender at my godparent’s restaurant. And we became really good companions, and he kept telling me he was a poet.


MTV News: Having produced your past two assignments, 3:33am and Conexão, what is it like to turn that process over to Jeff Gitelman on “What If” and Andrew Wyatt on “Mixer”? 


Mark: It was hard. Initially I really didn’t like it. It took awhile to like any music I had done with people or maybe get acclimated to working with other people. Although right now I understand it more and I have much less anxiety going into sessions. You just gotta find the correct people, people that you really vibe with. It was hard having a song I didn’t write, with Andrew Wyatt, however he’s such a breathtaking guy and the second I heard the song, it was just a fun... Because I really attempt to have a lot of meaning beyond the things and be really sincere with plenty of stuff I have, however just “Mixer,” as a sole, it was a good vibe. It really felt like a dance tune. I kinda let it go for that one and I’m really happy I did. It’s really weird. You have this mentality once you begin out, No, I just wanna do it on my own. I don’t want anybody's help. But then you just realize, first up and compromising and things like that, you have a whole new set of ears and creativity.


MTV News: What drove your wish to learn to produce? How tough was it to pick up?


Mark: It is still tough. I go into sessions and I visualize these producers just, like, what takes me hours to do, they’re just like... I get frustrated with myself a lot, although it’s a learning experience. Although any time Once I began out wanting to do music and being an artist and writing and stuff like that, I used GarageBand and would just come up with demos and was like, oh, I’ll just show this to a producer and then we can do something with it. This was before I had put anything out. It was two years before I had put out “S P A C E.” Anytime I would go into sessions — [with] random companions of companions or whichever, anyone I could find and would wanna work with me — I never really admired what they would do. So I just learned a lot and accumulated a lot from people and there was one point where I just got really frustrated, toward the end of 2015, where I was like, y’know what? I feel like I know what I’m doing. I can do this on my own. I had just gotten Logic. That’s As soon as I wrote “S P A C E.”


MTV News: That was the initial song you produced?


Mark: That was the initial song I'd finished. I had began “Can You Hear Me?” prior to that nevertheless I never finished it. I just put it out, and then one thing led to another, and then I was like, y’know what? I’m just going to continue producing on my own. And still to this day I prefer it. I get really nervous being in the studio because I feel like I’m not as quick as they are and I take a really long time to really think about what I'd like to write about and why I want to go about doing it structure-wise and stuff like that. So I still like being on my own. I feel like I can be my weird self as soon as it comes to that stuff.


MTV News: You said to Teen Vogue that this next project will be inspired by insecurity. Where does that stem from? Relationships? Self-image? Your career?


Mark: I think it’s all of these things, really. I certainly have moments where I’m like, am I good enough? Or, self-image, physical appearance, working with other people going into sessions. I certainly have the anxiety of: I am not good enough to be here. All of the time. I think that really puts a block on my creativity. I’m slowly yet surely learning, and the full album is about… It has more of a dramatic experience; it happens in three parts. It takes you on this whole little journey of being insecure and then being confident and then being overly-confident. I wanted there to be a lesson in it, and my mom is still accented in a lot of the interludes, and I wanted to have what her suggestions could be although I know it probably would’ve been really shitty opinions. She was routinely like, “Just surrender to the problems!” So, yeah, I really wanted to talk about that whole thing, and towards the end, part three is just talking about, I am enough. No matter what, I’m doing the ideal I can. Something I have to remind myself each day is just stay true to what you believe. A lot of people mention, “Just listen to your heart and your intuition,” yet some days it’s hard to know exactly what that is.


MTV News: Your music is influenced by a length of styles from around the world. You just got back from Europe; I was wondering in the event you heard anything throughout your travels that you’re excited to wrap into your next project.


Mark: I will mention, I was not a fan of the Lil Nas X song, nevertheless we went to Paris, and yes it was playing everywhere, and I got into it, I really got into that song. I don’t think I’ll be making anything as close that, although I plan to mention that became a jam, our tour jam theme song. If I were converse with myself two months back, or a month ago, I would’ve probably been like, “You are crazy for ever thinking you would like that song.” Although I like that song right now, so!


MTV News: What was inspiring about that tour for you and connecting with those fans overseas?


Mark: Oh my god, it was so surreal. I thought there were going to be, like, 10 people at some of the shows. However all of those pretty much ended up being sold out. I think we only had one that wasn’t sold out nevertheless it was 10 tickets away from being sold out. So it was pretty insane.


the initial time I went to Europe I was starting, so it was a totally different experience with the answer from the audience. Being at shows where all these people were singing lyrics, I really got emotional performing, especially performing “Monsoon” and having people sing along to that. I couldn’t even sing the song, I had to kinda let them take over a lot of the time.


MTV News: From your last two assignments, to this upcoming one, is there any kind of growth you’re hoping people will hear? Whether in your sound or your songwriting? Is there anything you’re particularly overjoyed of?


Mark: I’m rapping a little on it. So that’s a whole new world for me, honestly. And I wouldn’t call myself a rapper at all because I certainly cannot freestyle. Yet I get a little bit mad on it, to a certain extent. Production-wise, I was dedicated to — it’s something I never thought I would do — into the complete trap beat world. First it just began off as a joke of me building a beat like that. Then I was like, oh, this is kinda dope. I began doing more beats like that and I ended up rapping on it. So that’s different.


There will be other producers on it as well. It’s going to be a blend, it’s going to be a collective of me doing it along with other producers on it. That’s the initial project I’ve put out that other people have touched. That’s a little bit scary for me. Nevertheless it still has the old, minimalistic sound that I have. Then there’s some songs that are full big and so they “go hard,” as they would mention. [Laughs]


MTV News: Are there any other collaborators on it apart from Gitelman and Wyatt who you desire to shout out?


Mark: Oh, Timbaland!


MTV News: Really?


Mark: Oh, that I’m working with?


MTV News: Yeah, yeah.


Mark: Oh, no, no, no. I wish! Yeah, Timbaland! The future. I’m manifesting it.


This producer, he’s astonishing, he produced “Put You On”: Julian Bunetta. He’s good. He’s going to be helping me with plenty of the tracks that aren’t done however. Even the ones that have been produced by other producers. He’s sort of doing the entire executive thing on it right now.


MTV News: And Timbaland is for the next project.


Mark: Yes, Timbaland could be fantastic. [Laughs]


This interview has been edited and condensed.