Alyssa Bonagura is one of the most exciting and refreshing artists in country music at the moment. A multi talented artist, Bonagura Sings, writes, produces and is also a multi instrumentalist.

In June, Alyssa released her EP Fly With Me. Each song on the EP is somewhat of a journal about her new life with her British partner and seeing her go back and forth from London to Nashville.

The EP was performed, produced, programmed, and mixed by Bonagura, with the exception of cinematic love song ‘One Kiss’, which features strings composed by Laurentia Editha, of Hans Zimmer’s Bleeding Fingers Music collective.

The UK isn’t new territory to Bonagura though. Having spent four years studying Sound Technology at Paul McCartney’s LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts), Alyssa has called the UK her home for years. We are so glad that we get to have an artist of her calibre live and play here so often.

After seeing Alyssa’s phenomenal set at BST Hyde Park, we caught up for a little chat backstage to discuss her set, being, being a multi instrumentalist, the new song she played and more!

Enjoy!

Hi Alyssa how are you ? Welcome to BST.

Thank you!

Now you have said that you have been here before as a fan to see Paul Simon?

I did, I saw Paul Simon in 2018 with James Taylor and he was amazing! I feel like it’s a very special thing to watch and listen to music in Hyde Park for an American. It must be the same with people who are from here but it’s very cool to be here! It’s a good vibe, it’s a magical festival! The crowd is always nice and there’s places to sit and enjoy music!

How was your set? I was there, I know what it was like for us in the audience but how was it for you?

It was so good!

You had a really good crowd!

Thank you, I was so grateful that people were there! There was a girl from Rome that came to see me which was very cool. It’s been great seeing so many familiar faces in the crowd and backstage.

Who did you see backstage?

Natasha Bedingfield

Oh was she nice?

Yeah she was and I said that we need to talk as we both have a song about Sunshine.

Well I think you both need to write together, that would be one of the best songs ever…

That would be amazing!

You are a multi instrumentalist…

I am, I play a lot of different instruments but I started on piano. I am very impatient so I want to try things and master them. I have been an only child my whole life so I think I was just enamoured with musical instruments and so I would pick them up and try and play them. Guitar and Piano are my main.

What has been the hardest instrument to learn?

Cello, really hard! Cello and Violin are both really hard. Cello is easier than violin.

Can you play both?

I can kind of play both. I can play Cello enough to put a part down on a song in a studio haha. One time I rented a Cello from the local music shop in Franklin because I was like “I hear a Cello part on my song”. It was so funny because I was like “Dad, can I borrow your credit card?” I think I was 16 and he said “where are you going?” And said “I’m going to rent a Cello” and he was like “Okay…..” haha!

That’s amazing!

What haven’t you learned to play that you would like to?

I would really like to learn how to play Sitar. It’s a beautiful sound, I think that would be fun!

Jacob Collier plays this thing called a Harpejji

Oh I love him!

Me too! It’s a stringed instrument and it looks like a harp but you play it when it’s on a table. That looks like a really fun instrument to try and figure out. So maybe I can try and get my hands on one of them.

I know you get asked this a lot but tell us about working with Kenny Rogers.

Kenny Rogers was amazing! Kenny was so lovely and he and my parents toured together when I was a baby. It was very cool to get the call from him because he was doing a Christmas record and it was a play on Broadway that he had created and he wanted a young girl to feature as this Angel that was in this Christmas play. So I sang as an Angel it was a really surreal experience. I remember it vividly. I was ten but I still remember going into the studio, meeting Kenny there, even though I had seen him when I was younger, it was really cool to work with him at an older age.

He was a fantastic person. Aside from being an incredible artist he was a good person.

That’s nice to hear, especially when someone is so well known.

Yeah, he really treated my parents really well on tour.

You should always treat people well!

You should! That has what’s been one of the most inspiring things for me to see all these iconic people growing up on the bus. My parents were around Reba McEntire, Vince Gill and Kenny and Dolly and all these different Iconic artists and they are all so lovely. I think that’s really important because you should be when you have that much power as an artist you know?

You went to Liverpool Performing Arts School?

I did, I lived there for three years. I lived in central Liverpool and had the best time ever it was amazing!!

So you live in the UK now?

I am kind of back and forth from Nashville but my boyfriend lives here (London) it’s great! That’s what the music is about, the new music is all about him. It’s like a time capsule which is nice. Fly With Me is written about him. I went through this period of time when I just started writing a ton of songs when I fell in love and that’s what this new EP is all about!

It’s beautiful and I really like the new song that you played today!

Thank you! ‘On It’, that one was fun!

That went down really well with the crowd!

I am working on a full length record and I have been working on it for about three or four years now. It is definitely coming out of the top of next year!

Good! Can we know anything about it?

Well ‘On It’, what you heard today is going to be on it. ‘On It’ will be on it. Over the years I have so many songs that I have written and haven’t been able to release them so I am finally releasing them.

That must be quite hard to make an album when you have so many unreleased songs. How do you narrow it down?

It is! It’s probably going to be a two part record with 20 songs.

Why not? Everyone else is doing that at the moment?

I am taking songs that I have written 7 years ago. ‘On It’ I wrote years ago with Jeffrey Steele and Al Anderson in Nashville. It has always been a favourite song of mine but I never put it out because I was in Sisterhood band and we did a different thing. So now I am getting to do all these old songs that are new to everyone else but they have been in my soul for a while so I am excited to share them.

You do your own Production on your music?

Yep! I produce my own records.

That’s really cool and I was interested in that because I remember speaking to Yola years back and how she struggled to get people to believe she, as a woman, could produce her own work which is ridiculous and I can’t believe that’s a thing in this day and age?

It’s so funny. I love being able to produce my own music. I also love being able to know what I am hearing on stage for the sound man. If I am not bringing my own sound man, today was wonderful because the sound guy was so great but it’s just communicating with them. Once you let them know what you are talking about it’s more fun for everybody. There’s not a lot of women who do it and I’m proud to wave that flag. Women have amazing ears so we hear things differently and so we should be behind the board more!

And being a multi instrumentalists must make you hear all those sounds and make it natural to add sounds to your records?

I do, I hear a lot of different things in my head so it’s refreshing to get them out of my head into a song.

What song of yours is a family favourite?

Hmmm. The newest one is Know You Better that’s on the EP. I think because it’s a great sing along and it’s a sweet simple country song that we can sing in harmonies. Then of course my family, my fans and friends it’s I Make My Own Sunshine.

Thank you so much Alyssa

Thank you!