"I think that you grow every time you talk to someone and you learn from them and you learn about yourself through them."
Tuesday 4 June 2024, Canterbury High Street, United Kingdom
Who are we talking to? Ines
Who's doing the interview? Stephen
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STEPHEN: Good afternoon, I'm here with…
INES: Ines, nice to meet you.
STEPHEN: Alright, so question one would be what are you passionate about and why?
INES: I did think about that question and I do love arts and I love creating stuff and everything, but it made me think that my passion is more like people and getting to know people, meeting people, exchanging with them, and finding out what makes them who they are.
STEPHEN: Would you say that the arts have helped you do that?
INES: I think so. Maybe yeah, I think that different arts or specific types of languages and it helps you understand people even more.
STEPHEN: I agree. What is your favourite form of the arts, then?
INES: Probably music. I think I really do love music: I sing whenever I can and just listening to it, I think that's just a great way to express feelings and to feel them just overall.
STEPHEN: Okay with music. Do you play any instruments or is it just singing, like you said?
INES: I learned the violin when I was younger. I did it for like 10 years, but I never really loved it. I wish I had picked drums. To be honest, I like it better.
STEPHEN: Fair enough, would you say, you'd ever pick up the drums one day?
INES: Yeah, I'd love that. Learning the guitar, the drums, like everything that plays in a band. To be honest, I want to learn it at some point.
STEPHEN: All right. And what would you say sparked your passion for like music or for just wanting to get to know people in general?
INES: For music—I think I was just overall, a very talkative kid, and when you're a kid, people don't always listen to you. So I tried to learn different arts, unconsciously of course, but I think that helped me express whatever I wanted to express, and for people, that counts for the talkative part as well. I like exchanging in general and I think that you grow every time you talk to someone and you learn from them and you learn about yourself through them.
STEPHEN: Do you see yourself continuing on this path in the near future and beyond?
INES: I think so. There's stuff I wanna change about myself sometimes, like become better and everything but the whole meeting people and getting to learn them. I think that's something that I want to keep doing forever.
STEPHEN: Fair enough. Would you say that this has been your dream since you were a child, or was there something different you thought you had in mind for yourself as a kid?
INES: In general, I think, overall, I'm pretty much the same as I've always been, so I guess I am still like going on the path I had set for myself. Professionally, no, though. I think I wanted to become a doctor when I was a kid, because that's what, like, my dad does, my sibling do, but I discovered it wasn't really for me. Sciences, maybe because of the whole people thing. Once again, it's a bit more, I don't know. Like there's protocol and everything. I want to do something that makes me discuss with people a bit more.
"I really do love music: I sing whenever I can and just listening to it, I think that's just a great way to express feelings and to feel them just overall."
STEPHEN: Is there anything that you wish that you kept doing?
INES: Ah, that's a good question. Overall, I'm the kind of person that loves to try new hobbies but I never stick to them. I have like a hundred stuff I started and that I've never finished, so maybe like picking all of them up again.
STEPHEN: And is there anything you've dreamed of doing for a long time, but you just never have?
INES: Not really. To be honest, I don't think I have like any big dreams I want to achieve, maybe just traveling. I keep saying I want to travel but I never actually do it. I never put the money in it, the effort, the organization. But I'd love to travel and see, like see the world a bit more.
STEPHEN: If you were to travel, what are your top three? Let's go for the top three.
INES: I've always said Japan. I want to go places that are like completely different from what I've known and I do love, like the culture over there. So I'd love to go Japan. I'd love to go to Hawai'i. I think that looks dope, like I really want to go there. And a third, more basic, but Italy. I think it's a pretty romantic place. I'd love to visit it someday.
STEPHEN: Would you say in terms of your creative side now, like was there anyone who encouraged your creativity? Let's say, family wise, or mentor, or even friends?
INES: Let me think about it. Someone who encouraged me to be creative. I do have an aunt in my family that's very into all of it. She draws, she paints, she sings, she dances a lot. And growing up, most of my family did compare me to her like physically and in terms of the way she speaks and everything. So maybe unconsciously, I did like grew up to be more like her as well and be more into arts than the rest of my family maybe.
STEPHEN: Would you say she's like a role model for you in a weird way.
INES: I don't know if I'd say role model and like, unfortunately I haven't seen her that much growing up, but role model wise, I think, just strangers, to be honest, just like seeing strangers do whatever they want to do. I think I took them as role models as well.
STEPHEN: Oh okay, what would you say was like the biggest instance of a stranger, really like, like clicking with you and really like for you to say, “Oh, this has inspired me to do what I want to do.”
INES: I don't have any that comes to mind sometimes. Like in school growing up, there was like those people who would come up and show like what they did as jobs or if they did music or whatever they were going to like show us. You know, those little like conferences basically. I think I've always loved those, because like just people explaining why they wanted to do this and what makes them that, like interviewing people. I think that's also kind of like really fun as well. So maybe, yeah, maybe these people, just people explaining their passion and you can see that they actually love what they're doing.
"Role model wise...to be honest, just like seeing strangers do whatever they want to do."
STEPHEN: Because earlier you mentioned like music and whatnot. So I have a few music questions for you. So the first one would be what's your favorite band or like, what's your favorite artist in general?
INES: Um, that depends on the season.
STEPHEN: All right, let's do one for each season then.
INES: Okay that's a lot of artists. For autumn, I'm a bit more into Mitski, YEBBA, or Cigarettes After Sex. I know that's just three bands for one season, but yeah. For spring, I do love indie groups like Parcels, for example, all those groups that have instrumentals that make you more hopeful and like joyful, like you know, flowers blooming and the sky is turning blue and everything. Summer, I usually go back to like 2000s, 2010s jams. There's no specific artists, but I go back to like Major Lazer stuff like this, groups that I loved growing up, because it gives me nostalgia as well. And for winter, oooh winter is a dark season. We don't speak about it.
(Both laugh)
STEPHEN: Okay, then my next music-based question would be if you were to be in a band, what would you play? What instrument would you play? And let's say, for instance it's an instrument you don't know how to play. You learn how to play it.
INES: Well, I do sing already, so I do that in a band. And, like I said, I would have loved to do drums. But, funny enough, I think one artist that's very underestimated in a band is the bassist. I think I'd love to be a bassist. To be honest, it gives like soul to the whole thing and you never realize how much you miss a bassist.
STEPHEN: Then here's a bit more of a negative question. Well, negative question, I say it would be what is a genre of music you dislike? You can't stand? Maybe not can't stand, but you know.
INES: I do respect everyone's music taste, but I can't see myself ever listening to metal, really hard rock metal. I don't think I've ever connected to it and I don't plan on connecting to it either. I think it lacks a bit of musicality, and that's what you seek in music obviously.
STEPHEN: All right, I think that's that. Thank you for your time.
INES: No problem. Thank you very much.
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Photographers: Dante Richardson & Paolo
Photo editor: Dante Richardson
Photoshoot assistants: Hyla Etame, Vanessa Mbeko, & Jolanda Oruni
Interview editor: Hyla Etame
