CREATIVE WOMXN: SAE LONDON AUDIO ALUMNA BEARNIE RELEASES DEBUT SINGLE ‘DONE’
As part of SAE’s Creative Womxn campaign, which celebrates women in the creative industries, we caught up with SAE London Audio Production alumna Bernadette Contini AKA Bearnie who recently released her debut single, ‘Done’.
What was the inspiration behind ‘Done’?
‘Done’ was written on the piano one day after I woke up very late. I had this melody in my mind and started singing what I felt on some chord progression I liked. I had been listening to The Weeknd’s album ‘After Hours’ and Yuna’s ‘Rouge’ on loop for the entire first lockdown here in Milano, therefore the single ‘Done’ has been inspired by these, in addition to Dua Lipa’s album ‘Future Nostalgia’. The main inspiration, I guess, was the need to express my internal conflicts and to find myself through the production of this project.
Who are your main musical influences?
I have a lot of musical influences and with time, new ones always end up in my list. I’d have to divide this in two main categories: production/sound engineering and artist/song-writing. I’ll mention three each: for production/ sound engineering I’d say Alan Parson, Quincy Jones and Serban Ghenea, and in terms of artists/songwriters I’d say Avicii, Pink Floyd and Kygo.
What were your roles in recording the track?
My main roles were songwriting, singing, recording and mixing. The production, composition and performance were a team work with my main collaborator Jordan Gomez (@utenteoriginale). The mastering has been done by Chris Gehringer (Sterling Sound).
How did your studies at SAE support your career as an artist?
SAE has taught me many things which have brought me to where I am now. I had my first projects as an artist there, I was a guest on Tim Hocks’ (@timhocks) song ‘Alive Together’ and I also collaborated with him and Michael Akinolushola (@justmichaelak_) for the song ‘I Know’. The experience in the studios and consultation with the school’s professors and students have affected my growth both in terms of creativity and knowledge.
How have you found being creative during lockdown?
My initial plan after graduating from SAE was to pursue my career as a live sound engineer. The lockdown helped me realise that I prefer working from a studio and would like to master my skills with mixing. I built my home studio in May and this brought me to have ‘Done’ released. I am planning to release new music very soon — an EP (on which I’ve been working since my home studio has been built) is due out this summer!
What does being a woman in Audio mean to you?
The women community in Audio is still a minority but a noticeable positive increase is visible during the last decade. The percentage of women working as sound engineers and producers is very concerning but being in that small percentage makes me proud of being part of such a strong team which is slowly growing. Marta Salogni is a great inspiration for what she has done as an Italian sound engineer and I take her as a big influence to my journey as a proud Italo-Indonesian woman in sound engineering!
What’s next for Bearnie in 2021?
My main plan this year is to have my first EP ‘Vanilla Pie’ released by this summer and gaining experience with production and mixing during this project. As traveling is not a friendly option during this pandemic period, working on my artistic career is what I aim to be doing during this year. Hopefully, new collaborations will be made and my network will expand because of this project: I’m really into team working!
Listen to the song on Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Music or YouTube.
Follow Bearnie on Instagram @bearniez
