Shaznay Lewis wants to move away from being just “Shaznay Lewis from All Saints”.
The 48-year-old singer shot to stardom as a member of the ‘Pure Shores’ girl band – which also featured Natalie Appleton, Nicole Appleton, Melanie Blatt, and Simone Rainford – back in 1997 and they enjoyed chart success throughout the late 1990s and 2000s.
Now she is back with her long-awaited second studio album, ‘Pages’ – the follow-up to 2004’s ‘Open’ – and she is excited that the generations that aren’t familiar with her roots are going to get to know the real Shaznay.
In an interview with The Sun newspaper, she said: “For the past 25 years I’ve been known as ‘Shaznay from All Saints’.
“So, it was really important to step away from the band and make this record so I could just be Shaznay Lewis again.”
On gaining younger fans, she continued: “Even though I’ve got history, there’s a whole generation out there that do not know who I am.
And it’s exciting. People are liking these songs for what they are rather than just liking it because of where I’ve come from. When (Pages track) Good Mourning went on to a platform I hadn’t heard of called Complex, my teenage son ran into my room saying, ‘Oh my God, Mum, you are on Complex!’.”
This summer, the ‘Kiss of Life’ singer is playing Glastonbury – among other festivals – and she is excited to embark on a new chapter and suggested fans can expect more from her as she doesn’t see herself retiring from music ever.
Asked if she gets anxious before shows, she replied: “I don’t get nervous at all, I’m just excited to perform. This is the start of something for me. I love creating and performing. As a person, it’s a huge part of who I am. So I don’t see me stopping anytime soon. I think I’d have to be dead inside if I stopped.”