The Newly Married Ameriie Talks Love & Marriage With Essence Mag

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The lovely and beautiful Ameriie recently sat down with Essence with discuss her recent marriage to former music exec Lennie Nicholson, how they met, and her latest musical project.

ESSENCE: How did you and Lenny fall in love?
AMERIIE: They asked me whom I wanted to A&R my album. I asked for Lennie Nicholson because he’s the only one I knew I could really trust around my stuff. At the time I just knew I liked what he did. I knew his name but I didn’t completely know how much he’d already helped my career.  It was cool. We never really spoke that much. Sparks hadn’t flown yet. I knew he was cute and I know now he thought I was cute because he remembers to this day what I had on.

I was working on my second album. The whole vibe of this album was that I’m free and I’m single and I’m not checking for anybody. So I’m there and I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look up and it’s him. I didn’t totally recognize him because he had a hat on. So I’m like, “Who are you?” He’s like, “I’m your A&R!” I was like, “Oh I didn’t recognize you with the hat on.” So he took off the hat and I just remember thinking that I knew he was cute but he was on a whole other level. We’re having the session and we just start texting each other back and forth throughout. We knew each other professionally but not personally, so it was sort of weird at first. But somehow we had a conversation and  agreed when we got back to New York we’d go on a date. We went on that date on November 3rd. We’ve been inseparable ever since and that was seven and a half years ago. We remember all of the dates.

ESSENCE: What was your favorite wedding moment?
AMERIIE: There were so many of them. I think when my dad and I were walking down the aisle. It was a long aisle; I think 375 feet, so it was very, very long. My dad was kind of chatting to me in the beginning giving me little father-daughter sound bites. The last thing he said was “Are you ready?” I said, “I’m ready, daddy!” When I got to the end of the aisle he took Lennie’s hand and he took my hand and he joined them together.

ESSENCE: What did you and Lenny say to each other in your vows?
AMERIIE: We did traditional vows. The thing with Lennie and I is that we write each other all the time — things like personal emails and love letters — we’ve always done that. The things that people would probably put in their vows we put into our emails, love letters, and cards to each other so we do a lot of those things. For the wedding we were thinking traditional because it’s something that’s been said for hundred and hundreds of years and I love history and old things.

ESSENCE: How does Lenny make you feel special?
AMERIIE: He’s just a gentleman. He does the big things like surprises and we’ll go here and we’ll go there, but it’s the little things too. The little things defy everything to me. That’s the stuff that’s going to happen most often. It could be as simple as him opening my car door or when we’re at a restaurant he always pulls the chair out for me and he stands up when I have to leave the table and when I come back. He’s just so romantic! I love the way he treats my family. He treats my sister just as well as he treats me and that’s so important to me. She actually mentioned that in her speech. She was my maid of honor.

ESSENCE: What’s up next for you?
AMERIIE: Right now I’m continuing the recording process for the album. The album is called Cymatika, which is named after cymatics, the study of visual sound.  The last album was very hip-hop soul, R&B, and rock, but this time I fused electronica and new wave, and a lot of classic song structure. I usually sing about love but for this album I really wanted to talk about the human experience. Not in the romantic sense but just being who you really are and not running from yourself.

We’re thinking we’re going to put it out probably like spring of next year. It’s not finished yet. It’s all about the creative process. For me it’s more about creating it, getting it off my chest, and then putting it out into the universe. Then I move on to the next thing. When I’m releasing it, I’m releasing it, and I’m on to creating something else. Half the time by the time we deliver the album and it’s already mixed and mastered I’m on to the next sound.

So happy for Ameriie! Sounds like true love. Now, about that album. Ameriie, we’ve been ready a long time. Bring it!