“I have to be told to turn off the phone”

Etie Vamplew is an online content creator, actor, and singer. Steven met her online, appropriately via Zoom, to talk about the differences between K-Pop, J-Pop, and C-Pop, staying positive online, and how he, too, can become big in Korea.

You have an unusual name. What was the background of both your first name and your surname? 
My first name, comedically, is my parents watching the film French Kiss. My name came up in the credits. I always think it's funny, because my brother's name is Morton and he was born in 1997, and they named him Morton, because it was the year the Mars Rover first landed on Mars. I was like, “You named me after the credits in a film, and he got named after that!” But anyway… Vamplew comes from a French town just outside Calais. There's only, I believe, 450 Vamplews in the world.

Are you known by any other names? 
No. It's been good, though, because whenever I go on social media, I never have to worry about my name being taken.

What is your official occupation? 
Currently, I would say content creator is the main thing, but I'm also starting to dabble in professional singing and acting as well. I'm moving into it because I have released a few songs in the past, but my aim is over the next year to properly work with producers and to release things properly. 
My current job, as it stands, is content creator, because that's what I do on my day to day.

What is a content creator?
It's someone on social media whose entire job is creating entertainment through social media. A lot of people nowadays will go on social media as opposed to watching TV, for example, or they'll have social media on and TV on, scrolling on their phones. It's very much in tandem with any entertainment forum, but you make your own content and essentially, what you really love and then your audience join in and say what they would like to see, and then you can mix between what you do and what your audience would like to see.

How do you make money at that? 
I sometimes don't fully know how.
I get views and likes and comments, and that translates to me getting money.
You can do ‘a live’ for example, and people will gift on the live, and then you'll get money from the gifts. It's a medley of both, or could be either.

What platforms are you creating content on? 
Mainly TikTok and YouTube. 
I do Instagram as well, but I don't focus on my Instagram as much. I post when I want to on there, but I still have a lot of the same audience over there. I probably should go on Instagram more.

Do you have any additional roles, paid or unpaid?
Not currently, but behind the scenes, there's a lot going on. I'm so close to really stepping into the next stage of doing music and panel shows and talk shows, along with some acting roles, along with doing social media. It's really on the bridge now between the two.
This week, I've been in talks with one of the World Service podcasts to maybe go on. If I do get the green light on that, I think that'll be an interesting story as well. 

You are a singer and an actress. Does one take priority over the other? 
Currently singing. I think what I want to do is create a name for myself and then start to do acting after. I do like acting as well. 

Do you play any musical instruments? 
I can play guitar and piano, but I was trained in singing. I got grade eight distinction in singing, but I can play piano and guitar to get myself through it. I'm not going to be able to do a weird guitar riff, but I can strum along if I need to.

What does grade eight singing mean?
Essentially, it's our training system in the UK. It took me eight years to get up to the top levels. Making sure your technique's good and you have confidence, because you have to go in and do a proper exam, which I'm not going to lie, is terrifying most of the time. There was one time I walked in, and my examiner was being examined by an examiner, and I was barely even being noticed.

What is the top grade?
Grade eight. 
Oh, well, congratulations.

How many languages can you speak? 
I can fluently speak English. Spanish and Korean, I'm not fluent in them, but I'm conversational. If someone were to ask me a question in either one of those languages, I could respond well. I also can fluently understand French and German, because I'm half Austrian. I grew up in Austria. I grew up exposed to German, so I understood it from a young age. French, I just had an innate sense of what they're saying. I learned French in primary school, but weirdly enough, I was like, I understand this. I learned Italian a tiny bit. I learned Chinese in secondary school as well. I can actually read a bit of Chinese as well. I can speak a tiny bit of Japanese, Indonesian, Filipino, Malaysian. I can say one word in Thai.

Was this from school education or being online?
I learned German from going to Austria. French was in primary school. Spanish and Mandarin, I got taught in secondary school. I learned Italian outside of secondary school in year seven to nine. I started learning Korean in year 12. It's come in really handy because Koreans really like me. From social media, actually, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian. That was from people online interacting with my account.
You pick up a few words in each language and be able to communicate with people more. 

Can you also sing in other languages?
Yes, I do. Online, I've sung in English, Korean and Japanese. I usually sing in English and Korean when I'm singing online, because obviously K-pop is huge and I have a large Eastern audience. I like the music too. It all goes hand in hand. I think I may have sung in Spanish once.

With Korean, is singing in another language different to speaking it?
In my mind, it is separate. I've been learning Korean for five years, and it's only this year where I've been actually listening to music, and I can understand what they're saying, even though you would think that I could have probably done that a few years ago. I think I'm someone who mainly listened to the sounds, the notes of the song. Listening to the lyrics, I've only really been doing that this year. I would say it's easier in some ways, because when you can read the alphabet, you don't have to worry about the pronunciation.

The best thing you can do is look at where you're popular and create content tailored towards them

You've mentioned having an Asian following and being big in Korea. How did that start?
It's interesting because TikTok pushed me in Asia two years ago. My account just took off, and it took off in Asia. Luckily, I grew up exposed to Asian culture because my mum grew up in Asia.
When it happened, I just jumped in immediately, because this is what I always say to people. When it comes to social media, trying to build a social media following, the best thing you can do is look at where you're popular and create content tailored towards them.
I then essentially switched my content, instead of doing what I used to do on TikTok, which was like these theory videos. We don't do them anymore. I was then able to switch into content that I personally loved doing more and being able to connect the world through social media, because then people were talking about their cultures.

You hadn't done anything particular to get pushed in the algorithm? 
I was doing a live, and suddenly my viewers went from 40 viewers to 302. Then my followers skyrocketed from 2,500 to 10,000 in two weeks. It was a really quick turnaround.
That was it. As long as you carry on doing this, the algorithm now likes you and will put you in this place. It's that kind of thing.