She’s written hit songs for others, now Maine singer-songwriter Amy Allen will try for some of her own.
Allen, who has worked as a songwriter for pop stars in Los Angeles the past few years, has signed a recording deal to make her own albums with Warner Music. Charlie Gaylord, a Kennebunk music producer and host of the local radio show “Greetings from Area Code 207,” said Allen recently told him about the deal.
Allen posted pictures of herself signing the deal with Warner on Instagram during the past week, but did not return a text and email Tuesday afternoon.
Amy Allen Photo courtesy of Amy Allen
Allen co-wrote the song “Without Me” by Halsey, which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop music chart in January.
Allen also co-wrote the radio hit “Back to You” by Selena Gomez, which was on the soundtrack of the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” and was a writer on the Shawn Mendes song “When You’re Ready.”
Before moving to Los Angeles to write for others, Allen had performed her own songs in Maine and New England and had fronted her own Boston-based band, Amy & The Engine. Growing up in Windham and South Portland, Allen graduated from Waynflete School in Portland in 2010. While in high school, she recorded a studio album of her own music. In college, she spent six weeks as a contestant on the NBC singing competition “The Voice.”
In a profile on her career, published in November, Allen told the Press Herald that, at first, she did not think she’d like writing songs for other singers, after years of writing for herself. But she quickly learned she enjoyed writing with others, in other styles.
“Now, I can do urban, pop, country, and it’s so much fun,” she said at the time.
When she writes for pop stars, Allen often collaborates with other writers and the singer. On “Without Me,” she is credited along with another writer, as well as Halsey.
When the Halsey song hit No. 1, Allen told the Press Herald she was “through-the-roof excited” and “couldn’t ask for any more than this.”
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