This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to helen@shemakesmusic.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
Naila
‘Saved Me’ is the new single by London singer-songwriter Naila. This new single is Naila’s take on the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ metaphor. It’s a reflection on life and feeling desperately low at points but being able to get through with the right love and support around you. Naila says, “The song was written at a time when I felt deeply jaded about human relationships. I’d been gaslighted by my best friend at the time, let down by those close to me. I was trying to make sense of the world and the friendships I had,and it was interesting to see who supported me and which relationships fell away. I wanted to capture the depths of sadness and feeling low. I hope it resonates for others. Experiencing the changing nature of relationships can be toughat times. Writing this song helped me to process those feelings, what was happening and to get through.” Listen below.
OROPENDOLA
New York City artist Oropendola has released her new single ‘Knocking Down Flowers’. This is the first single from her upcoming album Waiting for the Sky to Speak out March 17. In ‘Knocking Down Flowers,’ Oropendola finds life in the least likely of places: a construction site. Here, she recognizes and illuminates the power of living at the intersection of contrasts. Of the song, she has this to say: “In January 2020, I started recording myself improvising every morning – “morning pages” inspired by The Artist’s Way, a creative self-help book. I recorded morning pages #1 soon after a pivotal, complicated, on-and-off relationship reached its end. Round and round we went, addicted to one another, unable to break free of a sticky cycle that prevented us from fully blooming together. That song seed turned into Knocking Down Flowers within a few days. There was a construction site near my old apartment in South Slope, Brooklyn that the two of us would often pass by. We developed a bit – bittersweet in retrospect – that it was our home. We would peer through the diamond-shaped opening at the stunted barren landscape beyond and imagine the possibilities. Dirt, trash, patches of weeds, colorful graffiti on the green walls, the droning hum of the Prospect Expressway: our weird little insular paradise. One evening, the site’s door was slightly ajar. We made it inside of our home, for the first and only time, photographing one another, running around and dancing with abandon, beers in hands reaching towards the sky. There is a certain type of pleasure, and comfort, gleaned from inhabiting liminal space. Suspended in midair, everything takes on a bit of a hazy, yet tantalizing, glow. You are just of this moment, no obligation to the past or future. Not quite here, not quite there, you don’t have to choose. If you don’t have to choose, you don’t have to make the wrong choice. If you knock down the flowers before they bloom, you don’t have to watch them wilt.” Listen below.
Montauk Hotel
‘Dive (Come Afloat)’ is Montauk Hotel’s first release since 2019, following their early success and establishing their name as one of Ireland’s rising artists. With a new mature take on their signature shimmering 80s indie pop sound, ‘Dive (Come Afloat)’ reflects on the uncertain border that separates present from future, hesitation from releases, uneasiness from comfort and deceit from honesty. The song discusses friendship, insecurity and feelings of homecoming in a motionless town. Montauk Hotel takes influence from the glimmer of early 80s indie-pop, fusing strong melodies, glistening guitars and punchy beats to create their own shimmering sound. Listen below.
Frankie Flowers
Frankie Flowers’ desire to perform was initially sparked by working coat check at a concert venue, and then after an abysmal breakup she began to create music as a release. She produces her own genre bending sound by merging her love for dark-wave and post-punk music, drawing inspiration from bands such as The Cure and Joy Division. Frankie seeks to create a dark, psychedelic, and eclectic vibe at her shows that urges you to escape reality and experience the unknown. Her new single is titled ‘Serotonin’. “I wrote ‘Serotonin’ as an escape from reality, even if it’s for just a moment in time,” she explains of the track. “Serotonin, being the happy chemical in our brains, is something that I feel we’re all constantly longing for so if you’re able to find it in a person, that’s pretty cool. When things seem like they’re crumbling, they might actually be falling into place. People come and go – it’s important that who you surround yourself with aligns with the current version of yourself and not a past you. Life has hard days and that’s fine, it’s just a hard day. Life also has really good days and those are even better… Basically, a day is just a day and life isn’t meant to be so serious. There’s a natural ebb and flow to our emotions; they’re complex… so it’s important to just ride the bittersweet wave.” Listen below.
Tara MacLean
Tara MacLean’s memoir, Song of The Sparrow, will be available on March 14 via HarperCollins. It’s the story of how music saved her life over and over again. “Music was my life raft in an often stormy sea,” she says. To accompany the book it was natural, and a perfect combination, to record an album of the songs—Sparrow, out March 31—that were most significant to the story. “I wrote the title song for the soundtrack on my new Martin Guitar, right after a break up, at a time when I felt free and alive deep in my heart,” Tara explains. “‘Sparrow’ is a significant song that speaks to the message of my memoir, which is about rising above circumstance, triumph, courage and forgiveness. Produced with movement and lush sounds, ‘Sparrow’ has an Americana feel true to my Celtic and country roots, and I like to think you can hear the influence of Emmylou Harris. My hope is that this song lifts, encourages and inspires. The production takes it to the next level, where the music meets the words like water meets waves. Guitar centric, it feels East Coast, but will resonate from Nashville to Norway.” Listen below.
Samfire
London native Samfire delivers an Alt-Pop gem with her new single ‘My Potential’. A beautifully optimistic track, Samfire battles through self-doubt toward hope. Unusual in its intimacy and stream of consciousness style, it is a song that builds to a triumphantly euphoric end. The message has the power to uplift listeners during the darker winter months ahead. As with her previous EP, Samfire draws from the more contemplative side of pop music, introspective yet uplifting. Her intricate production (a producer herself alongside her co-producer, QTorra) builds over the course of the song, layering its acapella start with beats, guitar, piano and an array of synths. Talking about the new single, Samfire shares: “This song is a window to my frame of mind – driven, self-critical, hopeful and romantic. It poured out of me one morning in the shower, a context which has shaped its sweet melodic and lyrical simplicity. I know there are a lot of people that, like me, are always trying to better themselves. This song is for them – offering the words that have got me through moments of self doubt: ‘I believe in my potential’” Listen below.
Ella Fae
Ella Fae is the voice of Gen-Z LGBTQIA+ youth. Arriving with impressive debut single, ‘Haunted as Hell’ Ella’s heartfelt lyrics and arresting vocal stop you in your tracks as she speaks honestly of her struggles with mental health, relationships, identity and her place in the world. Her direct lyricism and finely-balanced electronic pop production draw immediate parallels with other songwriters who serve as icons to the queer community such as Troye Sivan, Billie Eilish and Caroline Polachek. Having discovered her love of singing at 6 years old because of Hannah Montana, no reference is out of the question, however. Ellas debut single ‘Haunted as Hell’ channels the dreamy and trippy vocoder-based pop of fellow contemporaries such as Allie X, renforshort, and Billie Eilish, with swirling electronic production and washed-out pianos that interweave with Ella’s verses. “The message behind the song pretty much is you CAN ‘move on’ from a relationship/breakup but you’ll always have pieces of them that stick around with you and they are kinda always there, especially if they are your first love,” says Ella Fae. Listen below.
Check out more of our recent submissions via the playlist below!
