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!
Viti
Finnish singer-songwriter Viti has released her new single ’Mars’. The song draws from 90s club vibes and is produced by Oona Kapari the founder of Kuohu Records. Though the track is light and ethereal and the vocals are somewhat playful, the lyrics are based on Viti’s history with eating disorder. Listen below.
Safragette
The dawn of lockdown presented Safra and Hussein a long-awaited pause from the London city rat-race to reignite their childhood passion for music and form the band Safragette. Their debut song ‘Woman’ is a perfect representation of the duo’s ability to straddle multiple genres, with Safra’s voice displaying the extent of her talents, jumping from haunting operatic vocal phrases to punchy pop melodies. Behind this inimitable voice lies the ferocity of electric riffs, an homage to the guitar-driven rock influences Hussein stamps on the track. It is a fitting introduction to this lawyer and economist’s reimagination as artists and a preview of what’s to come. Central to Safragette’s high energy music are lyrics that offer a fresh story the on the challenges and successes of being a woman. Drawing on her experience as a first-generation immigrant, female, muslim, lawyer, Safra’s messages of hope and introspection underlie the power of femininity in all of us. And it is against a backdrop of distorted guitars and uplifting choral arrangements that these lyrics take full effect. Listen to ‘Woman’ below.
Marilyn Hucek
Pop singer-songwriter, Marilyn Hucek, has released her new single, ‘Boy Drama’, inspired by her friends abortion. The single is an ode to friendship, about being there for a friend through all her boy troubles and their aftermath. “I want to be the voice for someone who needs to be uplifted during dark times, ” Marilyn says. ‘Boy Drama’ was written and performed by Marilyn, produced/mixed by Elizabeth Maniscalco, and mastered by Martina Albano. The new single has R&B influences, and modern electronic elements, inspired by her idols such as Madison Beer, Destiny’s Child, and Cassie. ‘Boy Drama’ is a powerful reminder to women not to undersell themselves and settle for less, over a smooth melody and touching lyrics. It’s dedicated to the women who don’t give themselves enough credit, and emphasizes to not accept being treated as lesser than. In the face of relationship troubles, the song declares that boy drama is just that–drama–not to interfere with a woman’s self-confidence and self-love. In an industry dominated by men, Hucek makes a point to uplift women not just in the lyrics of her music, but in the production as well. Written, produced, and performed entirely by women, the song’s accompanying photoshoot and album art were also created by women. Hucek continues her mission to champion female empowerment by highlighting and showcasing female voices, through both the technical production, and in the subjects of her songs. Listen to ‘Boy Drama’ below.
Karla Lee
Karla Lee is an R&B musician and producer from Cologne, Germany. Creating songs in the studio is her safe space. Through creative coincidences and intuitive processes, she captures her experiences and visions in songs that reflect on new beginnings, self-worth and togetherness. In her productions she mixes rough beats and concise synthesizers with tender vocals and thus develops her individual sound. With her debut EP, Karla Lee lets you peak into her personal world of sound, which mixes the R&B sound of the 90’s with beats produced in a contemporary way. Standout track from the EP, ‘Home’, is a song with an important theme about strengthening your own self-esteem and finding yourself. Listen below.
The Rosie Varela Project
Rosie Varela is a a singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist for acclaimed shoegaze band EEP. Rosie created the The RVP, an avant-pop/indie rock band, for songs that bend genre and may not always fit into EEP’s shoegaze style. The solo project’s debut album What Remains is a lush and emotional sonic tapestry that is an honest examination of life’s difficulties through an adventurous musical sensibility, ranging from avant-pop to dream pop to psych folk. Standout track ‘Louise’ came about while Rosie was on vacation in Las Vegas, shopping at a local grocery store. “I heard an elderly couple arguing loudly in the produce section,” she explains. “’You made me do it, you made me do it, Louise. You looked right through it, but you made me do it, Louise.’ I stopped and repeated those phrases into a voice memo on my phone because I liked the meter of the sentences. Getting back to my hotel, I began writing and recording a demo on acoustic guitar and a mobile recording rig I had brought along. Around the chorus of those sentences, I built a story of a man who falls in love and marries an accomplished independent woman who abandons her life’s work to be a good wife to him. After a few years, he can see that he is holding her back. She sees things very traditionally, and he can see that she’s missing her old life terribly. So he devises a way to sabotage their marriage so that she has no choice but to leave him and resume her life following her dreams. The “you made me do it” in the chorus is his lamenting that he had no other choice but to light a match to their relationship.” Listen below.