‘Narla’s Song’ is one of three new songs recorded to form Yvonne Hercules’ second EP, Olive, out June 9 via Trapped Animal Records. The tracks marry Yvonne’s love for soul and gospel with more modern influences from artists like Brittany Howard (Georgia), and the song ‘Weird Fishes’ by Radiohead – which was a reference track in the production process of the second track, ‘The Tide.’

Yvonne says on the track: “‘Narla’s Song’ is about loss, grief and all the complex emotions around losing a loved one. During my grieving process, I wrote the song as a way to eulogise but also to heal. I remember coming across Olive Morris by chance as I stumbled upon a piece about her work as an activist and her life. I felt disappointed and a sense of loss that as a young Black girl, who needed to hear stories about impactful Black British women like Morris, nobody had ever mentioned her name. That particular connection to Olive Morris was even stronger, because I remembered when I was young I used to be called ‘Olive’, so in that moment, I felt that the significance of her life and activism needed to be remembered.

Speaking on the forthcoming EP, Yvonne continues: “Olive is centred in Black femininity because I was frustrated by my experiences as a Black woman and creative, who has too often been made to feel my experiences should be minimised within a binary definition, and consequently how I present myself and the music I create has been impacted. So to counter that I wanted to showcase a body of work that I feel truly represents the nuances of my own experiences, those of the Black women in my life and around me.”