Fusing pop-perfect hooks with a laid back indie style, SYTË (meaning “eyes” in Albanian) are making their mark in the alt-pop scene. Based in New York, the group has an abundant blend of musical backgrounds, with elements of R&B, pop, indie, metal and Jazz, creating a sound and vibe that transcends genre, geography, age and gender.
The group initially formed when vocalist Nita Kaja was visiting her family’s hometown of Prishtina, Kosovo and met future partner and band mate Drin Tashi. Falling deeply in love with the free-spirited and alternative lifestyle of the city, and being surrounded by a thriving and youthful music scene, Kaja felt inspired to create her own music, forming a duo with Tashi in 2018, before teaming up with drummer Granit Havolli and bassist Fatlind Ferati; evolving into the four-piece band we know today.
The new single “Where Did the Love Go” was written after three long months of isolation. Feeling disconnected from the world and missing out on a European tour due to the pandemic, Kaja penned the lyrics after finally reuniting with a friend, causing a burst of inspiration and the creation of this soulful tune. The sultry-hued vocals are a perfect complement to the funk-driven bassline, twinkling keys and groove-laden percussion, resulting in this vibrant, yet sonically textured track. Hoping to encourage people to express their seemingly-niche emotions, the band write music about acknowledging and navigating through destructive thoughts and patterns. Wanting to see popular music shift to a more introspective and intentional place, the band expressed, “Documenting these overlooked emotions can help bring humanity together and highlight how much more similar we are to one another than we think”.
Known for their electrifying performances, SYTË have already played a number of well-known festivals including Pop Kultur Festival, Localize Festival and Sunny Hill Festival, where they opened for powerhouses like Dua Lipa, Action Bronson and Martin Garrix. Returning to New York City to work on new music and grow as artists, and with nods from publications such asi-D, Noizz.d andThe Line of Best Fit,the band are in for a swell of a season!
Now, if you’ve been following RCRD LBL for the past year, chances are you would have heard about the Chinese-British songstress Fifi Rong and her fantastical build towards releasing her latest crowd-funded album, There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved. The singer first arrived on our radar in February 2021 with the release of ‘Another Me’ and the artistic music video that accompanied it. In the nearly full year to follow, we saw Fifi Rong investigate the world of live performance, become a forerunner in the NFT community and launch the impressively successful crowd-funding campaign that helped her give back to her followers and collaborators alike.
It seemed only fitting to round off the year with Fifi Rong as we explore her mind, creative process and plans for the future. Find it all in the exclusive interview below.
Tell us about your first memory of music and how it inspired you
I was 4 watching this TV show about pianists and I developed this aching desire toward it and begged my parents to get me a piano.
In your biog, you mentioned how you’ve struggled to reconcile the two different sides of society (Western and Eastern). Do you feel you were able to bring the two together in your latest album?
Yes absolutely. It’s effortless now, and I can dial to any side as I wish.
There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved was crowd-funded, reaching the goal before the campaign ended. Tell us how you feel about this success and what you envision the next step to be
I’m very proud and loved. We reached the goal 2 weeks before the end of the campaign and ended at 164% crossed Indiegogo and my website’s crowdfunding period. This is proof of the ‘1000 true fan’ theory of how modern artists can have true creative freedom and full support from a relatively small number of true supporters instead of millions of distant listeners/fans. Going forward, I will be taking my connection with my real supporters to web3, which is an environment where this culture I have developed in my community can really thrive.
What is your favourite aspect of your video for ‘Out Of Clock’? What makes it stand out from the rest?
I speak in Chinese and English in the monologue at the intro, and tell the story of Why There Is A Funeral In My Heart in Chinese on one of the stereo fields, whereas I kept repeating the Album title in the other stereo field. It sums up the album really, and the production style is my favourite type in all my productions too: ‘passive aggressive’. Also, the chorus really spells out the general emotional signature of the entire album. ‘My heart is running out of love, for anyone, to stay’… after every funeral I gave to every single love affair. It’s a memoir of love after all.
The world of NFTs is quickly evolving, with you as one of the forerunners in the community. Tell us why you believe this new digital world is so important?
Cryptocurrency and NFT is a new technology, a disruptive one. Technology is a one way street, and NFT as a technology will take over the whole world before everyone realises it. It creates a better, fairer world and financial system, a win-win situation for creators, fans, and collectors, and adds much more utility and ownership to the relations between them.
Metaverse is the immediate future that will integrate with most of our lives and NFT is the builder block of this meta universe we are moving into.
Where is a good starting point for an artist looking to enter the NFT game? What tips would you give to a newcomer?
Web3 is powered by people and communities and the key is self governance, so education and connection with others in the community is the first and foremost aspect of longevity in NFT. So I’d recommend finding us on twitter, we have community space to educate and connect all the time around the week/cock. My twitter is @fifirong so follow me and connect on my daily onboarding show and I’ll set them up.
Tell us about your latest album. Which track shouldn’t fans sleep on and why?
‘I’m Enough’ has been talked about a lot from the feedback so far. I didn’t expect that, as I didn’t get special ‘love’ earlier during the making of the album from my peers, so I was sleeping on it. But now the album is out, people are loving it, and felt that it should have been a single as well. But then, the traditional industry may think there’s no single in my album, whereas my true supporters think every song is a single. Guess whose view I care more about?:)
Fusing pop, country, soul and blues, Slovakian indie band Dennyiah have returned with another stunning release. ‘Sense Of Rain’ traverses EDM territory, further proving Dennyiah’s versatility as artists.
Dennyiah is vocalist Denny and guitarist Lubos. Their album is expected in 2022, and the duo is well on their way to reaching international audiences.
The stunning video for ‘Sense Of Rain’ features Massay dancer Fernando Anuang’a, who adds a visceral visual aesthetic to the track. The track showcases Denny’s vocals, which sit beautifully atop the alluring melody.
Dennyiah shares, “It’s about the elusive sensation of an invincible life force coming from within. Losing the ego and idealised and pre-constructed idea of self. That’s when nothing around changes. The only thing that changes is your perception and the fact that it doesn’t have the power to go under your skin anymore because it’s always been disconnected from the true within. Bad things good things – it’s all the same – what matters is how much you let it drag you down. This song speaks about the short moment of enlightenment, about the deep connection to everything without the heaviness of reaction.”
Adding to how the track was created, Dennyiah share, “It was created years ago with two of our former bandmates. Matej Marga ( drummer) and Miroslav Kažimír ( synth/piano). Miro created the base synth layers and Matej added drums. After that we jammed the idea in our rehearsal room all together with Lubo ( guitarist) and I came up with the melody that was actually stuck in my head for a while – the part where I sing sense of the rain. Lyrics were written long before coz’ I was going through a lot of changes in my life and was looking for a spiritual awakening which eventually happened, at least for a short while. The song came absolutely naturally and we may all agree that it’s a testimony to a better life within ourselves.”
Cinematic singer-songwriter Hannah Schneider has unveiled ‘We’ll Be The Only Sound In The World’ shared from her upcoming album Ocean Letters which will be released in September next year via Midnight Confessions.
Born into music, her parents are both classical musicians. Her sound has been compared to the likes of Ólafur Arnalds, Sigur Rós and The Cinematic Orchestra.
‘We’ll Be The Only Sound In The World’ is characterised by its serenity, and although the track is spacious and minimalistic, Schnieder’s voice creates a tapestry of intense sonic detail.
Speaking of the song, Hannah Schneider tells us: “This is the first single from my forthcoming album “Ocean Letters”- an album that is thematically inspired by Danish poet Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen and her little book of the same name, that talks about the evolution of the world as it is seen by the Ocean. This song is written from the perspective of a conch shell, telling its stories of the grains of sand and the waves that indented it, playing with the fact that seashells actually are a kind of amplifier of ambient noise. The song was written during a lockdown in Denmark this January, and it reflects the feeling of pandemic stillness – the lack of aeroplanes in the sky, and traffic sounds that usually create eternal background noise.”
‘We’ll Be The Only Sound In The World’ features on the Spotify playlist CHILL_GROUND.fm
