Introducing Interview: Cristina Hart

Swiss-born London based artist Cristina Hart has previously charmed audiences playing for the likes of Sofar Sounds, as well as receiving acclaim from Amazing Radio’s Shell Zenner and Charlie Ashcroft, and has now shared an uplifting new single.

Taken from her new EP, ‘Will You’ flows with twinkling keys alongside Hart’s soaring, impassioned vocals, creating a heartfelt slice of alt-pop.

We caught up with Cristina to find out more!

Hi Cristina, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Of course! I’ve been writing and gigging my own songs for the past four years now and this year I finally released original music – it feels so good to finally share these songs! I released three singles and the fourth track ‘Will You’ from my debut EP Sell a Dream finally came out today. My music is indie-pop with quirky, relatable lyrics and upbeat productions, except for the fourth track of the EP which strips away the veneer and lets the emotional lyrics and vocals take centre stage.

How did you start creating music?
About four years ago I moved to London because I wanted to pursue a career in music and since then I’ve got to meet so many creative, talented people. I absolutely love the community here and really enjoy co-writing my songs and working with different writers and producers I click with!

Your new EP Sell a Dream is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about? Are there any themes running throughout the EP?
Yes, there are actually! I wanted to explore the labels that attempt to define us and the importance we attach to them. It’s so easy for people – or even ourselves – to think we’re “too this or that” and this way of thinking is really restrictive when you think about it. Attempting to define ourselves is by definition limiting, which is why I wanted to take some labels that had been thrown at me and play around with them to show that we can not let them mean too much and redefine ourselves every single day.

You’ve been compared to the likes of Demi Lovato and Emily Burns, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
Thanks so much! This constantly changes to be honest as I love discovering new music all the time. For this EP, I would say that my biggest influences are Lauv, Zara Larsson and Alessia Cara. At the moment, I’m really loving more indie-alt pop songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers, Holly Humberstone, Lauren Aquilina and, of course, the Folklore album by Taylor Swift!

In ‘normal’ times, how is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
With COVID, things have obviously been so shaken up that it’s quite hard imagining them starting again soon – I still have my fingers crossed though! I’m local between London and Essex and pre-COVID days I would go to or perform at gigs about three times a week. Watching live music is so inspiring and it always motivates me to keep working on my craft.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
I would say expect some amazing energy and music from my all-female band – they are all badass musicians! We’ve worked on some really cool arrangements and there’s some sing-alongs too, which is always fun! I’m so lucky and grateful to get to gig with them and can’t wait til we get started again!

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
Oh my, where to start, there are so many!! But a few of my suggestions would be Maisie Peters, Griff, Emily Burns, GRACEY, The Valla and UPSAHL.

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
Now that we can’t gig and every artist has turned to social media, it feels even harder to rise above the noise and it’s more difficult to meet new people / network than it usually is. But there are definitely new ways of getting noticed that artists like myself need to explore and experiment with! I feel that the best way to use social media is to literally be social, meet people and have real conversations with them instead of simply using it as a self-promotion tool.

Finally, what does the rest of 2020 have in store for Cristina Hart?
Now that it’s coming close to an end I would say the EP release is the main thing! I’ll be posting in the coming weeks some snippets from the creative process of recording this EP – I can’t wait! 

Big thanks to Cristina for answering our questions!

 

Cristina Hart’s new EP, Sell A Dream, is out now.

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Track Of The Day: Maria BC – ‘Adelaide’

An ambient reflection on disconnecting from the world before finding your way back to it again, Brooklyn-based musician Maria BC has shared their debut single ‘Adelaide’. Taken from their upcoming EP Devil’s Rain, which is set for release on 5th February 2021 via Fear of Missing Out Records, the track is a blissful, lo-fi meditation on breaking introverted thought cycles.

“A friend of mine used to work as a museum guard,” Maria explains about the inspiration behind their new single. “Guests would almost never ask her questions, so she had a lot of downtime. She would spend hours building ‘memory palaces’ which are a mnemonic device that have helped some people to achieve total autobiographical recall. My friend would spend six, seven hours a day making these palaces. When she told me about this, another friend of mine said, ‘Aren’t you worried about getting lost in your interiority?’ And I thought, ‘damn, that’s so true’. I’ve seen that happen to so many people. It’s happened to me many times — this feeling that I’m stuck in the architecture of my own ego. ‘Adelaide’ isn’t about my museum guard friend — it’s a song addressed to a depressed version of myself, or someone who needs a hand to pull them back into the social world.”

Maria’s metaphorical hand is extended via soft guitar sounds and hushed vocals on the single. “I don’t want to tell you this,” Maria tentatively remarks before carefully unfolding their thoughts over four minutes of ambient sounds. Recorded in Maria’s apartment through April and May of 2020, ‘Adelaide’ is an intimate, soothing offering and a revealing insight into what’s to come from this talented emerging artist in 2021.

Listen to ‘Adelaide’ below.

Follow Maria BC on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: Sergio Gutierrez

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Nuha Ruby Ra – ‘Sparky’

Perhaps it’s the nature of the year that we’ll soon be bidding goodbye to, but it’s seen Nuha Ruby Ra go from a one-time member of an art collective in a warehouse in East London, making confessional songs backed by DIY videos, to being played on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6Music breakfast show, and announcing the cover art of her new EP.  

All of Ra’s singles to date have been confessional, with ‘Cruel‘ also speaking to sexual experience – but ‘Sparky’ takes things up a notch. For starters, there’s that ‘Warm Leatherette’ bass-line, and a sax hook that lingers, off-kilter, but insistent. And then there’s the lyrical content: the chorus of “… run your fingers through my hair / Get your words out my head” – a contradictory summation of the power exchange found in the verses, which see Ra both chiding and encouraging the intended listener. 

“I’m Sparky”, Ra has said in the press for the single, “It’s a name I was given by an old flame”, and that the nickname harks back to a period of “sex and dominance… Restless, irritated and reflective, even while having great sex”.  The song’s lyrics are mostly spoken, giving them an extra sense of honesty and directness, with the dualities of lust and rejection, control and resistance typified by images of spilt, sticky prosecco and long journeys taken for dirty weekends.

Sonically, the song sits somewhere between the post-punk of Ra’s sometime collaborators Warmduscher and the darker side of ’80s synthpop: it’s particularly hard not to make comparisons to Soft Cell’s ‘Sex Dwarf’ and Depeche Mode’s ‘Master and Servant’. With Ra’s accent, stance, originality of style and frank talk, there’s a little something of Neneh Cherry, on top there too.  

That combination is one of the key elements to Nuha Ruby Ra’s apparent emergence out of nowhere: her diversity of taste and willingness to take influence from seemingly disparate places at once. On a more practical level, but no less important, is her already well-established connections to alternative music’s best musicians and producers – ‘Sparky’, for example, was developed in a ‘synth cave’ owned by Psychedelic Furs, featuring members of Liars and Insecure Men, whilst its producer and mixer have both worked with such luminaries as Lana Del Rey, Patti Smith and David Bowie. If that’s not enough to tell you that Nuha Ruby Ra’s career is ready to ignite, then  a listen to ‘Sparky’ certainly will.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

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PREMIERE: The Yves – ‘Golden Days’

A shimmering, nostalgic musing about inevitably progressing from youth to adulthood, LA-based indie duo The Yves have shared their latest single ‘Golden Days’. Full of soft guitar sounds, tender vocals and reflective lyrics, the track provides a sunny moment of respite during a time of universal uncertainty.

“’Golden Days’ is one of those songs that was started and finished in about an hour,” explains vocalist Stevie Perry. “Initially, we thought that maybe the song was too soft, or too endearing to actually release. Probably because it was about vulnerable, intimate thoughts I had and I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to show that side of myself. Selfishly, I like to keep a little distance or allure to things- maybe as a form of self-preservation.”

“But of course, that’s not our job as artists,” Perry continues. “Our job is to dredge up those feelings that we all have and shed some light on them. And as a listener, I always think the best kinds of songs are the ones that are most vulnerable and raw. So it’s only right that we put it out. It’s hard to talk about getting older and growing up. I sometimes wish I could freeze a day or moment and have it forever. I mean, I think we all do that. So that’s what I hope people get from it. A little minute freeze-framed in your mind when you listen.”

Along with guitarist Jake Randle, Perry has crafted a gentle alt-folk gem that proves rose-tinting your memories isn’t always a bad thing, sometimes it’s what makes them so precious. Listen to ‘Golden Days’ below.

Follow The Yves on Spotify, Instagram, Facebook & Twitter for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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