Josephine Sillars, a talented Scottish singer-songwriter, has just released her new single ‘California.’
Sillars released her first single ‘Hello’ in 2014, and since then has had a steady rise in her career. She has performed at festivals like Live at Heart in Sweden, where the event partnered with EXCITE MUSIC in 2018. BBC Introducing has given her several radio plays with her last single ‘Enemy.’
Her latest release is ’California,’ a song about the realities of climate change. The track emphasises the effects that climate change has had on California, particularly the 2020 forest fires.
The fleeting sounds of the electric piano build up the landscape for her soft vocals. It took me until the bridge of the song, discussing how youth can change the future, for it to dawn on me about what the song was about. This is something that I believe is great songwriting, particularly in terms of the development of storytelling. The bridge should be used for giving the listener some new information that completely changes the chorus meaning, something Sillars has done brilliantly.
Aspects of ‘California’ are reminiscent of her previously released track ‘Enemy.’ In the bridge, you can hear a man’s voice, a similar feature of both songs. This connection between tracks suggests that we aren’t getting the full picture of the meaning behind the tracks, until future singles are released. This is an interesting aspect of songwriting, and one which I believe could be explored even more.
Josephine Sillars is scheduled to release her debut EP in February of 2021, and we are excited to hear what she has planned for the rest of the year.
