Bronte Eve Latest Single - Over
We got the chance to have a chat with the lovely Bronte Eve earlier this week and found out all about her newest release ‘Over’. The single sees her venturing into a new genre of Neo-Soul and Hip-Hop, brought together by her big vocals, and a catchy minimal beat produced by Jay0rient in his home studio, making for easy listening over and over again. We also spoke to Bronte about her exciting plans for next year along with her art and other artistic ventures.
WANDERER:Congratulations on your new single OVER. Does it feel good for it to be out?
BRONTE EVE:Oh my God. So good. It’s honestly been a long time coming, it was supposed to come out like three months ago and I kept pushing it back and pushing it back. And it feels like such a relief knowing that it's out now.
Tell us a bit about the release, what was it inspired by?
So in the past few years I have been really interested in doing more Neo-Soul music and going down that genre. And I never did. I always did lots of folk alternative before that. So when I met Jay0rient, the guy who produced the song—he is a hip hop producer, he was like,’Oh we should mess around with something a bit different.’ And I was playing with new chords, I honestly just searched up Neo-Soul chords and went from there. I took inspiration from this French artist called Biig Piig who's really low-fi, all about that kind of Milky bass music. So we just went from there. And I was going through the middle of a sort of break up, love affair thingy mabob, whatever the hell they are. I was like, Oh, it's the perfect time to sing a kind of double ended song. Where I'm kind of sad, but I'm also kind of like I'm better than this. And it worked really well with the genre. There's quite a lot of sting in it. And I really wanted to create something that was really effortless. I love to sing really dramatically and put a lot of oomf into it, but it was nice to pull back and just do something that was just a story.
Yeah I feel like this whole Neo-Soul and hip hop thing is a new direction for you in terms of your sound, compared to your last single ‘Mess I Made’, what was the influence behind the exploration of the genre?
It was definitely influenced by me, myself, majority. But my dad is a massive hip hop head and I always grew up listening to Mobb Deep and Dr. Dre and all these nineties boombox [artists]. And I digested that, I found the females of that time, like Lauren Hill and Angie Stone. And then from there I've tried to find the new age version of them. Lots of inspiration from Georgia Smith and Olivia Dean and all these new artists to kind of bring me some new inspo.
And do you think this genre is something that you're going to keep developing on?
I definitely think I'm going to keep developing on it and hopefully I don't want to stay stuck in the same genre. I want to be able to mix it all up, but the next song that I'm releasing is very similar, but even more hip-hop. And I just want to feel like they'll always have that layer of soul in it. Even my folk stuff had a lot of soul in it. That's just like the base of my music and the base of my voice. But I'd love to branch out into something a bit more alternative, something a bit more psychedelic. I’m open to whatever the hell I'm feeling.
How was the recording process? Did you record it all from home?
Yeah, so Jay has a home studio and it's just like his laptop and a bit of gear, an easy set up. So I used to go over to his a lot and we would just make random songs. He was in there pretty much every day. So I was searching up and messing with chords, kind of like building a beat off this Biig Piig artist's stuff, seeing where her beats were and basically replicating that. And then my mate, Tom, who plays guitar in my band, he came in and added a little extra stuff to it and picked some chords and that, which made a difference. Then from there it was maybe two weeks, three weeks, building it, going back to the studio. I really wanted the vocals to be heavy in this. It was really simple, simple verses. I wanted the chorus to have that big build and then kind of fall back down. And one of our friends, he's a saxophone player, he was at the recording studio and he was all, ‘This is sick, you need some brass in there, I'll play’ and I was like ‘Hell yeah.’ So then he just went in the booth, recorded it, and it was really good. It worked out perfectly.
Do you find that recording in a home studio is a relaxing sort of environment?
Yeah, I think it really depends on what you're recording. Like if I was to do a really lively jazz or rock thing, I would probably want to do it all at once in a studio. But for that R&B soul, intimate is better, because it's so minimal, so heavily vocal based. It's like getting the skeleton down and then just being able to go into your studio only for the vocals and just be in the booth and over and over again try different things. It suited the genre so well.
I wanted to talk a little about the art you’ve done for the single. Is that something that you're wanting to try and do more of, merging your music with your art?
Yeah, actually it's probably only been in the last six months that I've really ramped that up. I've had an account for a really long time, it's @icallthishealing and I just used to post random stuff and not take it seriously. And then in the past six months I really got addicted to design and art and being able to multimedia mix everything. Cause one day I'd love to do that. I've always wanted to be the one who created the brand for myself, I've always known the vision, known what I want things to look like, know what I want. So actually incorporating my artwork in my single covers is a really big thing to me, and also trying to get that revenue to my art so I can do both on the side.
Yeah. I love your stuff. It looks awesome.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I've just finished this massive piece, which was really fun. I've actually got my first little art show this weekend, which I'm really excited about.
Where's that at?
It's actually in Byron and it's at a mates place, It's a mini birthday party, we have organised to showcase some firends music and art. My plan is to do a lot more like that. I may have some merch coming that has some fun stuff on it!
Do you have anything else in the works?
Well at the moment, it's a bit up in the air, like in between musos and kind of changing stuff like that, but being a soul artist it's always an up and down thing. It's been good. I've got an incredible band but we're all moving away and changing stuff like that. I'm kind of going on the lowdown for a little bit. I've got about two gigs to finish the year, which will be really nice just to get everything done. And then from there I'm planning to move overseas next year.
Whereabouts?
Hopefully Berlin. Well, that's a really big one for me and a few friends. I joined another band called the Dharma Chain and they're moving over there. I just like broadening my horizons, I want to join other bands, do other things, I definitely want to open up.
