Track by Track is a regular new music feature that find an artists detailing and dissecting every track on their latest effort.
Last summer, English synthop singer Victoria Hesketh, aka Little Boots, dropped her Afterhours EP. Now, again in time for warmer weather, she’s back with a follow-up. It’s titled Burn and due out tomorrow, April 6th.
The new collection finds Hesketh diving into darker dance-floor arrangements while also linking up with an all-star team of female/femme producers. Joining her on the EP are Joyce Muniz, Lauren Flax, Planningtorock, and Cora Novoa. The entire release was mixed by Marta Salogni, whose previous credits include Björk.
“Creating a project focused on female talent is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and the process was incredibly inspiring,” Hesketh shared in a statement. “The producers involved hail from more underground backgrounds sonically and have very different approaches, but what tied everything together was their open mindedness and embrace of pop hooks and melodies.”
Ahead of its official release date, Consequence of Sound is premiering Burn in its entirety. There’s the hypnotic opener “Shadows” and the aching “Picture”, followed by the punctuated beats of “Eros” and the stuttering energy of “River”. You can hear each track below, followed by Hesketh’s track by track dissection of the four-song effort.
“Shadows”:
“Shadows” was the first track I wrote for the EP and came together very quickly. Joyce Muniz sent me a beat and the topline came very quickly and naturally which is always the best way. I was coming out of a break up at the time, and living that strange dual life of going out a lot and being social to keep busy but actually deep down feeling very anti social and lost. It really is a tears on the dance floor song… .about drinking the bitterest dregs of a leftover love than giving in to losing it completely and realising you deserve more.
“Picture”:
This track was very much inspired by my experience with social media, and our often powerless relationship with technology. We are bombarded with images on an hourly basis and although we have an illusion of control over our curation, the reality is most of the time we have very little influence over what we see and how we are affected by it. So for example you are feeling in a positive place then an image, whether its of a person from your past you were trying to move on from or a memory re-shared to you by an algorithm, is thrown in your path and sends you completely off track. Lauren Flax produced it who I am a huge fan of, we worked together remotely sending ideas back and forwards including piano and strings and guitars; I love the combination of organic and electronic sounds in this track and the way it builds to a beautiful climax.
“Eros”:
This was a collaboration with Planningtorock, which I was very excited about as I loved their earlier work like “Lets Talk About Gender Baby”. I’d been reading a book called Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson that explores the Greeks’ idea of love and desire tracing back to poems of Sappho and other classical poets and philosophers. It struck a chord as I was reevaluating and redefining my feelings around these ideas at the time, then Jam sent me this sexy Cerrone beat and soaring strings and it all just came together! We wanted to channel Kylie meets Hercules & Love Affair meets classic disco… I love when a left field producer isn’t afraid to reference all out pop music.
“River”:
This song is really about loss and grief, and how it never really goes away just dries up inside of you… I actually wrote the lyrics as a poem first then adapted them to the beautiful haunting electronic track that the producer Cora Novoa sent me. It seems like quite a sad song but there is a really voice of hope in there if you listen! The lyrics of this EP are some of my most personal to date and it actually feels really liberating to just wear your emotions on your sleeve and not try and hide behind music or concepts. We shot the video underwater in a bath so I had to practice singing underwater holding my breath with my eyes open, nothing like a challenge!