Naarm's own El Tee, a familiar and respected figure in the Australian indie music landscape since 2018, has unveiled a deeply personal and affecting new single, 'I Still Sing About You'. This raw and honest track offers a glimpse into her upcoming EP, 'Kind Safe Cool', slated for release on May 30th. With its poignant words and a sweeping musical arrangement that manages to be both tender and bruised, the song beautifully captures the enduring ache of lost love and the intricate truths that follow in its wake.
Having cultivated a dedicated following through her vulnerable songwriting and remarkable ability to transform pain into poetic expression, El Tee has become a significant voice in alt-folk and indie rock. Her critically acclaimed 2020 debut, 'Everything Is Fine', resonated widely, topping community radio charts and earning her a nomination for Best Rock Act at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards. With support from triple j and praise from publications like NME and Rolling Stone Australia, El Tee has firmly established herself as one of the country's most emotionally resonant artists.
'I Still Sing About You' stands out as a particularly powerful moment on 'Kind Safe Cool', a collection of songs that delves into themes of identity, resilience, and the often-difficult journey of separating self-worth from past relationships. Reflecting on the track, El Tee shares, “This is probably my favourite song on the EP, and also the song that took me the longest to write. This song looks back on a relationship after it’s over, reflecting on both the regrets and the things I loved. Those feelings can be conflicting, but sometimes they’re one and the same.”
El Tee's songwriting possesses a remarkable nuance, delicately balancing feelings of anger, nostalgia, and self-awareness. Her voice, previously described as soothing, now carries a tremor of both anguish and clarity, illustrating how time and heartbreak can reshape even the most gentle aspects of ourselves. The EP's title, 'Kind Safe Cool', is drawn from a lyric within 'I Still Sing About You' - “I hate it how you made me feel kind and safe and cool”—a poignant observation on how relationships can create a false reflection of our own identities.
El Tee elaborates, “Experiences are a mirror to who we are. I write a lot of personal narrative and emotionally charged experiences and perspectives. 'Kind Safe Cool' is about realising that the relationship didn’t give me those qualities, it only mirrored them back to me for a while.”
With 'Kind Safe Cool', El Tee demonstrates continued growth, not only in her musicality but also in her emotional and thematic exploration. While her debut album explored the struggle of reclaiming self-worth, this EP dives into a deeper introspection: what happens when we cease seeking validation from others and begin to truly see ourselves?
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