Marie Naffah has released her debut EP Golden State today (April 9th) via Frictionless Music. It is out now on all streaming platforms here. Marie will be premiering a live performance of the EP in its entirety on her YouTube channel tonight at 6:30pm GMT here.
The EP is influenced by a life-changing trip Marie took across America's West Coast and is inspired by the sights, sounds and feelings she encountered there.
It features the brand new track 'Cold Water', a luscious soulful love song and a spectacular example of Marie's show-stopping vocals. The EP also features previously released and well-received singles including the brooding indie-pop anthem 'Wasteland', groove-laden 'The Cage' and the chill-hop jazz-influenced 'California'.
Regarding the EP Marie says, "It feels awesome to be releasing this EP because the individual songs really feel like they were born, and belong, together. The songs are multi-layered memories of my trip to the West Coast of America: the going, the coming home, the exhaustion and the exhilarating revitalisation that comes with an adventure. There's a song for every mood.
"The title 'Golden State' references the Californian road trip that sparked inspiration for the EP tracks. It also serves as a reflection of the ideal state of mind that I either felt or longed for in the process of making them.
"I found my sound making this EP. You spend your life trying to answer 'what genre is your music' and whilst making this record I felt liberated as a songwriter to borrow from all the genres that influenced me. So if 'The Cage' was electro-pop, 'California' has jazz and a hip-hop beat, 'Wasteland' is a rock and indie-pop anthem and 'Cold Water' is a big, swooning love song, heavily influenced by The Beatles' 'Something' and Aretha Franklin's 'Natural Woman'. Unified through my vocals, it feels rad to have made a sound that is uniquely mine. I'm not deliberately breaking the rules, I'm just doing what feels right for me."
The EP has been recorded with Neil Comber (Florence + The Machine, Glass Animals, Charli XCX), Matt Colton (Arctic Monkeys, Christine and the Queens) and Simon Byrt (Pixx, Charlotte OC, Babeheaven).
In a way reminiscent of the likes of Lianne La Havas, Florence Welch, Lily Moore and Maggie Rogers, Marie brings captivating stories to life with the Golden State EP and while permeates it with a rich infectious tone distinctly her own.
