We catch up with the Melbourne singer-songwriter.
Beloved Melbourne singer-songwriter Sonia Serin has just revealed her new single ‘The Walls’, which comes alongside a film clip shot by Goat Records’ Andrew Dobrowlski and Tori Dunbar from Humnize Productions.
The lyrics for the track are a candid exploration of the emotional barricades we put up to shield our most vulnerable selves in relationships. Mirroring the track, the accompanying clip is poised, elegant, yet beautifully honest.
A masterful drummer and guitarist who has only recently added the piano to her repertoire, Sonia is full of surprises. Despite the melodic power of her voice in ‘The Walls’ which instantly inspires emotional connection, Sonia says her voice is not her “main instrument”.
“I never really saw myself as a great singer as such,” Sonia says. “When I started songwriting, I was singing away the melodies myself, but really I find singing so difficult because you’re at your most vulnerable.”
The music video for ‘The Walls’ is particularly captivating. Shot at Melbourne’s own Montsalvat Art Residency and the Eltham Dance Studio, the clip’s visual language emphasises the ideas rippling through the lyrics. It features the dancers Luke Zapelli and Lindsey Gillard, who dance the tango and paso doble in an entrancing whirlwind, emulating the push and pull of relationships.
A self-professed “bit of a control freak”, Sonia was involved with the entire process for the music video clip, and even edited the video herself.
“I’m sure I frustrated the hell out of everyone,” she laughs. “Filming it, with the dancers, I think I enjoyed that the most on this track. They were so gracious, it was just so fun.”
With the track initially released last year, 2020’s ongoing disruptions delayed the music video’s release. The inspiration for ‘The Walls’ arose out of the “emotional distancing” and “freezing out” Sonia had experienced during a long-gone relationship, and as Sonia turns over a new leaf, now felt like the right time to get the clip out there.
“The UNRESOLVED album is really like a chapter of the last two or so years, during which I experienced an incredible amount of loss and grief, and it just feels like I’m coming out of that, like it’s a new chapter,” she says.
Sonia has a livestream gig coming up on Friday September 25 as part of Australian Acoustic Live which stands as her first gig since COVID-19 hit in mid-March.
“A livestream… it’ll be an interesting experience,” she chuckles. “I don’t really see myself as a front-person type of performer … I feel comfortable sitting back.”
But ‘The Walls’ and its video debut have signalled the start of a new chapter for Sonia, who says the release has brought with it a “feeling of closure” around the “emotional experience around the album and this song”.
With a gorgeous new video breathing life into her song about guarded exteriors and vulnerable insides, Sonia is contemplating her own walls, and how they might be falling away.
“I just feel energised, it’s almost like I’ve dropped a guard myself,” she says. “Like how I was saying I find it so hard to be vulnerable when I sing. Now, after all of this, I don’t care as much any more – that layer of self-consciousness is gone.”
For more on Sonia Serin, check out her website, Facebook and Instagram pages.
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