Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
This week, liquidjane is the New Music Monday highlight!
liquidjane is a project started by Skye Allen that has been ongoing since 2019. On June 14th, Allen released her first EP, Light Matter, which was produced by her collaborator Miles Lewis.
Allen previously was the vocalist in local bands Spliff Personalities and The Miles Skye Club, but shortly before the pandemic, Allen’s other projects went on hiatus so she was seeking a way to continue to create music.
“I always had the inclination that I’d go do my own thing as well as doing other group projects because I have so much expression coming out of me and so much that I’m inspired by—I’m always creating,” Allen told Victoria Buzz.
“I wanted to do my own thing that was more representative of what I’m like when it’s just my inner monologue.”
Her new EP features 11 tracks which Allen said were largely inspired by hip hop, jazz and 90s R&B.
To create this record, she collaborated with Lewis, who made all the beats, as well as a handful of local musicians, Bobby Arson, Lucas Bell, Lex Verstraten, Miles Meechan and Shane Ranger to add a live band element to the recordings.
The 11 tracks that are on Light Matter came together over several years as she considered how she wanted to make the record and what kind of music she wanted it to be.
“In the process of making it, I feel like I had to overhaul a lot within my life to finish the project—to be a person who can finish a project,” she laughed.
“I had to really hone in on what my systems were, what my values are, why am I even making it, you know, who do I want to be making it with, what are my relationships like—are they supportive of me making this—all this stuff.”
Through it all, Allen says that she was able to build a really strong foundation in the process of making Light Matter and in the process she was able to answer all these questions for herself.
liquidjane’s first single off the record, “Don’t Trip”, she says came to her in a process of writing that stemmed from her subconscious.
“That one was a completely different song for a while,” Allen explained. “It was just a raw recording in my phone.”
She says the song was able to take new life because she would listen to the beats Lewis made for her without any vocals as she went about her daily routine.
Allen would walk around Victoria, ride the bus or do her errands with the tracks playing in the background. She says that by doing this, melodies would come to her more naturally.
“Words would just start coming to me if I wasn’t just sitting around super hyper-focussed on the song,” Allen said.
“I think when I’m getting the general vibe for a song, I just kind of like to have it around me and it starts to form itself like a little ball of clay.”
On “Don’t Trip”, she revisited her previous rendition of the song with new inspiration thanks to the beat by Lewis and letting a ‘stream-of-consciousness’ approach take the reins.
She says even after finding the words and the melody for this song, she thought it was still missing something, so she enlisted her friend Miles Meechan to add some “soulful, warm” guitar tones on the track.
Allen says the lyrics to this song are meant to inspire people to not be so caught up in what others may think of them.
“I feel like there’s a lot on us here for how we should be, what we should be saying, how we should be presenting ourselves and letting that slide is all about following your intuition,” Allen told Victoria Buzz.
“Knowing what’s coming out of you is supposed to be there, otherwise it wouldn’t be there—you know, working with your nature as opposed to trying to be something to please everybody else.”
Preview “Don’t Trip” and the rest of Light Matter below:
To hear Light Matter in its entirety, check out liquidjane’s Bandcamp, Spotify or Apple Music pages.
Currently, Allen says liquidjane doesn’t have any upcoming shows, but she is exploring how she would want to approach her live sound and may be playing shows in the future.
Primarily, she is focussed on another recording endeavour as liquidjane.
To stay up to date with liquidjane’s recordings, potential future performances and life, follow her on Instagram.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Prince Shima creates ‘Half Earth Socialism’ as soundtrack for video game
- New Music Monday: CORRODE injects debut EP with hardcore energy and meaning
- New Music Monday: Trophy Dad turns sad feelings into happy songs with latest EP
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
liquidjane says that upon releasing her album in June, CFUV’s Music Director Troy Lemberg immediately reached out to have her submit the single and EP to the station.
“I didn’t really know if anyone would play my stuff and people started playing it right away and they were so kind,” Allen said.
“I appreciate it, like any artist, I make music because I love making it and because I have to express myself that way—it’s a part of who I am. But the hope is to share it and someone else can vibe to it. If people like it enough to play it on their radio show, that’s amazing and I’m very, very grateful.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of liquidjane in the comments below.
