Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to the latest single from London based singer-songwriter, Aruna. Confessions is released today and is this young Indian-born artist’s second release.
Confessions is a song that explores the complications that comes with what Aruna describes as a ‘situationship’. It details the confusion that the narrator faces whilst being in one. The storyline of the song stems from not only the singer’s own past experiences but from seeing friends and acquaintances fall into the same traps that she herself was once all too familiar with.
The song starts with a simple picked pattern on acoustic guitar. When the vocals come in, they are clear in the mix and with modern stylings. We’re not sure how old Aruna is, but her voice would lead us to think perhaps very early 20s. There is a power in her belt and she makes great use of twang techniques in her vocal toolbox to make the voice cut through perfectly in the higher notes. Aruna also has some quality, airy, head voice notes here, displaying some great versatility in the upper range. Aruna makes great use of layered vocals, with some great stereo harmonies.
As the song develops, there are subtle additions to the instrumentation and a gentle rise and fall throughout. We particularly liked the use of piano, and can imagine that this song would work well with just vocals and piano as a live performance.
Ideas from our ears
A cut around 95Hz would reduce some occasional ‘boominess’ when the toms come in. The snare sound is quite dominant around 184Hz so a careful surgical cut here would help it fit a little better in the track The acoustic guitar in the intro is resonating on the G so a surgical cut at 196Hz would bring that under control. A boost around 6kHz would give the overall track a little more presence. There may be an occasional little ‘whistle’ coming from the vocal track around 12-13kHz which could be avoided by turning the vocal mic at a slight angle when recording. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Aruna has a superb voice which is only going to get more powerful as she gets older. Her twang and belt voice are highly developed and controlled and we’re looking forward to hearing more from this talented young vocalist/songwriter.