CYNTHIA HAMAR – SHAKEN

Edmonton (Canada) artist, Cynthia Hamar, has just released her latest single, Shaken, and we’ve been honoured to be given the opportunity to be introduced to this exceptional vocalist and songwriter here at the Send Me Your Ears Studio.

Shaken is a song of the internal conversations that a person has with themselves after a trauma. It’s about recognising the need to let go of the pain and embrace a brighter future.

Shaken is, frankly, a beautiful beautiful song. With some gorgeous stereo in the electric guitar part and some really quite remarkable use of subtle incidental instrumentation, Shaken has ticked every single box for us. This is world class writing and performance.

With a feeling that you just need to close your eyes and enjoy the music, the song has an almost Notting Hillbillies feel to the introductory instrumental section – anything from the slower songs on “Missing… Presumed Having a Good Time”. When the vocal comes in, Cynthia’s voice is crystal clear with a maturity and confidence. It is a sexy and genuine vocal delivery with some spectacular techniques. Vocally sounding a little like Tina Turner in places, and at other times, when the chorus of background vocals come in, we were reminded a little of Fleetwood Mac.

The song simply washes over you and with an even more subtle and gentle break down at the end, we feel treated to something that many people are going to hear in the coming months.

This is a really emotional song and that comes across very clearly in the vocal performance. From a production perspective, a small boost around 160Hz would add to the warmth and depth of the track. A small cut around 600-650Hz would balance out some peaks in the vocal track. The biggest difference would be achieved with a large and wide boost across the high mids to highs, centred around 7-8kHz. This would add some presence and definition overall as well as bringing out the vulnerability in the vocal performance. A small additional shelf boost in the top octave would add some extra sheen to the finish. A light compressor could boost the warmth and add a few extra dBs too.

Cynthia Hamar’s new single, Shaken, is an outstanding work of art. We were new to Cynthia’s music today, but she has herself a new team of super-fans to cheer her on. We cannot wait to hear what she produces next.