West London’s Unflirt releases her new EP April’s Nectar today, arriving complete with latest single ‘White Noise; ‘ a swooning, strum, ripe with a longing earworm vocal, pregnant with the awkwardness of recovery after a bust up with a partner. It’s another superlative piece of songwriting that makes her one to watch in the new year.
On ‘White Noise’, she reveals; “White Noise is about that recovery period after an argument where no one is talking and both people are just waiting for the other to say something. There’s so many emotions and things that go unsaid in this silence, especially when you’re long distance and do all the talking over the phone. I guess in the song I come to the conclusion that it really isn’t worth it and that we’re better off working it out together.”
The EP was preceded by the cathartic ‘Had Enough’, and The Sundays-inspired burner ‘Someday.’ The five-track EP follows her honeyed debut EP Bitter Sweet earlier this year, as well as a recent string of live shows including a support slot for beabadoobee on the EU leg of her tour and All Points East Festival alongside HAIM back in August. Unflirt will play a London headline show at Laylow on Wednesday, December 6th, tickets here.
For April’s Nectar, Unflirt worked primarily alongside co-producer Mack Jamieson (Clavish, Wallice, Mahalia), with additional contributions from Iain Berryman and Bastian Langebæk (Olivia Dean, Nilüfer Yanya, Birdy.)
Landing in early 2023, Unflirt’s debut EP Bitter Sweet charted the ebb and flow of teenage love and heartbreak – moving from rose tinted reverence (‘Before Dawn,’ ‘Anywhere’) to regret and serene acceptance (‘Out Of Time’).
On April’s Nectar, Unflirt expands her world, dissecting a more complex range of emotions alongside fleshed out instrumentation (yet with her unmistakable vocal tone still firmly at the fore). This new collection of songs represents a maturity in Unflirt’s songwriting process too. Where her past songs were penned strictly at home before arriving in the studio, this time she placed her trust in her subconscious, turning up to sessions “empty handed” to excavate her present emotions and introspections in the company of her collaborators.
April’s Nectar is named after a metamorphic month for Unflirt which she credits for the many ways her life has since bloomed, its five songs being “the fruit of what began during that time.” Here, the palpable intensities of her young adulthood are displayed in technicolour. ‘Someday’ laments the cruelty of geography’s inevitable hand in love. ‘Had Enough’ reckons with the difference between real friendships and the shallower connections of youth. On ‘Just Pretend,’ Unflirt documents the folly of suppressing issues and doubts, and ‘White Noise’ grapples with a different kind of silence – that following a communication breakdown. With ‘Home,’ which echoes her earlier discography, Unflirt offers her most down-to-earth love song yet, one which accepts love in all its nuance.
Speaking on the EP, Unflirt shares; “These songs touch on a range of much more complex emotions that come with the reality of being in love. A huge part also that I feel has influenced my writing on this EP is what this experience has shown me about the best and worst parts of myself. I feel like I’ve gone through a second puberty from the ages 20-23, so I feel like this EP is really symbolic of that and all of the things I’ve learnt about myself from these experiences.”
Immensely proud of her heritage, Unflirt was born and raised in West London, the first generation daughter of Filipino parents. Her earliest musical experiences are performing karaoke ballads of Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder and The Beegees with her mum and dad – a “staple activity” in every Filipino household. These happy memories aided her in forging her musical identity. With no formal music training aside from basic guitar lessons imparted in her childhood by her father, she began releasing music independently during lockdown.