Last night, the Irish-Canadian artist 0Stella and newly established, Irish artist Callistan held an intimate listening party on Zoom to premier their new track, a remix of 0Stella’s 2019 alternative rock song, ‘Fire.’ For this release, Cal took ‘Fire,’ cut it up, and stitched it back together into a dance-pop track. The remix of ‘Fire’ is due for release this month. 0Stella opened the meeting by playing ‘Fire’ live and acoustic, before delving into a behind the scenes look at the track.
0Stella describes the track as a ‘declaration of imperfection;’ she created it to empower people, especially women and young people, to embrace their imperfections and love themselves regardless. It is a powerful and authentic message coming from 0Stella and Cal, who are both outspoken advocates for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights having worked with Girls Rock music camps in Ireland and Canada.
0Stella played the original version of the track on her DAW, sharing her screen on Zoom, to show off the intricate layers of the production. The full arrangement is dominated by her vocals and a gritty, heavy guitar and bass; however, underneath this there is a sophisticated and complex architecture to the song. Layers of gentle synths and backing vocals, and an introspective string arrangement, hide beneath the rough exterior. It was perhaps unintended but this struck me because it mirrors how emotions behave, particularly those caused by the anxiety and insecurity 0Stella was hoping to address here. Often, harsh emotions such as frustration or hatred are placeholders for other, subtler forms of pain.
After this, Cal talked us through his reworking of the song. Like me, he was drawn to the understated synths and brought these into the spotlight in his interpretation to produce an upbeat, dance-pop track. Similarly, he shared his screen and talked us through some of the main elements of the song and how they related to the original before playing his version through in full. The ability to host this kind of behind-the-scenes meeting and show off the intricacies of a song is a welcome side-effect of the virtual nature of the world at the moment. It is a great experience to find any positive aspects of the times we are currently living in, and this preview and listening party for both versions of ‘Fire’ certainly felt like one of those positive moments. Accepting yourself and your imperfections is an important affirmation to advocate for at any time, but it is particularly relevant in these times of high worry and concern. The remix of ‘Fire’ will mark Cal’s first official release, and it is a strong starting point for him with this new project.
‘Fire’ will be released on 25th September, and you can pre-save the track here. In the meantime, you can listen to the original version of 'Fire' below.