London-based rising singer-songwriter Phoenix Laoutaris releases her brand new single ‘When The Lights Go Down’.
Following on from her debut single ‘Flowers’, and feature on MoStack’s ‘Real Love’, ‘When The Lights Go Down’ showcases Phoenix’s trademark delicate blend of drill and R&B. Produced by LiTek (Central Cee, Aitch, Pa Salieu), the new offering shows a more vulnerable side of the newcomer, as Phoenix flirts with subjects of trust, singing ‘Who’s really there for me to go to, they show me love but I don’t know them, now I can’t trust emotions broken’.
Speaking about her new single, Phoenix says, “‘When the lights go down’ works on a couple of levels. It is a song of hope after really hard times – it touches upon the despair and effort it takes to sustain love struggling in unhealthy dimensions of deceit and lies. More importantly though, it is about recognising and being grateful for the loyal relationships of family and friends and to be aware of people who’s intentions aren’t true. It’s about priorities and realisation”.
You can still watch back at the precise moment Phoenix was discovered.
Broadcasting live from her bedroom over ImJustBait’s IGTV channel with more than 4 million followers, you see the then 18-year-old singer hit play on an original instrumental called ‘Flowers’, stand up straight and launch into a series of velvety vocal runs before the drill beat drops – watch here. Three minutes and a relentless cascade of compliments later, she is crowned champion of the night’s talent contest. Little more than nine months on, Phoenix is now sharing that very song as her official debut single.
Undeniably, the 19-year-old singer-songwriter is on the verge of big things. Having recently studied Popular Music Performance and Production at the prestigious BIMM Institute, Phoenix was the first female signing to Sony’s imprint WEAREBLK Music, run by the same tastemakers behind platforms imjustbait and Abdi TV, whose support was instrumental to the early careers of Niko B, Dave, and Young T and Bugsey.
A far cry from her humble, working-class roots, growing up in a sleepy market town in Devon, Totnes, Phoenix inherited her love of music from her professional violinist mother and multi-instrumentalist father. She picked up violin aged five, and studied piano at school shortly after that. At home, she was exposed to a multitude of different musical styles, from the Motown and classical music much loved by her mother, and the reggae and jazz enjoyed by her father, to a mix of R&B, hip hop, garage and jungle via her four older siblings. By her early teens she was devouring the work of Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway, D’Angelo, and at 15 she began writing her own material as a way of processing painful emotions and experiences.
Phoenix Laoutaris is an exciting proposition – with just two singles in her arsenal, she has portrayed levels of consistency and artistic integrity that many newcomers strive for.
There is no questioning, when the lights come up, Phoenix shines.
