Kristen Martell is keeping up her collaboration with award-winning artist Gabrielle Papillon and award-winning Producer Dan Ledwell (Jenn Grant, The Fortunate Ones, Rachel Beck). Following up the trios previous effort, “Photograph of Secrets,”, is “Quiet Hearts,” a dreamy new single about resilience when the world is a little less and sunshine and rainbows.
Martell might be offering up a gentle coaxing for all of us to keep going, despite the challenges—the song softly eases us into an anthem, gleaning a few notes from Jewel Kilcher. As Martell points out her team of Papillon and Ledwell have played a large role in the production, but it’s drummer Jordi Comstock who has taken up the mantel of backseat driver. That gentle coaxing is powered by a big engine and it sounds like Comstock is ready to break into Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” or Sigur Ros’ “Glósóli.” “Quiet Hearts” wants to run but seems to have contented itself with torque.
“It’s been amazing working with this all-star team as they help me hone my dreamy folk/pop sound,” says Martell. “I’m so grateful for this team and how they helped shape this song.”
There’s no need to wonder what sort of inspiration went into this song. We’ve all lived through it, and lines like “What a year! Was it a waste of time or was it necessary for our state of mind” is fairly representative of a big mood that has been permanently ingrained upon our collective psyche.
“‘Quiet Hearts,’ to me, is about confronting our inner critic, and defiantly choosing to grow and rise above it,” explains Martell. “This powerful tune is about shining a light on the burdens that weigh us down. This song brings feelings of liberation for me and makes me want to stand up and move my body! With gentle layers of synth, pulsing keys, an infectious beat, and gang vocals, I hope it has the listener standing tall amidst their innermost challenges and ready to illuminate the path ahead.”
Martell says that the single will be followed by an official music video directed by Yarmouth, Nova Scotia filmmaker James Turpin, and will be available on October 28th, 2021 with more to come for 2022.