Rising singer, songwriter and musician Erica Manzoli continues to cement her potential as One To Watch today with the announcement of her debut EP I’m Okay, I Promise, due for release on April 29 via The Orchard / Sony Music. In tandem with the announcement, Erica has also released her second single ‘Silent Movie’ accompanied by a stunning black and white official music video which will be released tonight at 6PM BST.
DOWNLOAD/STREAM ‘SILENT MOVIE’
‘Silent Movie’ tackles Erica’s deeply personal experience of growing up with feelings of dissociation and derealisation. It follows on from her exquisite debut, ‘My Best Friend Is My Therapist’, praised by Wonderland as Erica “bursting onto the scene with the melancholic-tinged cut that dreams are made of”. Both singles are due to appear on Erica’s debut EP I’m Okay, I Promise.
As a very visually-inspired artist who often cites influence from films such as Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom among others ahead of musical influences, Erica’s visuals are works of minimalist beauty. The video that accompanies ‘Silent Movie’ continues her use of projectors to illustrate the song’s narrative, akin to the visual for ‘My Best Friend Is My Therapist’ that Notion described as “a minimalist visualisation that helps to emphasise the raw emotions that Manzoli is expressing” that used contrasting real and digital versions of herself to depict the detached nature of the digital world, projected onto semi-translucent fabric to reflect the fragility and often see-through nature of an online persona vs real life.
On ‘Silent Movie’ Erica says “Growing up I felt extremely disconnected from reality. I was convinced people weren’t real or they were actors and I would do reckless things to try and catch them out somehow. Almost like I was in The Truman Show. I would dissociate for days at a time and all my senses would lessen and I’d feel numb. My vision would blur round the edges, colours seemed less bright, sounds became distorted and I felt like I was in a dream-like state or some sort of silent movie, so this single is a personal and honest description of that feeling.”
Continuing, Erica discusses the video, saying “I wanted to pay tribute to that time in my youth by projecting home footage of my childhood throughout the video. I can heal and grow but that little girl that was scared of the world and heavily disconnected will always be in me and I played with that thought by having those clips dance over my skin.”
Fans will be able to hear the EP live for the first time at Erica’s recently announced headline live show at The Waiting Room in London on May 5. Tickets are on sale HERE.
