WHEREVER YOU ARE, CELEBRATE THE NORTHERN SPRING WITH ‘FLOWER’

Posted bythestevebellprojectsPosted incomposer, jazz music, Music, new artist, new song, Pop music, Song writing

Very much in the Norah Jones jazz/pop genre, ‘Flower’ is the jewel in the crown of The Steve Bell Projects ‘Two of Us’ EP. While it’s got mellow smooth jazz feel, the song carries great meaning; celebrating a young woman’s desire to grow and make her mark despite the words and obstructions of others.

The song stands out, not only because of Tiara’s amazing vocal performance but the rich Bacharach style of string arrangements. Says Bell ‘I got Tiara to work with the strings rather than vice versa. The aim was to get her to harmonise around the strings and, as the composer, ensure that the richness of the music was never secondary to the vocals. They must blend.’ Without doubt the song achieves this and is a highlight of the ‘Two of Us’ EP.

Indian born Tiara Abigail was discovered three years after Bell wrote the song. Says Bell ‘I kept trying out terrific singers but they never quite had the Nora Jones combination of strength and innocence that i was searching for.’ It was in 2024 that Bell met his now close friend Mark Balachander on an airline flight from Melbourne to Bangkok. In conversation they discovered a mutual love of jazz pop music. Says Bell ‘It was from here that I discovered that Mark’s sister in law Tiara sang jazz. He asked me to listen to her on Instagram and i melted when i heard her voice. I knew then I’d finally found a vocalist to sing Flower. We did the zoom thing because she is studying music in Germany and a few months later i had these really nice vocal stems engineered by her equally talented producer fiancé John Israel in Bangalore. Such is the international flavour of this whole EP!’

Bell attributed the lyrics to the deep and devoted relationship he has shared with his daughter Annie. Says Bell ‘I learnt so much about the dreams, beliefs, insecurities and challenges faced by women in their late teens and early twenties just by being there for my beautiful Annie. We have an incredibly close relationship which was pivotal when writing these lyrics’.

Ultimately ‘Flower’ is a jazz song with an incredibly catchy melody that drives it into the realms of a chilled pop song. Without a doubt it successfully achieves that Norah Jones vibe.

Tiara

Listen to Flower by following the link❤️🎶

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/thestevebellprojects/two-of-us/

Published by thestevebellprojects

‘My thrill is to take relatively unknown, very unique and talented singers and compose and arrange retro songs that they record.’ Born in Melbourne, Australia, Steve Bell was brought up on seventies and eighties pop, soul and funk. He was obsessed with Earth Wind and Fire, Bee Gees, Al Jarreau, Gino Vannelli, TOTO, George Benson and, the great, David Foster. He liked class music with rich melodies - a big feature of his own writing today. While at college he played drums in numerous bands, but in his own words ‘wasn’t much chop at that’. But he did have a knack for playing piano by ear and writing ‘kind of cool’ ballads and soul songs. In his twenties he had a part-time role (on top of his day job) as a pop music critic for a local arts magazine, where he interviewed acclaimed artists from across the world. His interviews were always deep and focused on learning more and more about great songwriting and performing. Then he took a break - for over 25 years, running his company and being a family ‘guy’. However, he yearned for creative endeavours and once locked down during the COVID crisis, he started writing songs again. His first song ‘Lonely View’ was written looking out across the local bay from his composing studio and recorded using the amazing vocals of Jennifer Davids. Thus he started the journey of identifying a talented singer every few months and penning them a song with rich 70s and 80s melodies and jazz pop inspired chord structures.

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