Over quarantine, I’ve listened to an immense amount of music; my Spotify playlist, which I’ve named “if my ADHD was a playlist,” is over 14hrs long. And it was just created at the beginning of February, the inspiration behind my massive playlist happened to be when my favorite Canadian band Chiiild released their first EP – Synthetic Soul.”
It was one of the first songs to be added in there, with the song “Hands off me” being my favorite. Let me dive into everything you should know about the band Chiiild and “Synthetic Soul.”
This Montreal based experimental soul band came together in 2017 and has been quietly working away at their music ever since. Led by Ethiopian Canadian Yonatan Ayal on lead vocals and bass guitar and his partner Pierre-Luc Rioux on guitar. The two create a unique genre-bending style of music, taking bits and pieces from whatever inspires them. Chiiild has cited Pink Floyd, Tame Impala, Marvin Gaye and even Fleetwood Mac as their influences. Reading their interviews, I fall more and more in love with this band; in Wonderland Magazine, Yonatan explains his other inspirations to his songs, “Writing music is about creating a score for those everyday moments.”
The EP was created in a small and cozy cabin in Saint-Zenon, Quebec. You can see miles and miles of open space covered in the bright white snow; it’s crazy how isolated they made themselves to create something so beautiful. Chiiild filmed a mini documentary of them recording their music in the cabin; Yonatan explains, “To make something special, you need to be in an environment where you can miss as many times as you need to.” Yonatan shows so much passion in his music; you can tell his family has a lot to do with that, seeing as most of the cover art is his mother, father or himself as a baby.
Now I’m going to give you my thoughts for each track on Synthetic Soul!
Starting with “Count Me Out” is an amazing starting song on the EP, you can hear the mix of soulful drums and bass complimenting his higher-pitched voice. another layer to this song is the beautiful use of the violin; Yoni studied classical music before pursuing his career, as Complex Canada said it best, Chiiild is a mix of “orchestral embellishments, unrestrained guitar, and sun-kissed psychedelia.”
“Back to life” is the second track in this ep, featuring the light and airy vocals of Shungudzo, a songwriter, poet, and activist from Zimbabwe. Yoni and Shun really bonded over the lyrics in this song, connecting though both being Black in the music industry. A verse that really stood out to me is, “If there’s a god, I hope she’s black.” With the white washing in the music industry, it can be hard to find your place as an African artist. I believe “Back to Life” is an ode to black women everywhere.
“Hands Off Me” has got to be my favorite song on this ep. Starting with how beautiful the drums’ use coincides with the electric guitar, his almost “vibey” vocals and violin. Chiild is definitely the biggest up and coming artist to look out for in alternative R&B right now. His lyrics are so hard to recognize, but it works so well for what he’s trying to create.
“Darling” is the fourth track, and right off the bat, you can hear this funky bass guitar and Tambourine. I like how each song has a unique style they are trying to bring out, “darling,” being very psychedelic rock inspired. It also reminds me of some of Tame Impalas’ older music, specifically when they focused on psychedelic rock.
“Pirouette” may be their most popular song on their ep, being #1 most played on Spotify’s most popular tracks. Starting the song with this intriguing organ style piano or keyboards, they really hit it off. Suddenly it goes into bass guitar and Yonis unique and laid-back vocals. Pirouette checks every box for the perfect alternative R&B song.
“Sunday Morning” is the second to last song on the ep; this has a real standout alt-pop yet soulful melody. Once again, the lyrics are so hard to clearly hear, but it still works because his vocals mix with the song’s beats. I would put this in a playlist with artists like Kaytranda, Anderson paac, and SZA. I would love to see him work with any of those artists in the future.
“Easy on Yourself” is the final song in the EP; it starts with eerie beams of beats as he harmonizes. It is almost hard to explain how he even created the layered sounds and beats in this song, lots of hums, harmonizing and his high-pitched voice in between. Towards the end, you hear this rather familiar violin; they could have possibly sampled the instrumentals from the song “bittersweet symphony.” Overall, this is a great final piece in this EP; I was blown away with how well-crafted each song was.
I highly recommend you listen to Chiild if you like anything from Tame Impala, SZA, Choker or Frank Ocean. Definitely hop on this band now, and you will be one of their OG fans for the future. I am super excited to see who they will collab with and what else they will create in the future; a full album would be amazing, to say the least.