“A rich folk pop song full of smooth melodies and almost tropical rhythms, like a long-lost seventies masterpiece that you dig out from a crate in a garage sale.” That’s how we described ‘Time‘, the recent single from Portuguese–Canadian songwriter, performer and visual artist Nico Paulo. A track “sparse on detail but strong on imagery, the narrator urging a friend to let go of inhibitions.” The song was taken from Paulo’s self-titled debut album coming later this spring on Forward Music Group, a release marked in its ability to broach weighty topics with a sense of lightness and grace, all tied together by a vocal style at once compassionate and unerring in its focus.
Latest single ‘The Master’ continues this trend, a song of languid warmth punctuated with peaks of searching intensity as Nico Paulo looks to others for ways to cope and thrive in a world so full of turmoil. “‘The Master’ is largely about control and mastery over one’s own feelings,” as she explains. “It’s an inquisitive song more than anything else as it looks to understand how people around you live and feel.” What emerges plays out with a nuanced tone, the vocals possessing both wonder and frustration at the apparent ability of others to hold themselves together amid upheaval, but ultimately serving as a vow to work towards such a state of being. “This song doesn’t tell us which way is better,” as Paulo concludes, “it simply looks to encourage belief and change in ourselves, curiosity and intrigue in what’s to come, and the power of being honest.”
And how come you never get mad?
Put your feelings outside
How come you never get angry?
How come you never get sad?
Oh I believe I can master that
Oh I believe I can
