AMANDALA

lease, Stronger, is aimed at the concept of coming full circle and stepping into one’s power. The short album of 7 songs is a picturesque musical landscape in a style that draws influences from indie pop and indie folk-rock. AMANDALA’s songwriting and voice has been compared to the likes of Bjork and The Cranberries, and her songs dictate both raw edge and crystal sweetness. AMANDALA is a world traveler who lived on three continents, traveled the globe to study yoga and holds a Law Degree from Nelson Mandela University. She played violin from the age of 6 and sang in many school choirs throughout her life, but it was not until she moved to the US that she started to play in goth and punk rock bands and write her own music. Between 2008-2012 she self-released two experimental albums, Tanzanite and Make This Real, for which she did all the instrumentation herself. In 2015 she teamed up with producer and co-owner of London Bridge studio, Jonathan Plum, to co-write her first professional studio album Far and Wide in a dream pop style. Andrew Joslyn, violinist for Macklemore, and Davey Brozowski, traveling drummer for Modest Mouse, played on Far and Wide. In the same year, AMANDALA also wrote her first ever Afrikaans album, Alles wat jy lief het, in an indie pop, folk rock style. The Afrikaans album was recorded at Earwig Studios in Seattle, working with studio owner Don Farwell, and completed in South Africa. “Two albums on Two Continents in Three studios in One year” became the tagline for a 5- month music promotion trip to South Africa from October 2016 - March 2017. Musicians from Seattle and South Africa played on this album. The recording for Stronger began at Earwig Studios in Seattle, before continuing its journey in Stellenbosch, South Africa at Sunset Recording Studio. Coming full circle, the songs were mastered by Ed Brooks from Resonant Mastering (Death Cab for Cutie, Fleet Foxes, Courtney Marie Andrews, The Head and the Heart) back home in Seattle. A music video was released for the song “Let’s Not Leave This Life Broken” from Stronger, and received 2000 views in only 2 weeks. The video is a request for universal unity and friendship, filled with images that are profoundly colorful and watery, with a thumbnail that is Frida Kahlo inspired. Another music video will be released in mid-October 2020 for the song “Flow” that will feature more water and ocean scenes. “Flow” is a musical sketch of a river building till it finally reaches the ocean, so the vocals are sparse and it doesn’t follow cookie cutter song structures. AMANDALA’s intention with Stronger was to write songs that make one feel empowered, more connected, songs that encourage, that reflect. The songs convey all the attributes of water. Water is fluid, moody and emotional. Water can be powerful, loud, still or reflective. Water can be hard when it is ice, or it can be weightless when it becomes steam. Just as water does not have a form, but it takes the form of its container, so it was AMANDALA’s intent that her music does not sit in one specific genre, but rather capture a fluid mood which is different from song to song and album to album.