Today, Friday 29th October, groundbreaking hip-hop artist Denise Chaila returns with new single ‘Energy’.
What’s more, she also announces that ‘Energy’ will be the second single to be released from her upcoming EP ‘It’s A Mixtape’ – set for release on Friday 26th November on narolane records.
‘Energy’ sees Ireland’s hottest rapper strip things right back and display her artistic range as she allows her vocals to take centre-stage, the refrain ‘you can’t take my energy’ as much a warning as it is an affirmation. As sweet as Chaila can be, she never lets us forget she’s got bite.
Label co-owner and producer MuRli features on a melodic verse, extending the showcase of narolane’s collective diversity that this track allows us.
Denise Chaila says: “I wrote this song when I was tired and grieving. Somehow, the experience of creating it (from conception to recording to filming) became a massive learning curve. Singing ‘you can’t take my energy’ while mentally and emotionally drained, living through incredible uncertainty and trying to find stable ground from moment to moment became a challenge I didn’t intend to set myself. One I’m glad I did.
“The song began as a beat with a time signature that I just couldn’t understand how to write to. One which I allowed to linger in my drafts for months because I was too nervous to attempt writing to it and potentially ruin a very beautiful song. Every step of the process has been measured, unhurried, full of conversation and gentle risk taking. Stepping outside my comfort zone like this made me gag as much as it made me smile.
“This song and the work surrounding it has ultimately been an opportunity. I’ve spent the year asking myself what I want to do with myself when my heart is broken. What my work ultimately means to me. What purpose it serves in my own life. And from the wellspring of these questions, beautiful threads of curiosity have emerged from me.
“In the end; hope is more than a sound bite for a podcast, pain is more than a line in a song, there are things I’ve gone through in the last year that I’ll work through for the next ten, and nobody can bait me out enough to take from me what I do not choose to give freely. You can’t take my energy.”
Denise Chaila’s biggest headline show to date has just been announced for Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre on the 25th February 2022. This comes on the back of major festival appearances at the likes of Pitchfork Paris, Pitchfork London and Haldern Pop Germany.
‘Energy’ follows Denise’s previous single, ‘061’ – an ode to her hometown of Limerick in the west of Ireland that ignited support across press and radio gaining props from the likes of DJ Target, Jamz, Iggy Pop, CLASH, TRENCH, i-D and The FADER. Denise is one of the most-played Irish artists in her home country, with over 50 million radio impacts (listeners) in 2021 alone. Last year, she became the first person in history to win her country’s highest music award – the Choice Music Prize Album of the Year Award – for a mixtape, ‘Go Bravely’. On November 26th, she pays homage to that event with the title of her new EP, ‘It’s A Mixtape’.
