SELCI SEEKS ‘SOFT,’ FINDS RESONANCE
EP comes from personal growth, but debut single echoes broadly
A loud dance floor may not seem the likeliest of places to find peace.
But since arriving from her hometown of Winnipeg to live in Calgary, singer-songwriter Selci says that is exactly where she found it. It may be pounding and frantic, but she calls it one of her “soft places.”
“The moment I got on the dance floor with the house music bumping, I could just close my eyes and disappear and everything was soft and I didn’t have to worry about anything around me and I could just shut everything off,” says Selci, who performs under the one-name moniker. “That was a good thing to follow. After that, I became obsessed with house music.”
Which helps explain why house-music grooves became such an integral part of the altpop singer-songwriter’s sophomore EP, A Soft Place. The themes and sounds overlap on the six songs found on the new release, which comes out Tuesday. Offerings such as the catchy hip-hopinfused Body Worship and silky and soulful Live Your Light are celebratory exercises; collaborations with artists such as rapper Zhe The Free and R&B singer Seyblu, respectively. The recent video for the slow-rolling R&B stunner For You, meanwhile, finds the singer adopting a dizzying number of costumes and hairdos for a tongue-in-cheek and darkly comical look at modern dating.
So while the lyrics may occasionally reference past lovers, unrequited love and heartbreak, it’s a decidedly upbeat record with songs meant to lift Selci from a dark period in her life.
It’s been less than a year since she released her debut EP, 2019’s delicate electro-pop gem Effervescence. But in that time, Selci found herself coping with mental health issues, with many of them connected to living with the uncertainty and self-doubt of being an independent artist.
“It was stress around career, of being good enough, of getting enough done, of having enough success; these types of really common insecurities that artists deal with,” she says. “I think living in such a fast-paced world, PRE-COVID, it was really hard to just calm down and be an artist and be yourself. I was constantly applying for a grant, trying to get things done, getting rejection letters, getting acceptance letters. It was a huge whirlwind. So it became this weird dichotomy: The thing that gave me the most peace and solace was the thing that was making me incredibly anxious and depressed.”
Selci said she eventually sought help from those around her and practised meditation and self-talk to work through issues. But the healing process began after she wrote the debut single, Hide Forever, a creeping, disquieting R&B number about escaping from the world.
“That song was one of the first of the batch that was written,” she says. “It was right when I was
coming out of a really dark time. The song was written about me laying in bed and hiding under the covers and not wanting to get out because it felt safe and soft there. When I got out and it didn’t feel safe anymore, all my anxiety came back.”
Selci ending up taking some time off after penning the song. But, in a strange twist, it was set for release in March just as the world was set to go into lockdown for the COVID -19 pandemic. The song, which includes lines such as “I was want to curl up like a baby” and “I don’t want to know anything of the world,” suddenly carried a weighty, universal resonance.
“It was weird,” she says. “Actually, almost a little too weird. Again, it was encapsulating that soft-place feeling where you’re in your space, you’re stuck there and a little bit delirious.”
The new songs show Selci’s continued evolution as a producer. She has just recently returned to her job as an audio tech at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre. But her history behind the boards goes back to one frigid winter in Winnipeg a few years back when Selci, freshly graduated from the University of Manitoba’s classical music and vocal program, decided to teach herself audio editing, mixing, synthesis and sound design.
It was all on display on Effervescence, an expertly executed mix of chill grooves and soulful vocals atop savvy electronic beats. For the most part, it was a solitary affair for the artist. With A Soft Landing, she was eager for more collaboration.
She worked with local DJ Kevin Choo, a.k.a. Catfish the Wizard, at his home studio and enlisted the help of keyboardist Timothonius in Calgary before heading to Vancouver to work with producer/dj Neighbour to finish and tweak the tracks.
“It’s really exciting to see the growth,” she says. “I feel like I’m so much better even than I was (for Effervescence).”
Selci, who will be holding a livestream EP Release Party from her house on Facebook Live and Youtube on Aug. 15, has also spread her wings as a producer working with outside artists. In February, she produced a record for Calgary folk artist Elle Mcandrews. She will return to Manitoba next week to record an album with neo-soul artist Gabriela Ocejo.
“That’s what I hope to do, I want to be very versatile,” Selci says.
I think living in such a fast-paced world, PRE-COVID, it was really hard to just calm down and be an artist and be yourself.