North Londoner Orchid finds her inner strength on defiant new single 'Heavy'

London based Orchid flexes her muscles on garage-infused new single 'Heavy' DEBUT EP 'GOLD DUST' ALSO RELEASED TODAY

Watch 'Heavy' animation: https://youtu.be/cWfOthri2mc Stream 'Gold Dust' EP in full: https://levelmusic.lnk.to/GoldDust-EP "Sugary melodies that soar and flutter across the bubbly instrumental” COMPLEX "A dynamic, sweeping piece of electro with a sweet tinge of R&B” THE LINE OF BEST FIT "Built around a robust, electronic synth, and sprinklings of the Persian rhythmic music of her youth" PAPER MAGAZINE "Explosive and utterly captivating" COLORS – London based artist Orchid is today sharing her new single ‘Heavy’, the final track to be released from her debut EP ‘Gold Dust’, also out today. A whirlwind experiment in her pop production and sound, the new single pays tribute to a genre which helped shape Orchid as an artist, with her falsetto weaving its way seamlessly through the song’s gritty, head-spinning instrumental. “Garage is a genre that I’ve always held close to my heart. Always vivid and full of life – I have so many memories - happy and sad; of people, places -attached to that UKG sound,” said Orchid. Co-produced with Ray Alex between their bedrooms in the same North London neighbourhood, and mixed and mastered by Alec Jackson (AJ Tracey), Orchid’s lyrics bubble over a beat crafted almost entirely from 808s and distorted guitar samples. Written at the turning point of a mind at rock-bottom, emerging at full speed from a dark place, ‘Heavy’ is a defiant personal manifesto to get back up. With truths of mental health struggles laced through the song’s lyrics, ‘Heavy’ at its core is about Orchid finding her inner strength – and putting up a stand. The animated video, created by multi-disciplinary artist Georgie Sladen, is a kaleidoscopic trip through impossible colours, shapes, and spaces, and is a nod to day jobs in animation studios, where Orchid found her first creative footing amongst cartoon visionaries, illustrators, and CGI architects. Taking inspiration from the likes of M.I.A, Britney Spears and Kelis - to more recent purveyors of alternative pop including Grimes, Charli XCX and Rosalía; Orchid (real name Orchid Vishkaiy) is an artist who thrives on experimentation and collaboration – all the while honouring the many faces of her Iranian heritage. With this scenic backdrop to her sound – it's not only Persian music that runs through Orchid's songs, but Turkish and Arabic pop – loved all over the middle east where legal restrictions in making music have silenced many Iranian artists. The freedom to create music in London, by contrast, is also its own force in her music. "This EP tells a few stories from my life," Orchid explains. "All of them are super personal and lyric-centric - from night-shifts and the bar-life underworld, to a classic case of middle eastern superstition. I always make my music with dance and movement at the heart of it, I'll describe the way a sound should be with the physical expression of it first and then reverse-imagine it into audio like: “this is what the dance move would look like”. New single ‘Heavy’ is out now. Orchid's debut EP ‘Gold Dust’ is also out now, released March 27th Follow, Orchid: Instagram Twitter Facebook