Canadian popstress Prescilla Una continues on her path to Enlighten — the title of her forthcoming LP — with the release of her latest single and video Catch (feat. Huli & Young Prezi), showcasing today on Tinnitist.
“I met the assistant director Nathan Powell through a mutual friend,” Una says of the process to find a directorial team — including director Jerome Rosales — that shared her wish list for the visual extension of the song. “I knew I wanted a dark, sexy look with neon lights and fog, and they were the right ones for the job.” For his part, Powell’s CV spoke for itself; the Toronto-area video man was also the production assistant for Drake’s 5AM in Toronto video.
Securing the beat happened much the same way, with Una detailing her vision, this time for the vibe. “I was connected to Nova through a mutual friend; we started chatting and became good friends,” she says of the Bahamas-based producer. “He sent me some of his work, and then offered to create a beat for me. I told him I like heavy bass, I wanted it to sound sexy, and I wanted an electric guitar solo in it. I’ve known Michael Hassler from around the creative scene in Toronto for some time; he was my photographer for some images around Enlighten,” she adds, speaking of the hip hop dancer featured alongside her. “The dancing was all freestyle, but it was cool how put together it looked in the end — as if it was choreographed, when it wasn’t! We just had a really great dance connection that day.”
Also featured are Gregory Smith on live drums, Sean McCarney on sound engineering, U.S.-based rapper Huli, who Una discovered thru a video he shared on Facebook, and Young Prezi, a local rapper Una first connected with in 2016 soon after he’d moved to Toronto from Jamaica.
“Catch is my longest project in the making,” Una shares. “It took about seven years to complete the music and video. After hearing the beat, the hook took me seconds to create, but the verse tooks years because hip hop was a new territory for me, and I still wanted to sound like me, so it was challenging.” The song comes on the heels of 2019’s Up and ahead of this Spring 2020’s release of her sophomore album, Enlighten. The A-side will feature Una’s original songs with the B-side highlighting a selection of remixes; “I love dancing, EDM and house music,” she says of the natural fit. “Enlighten is about the idea of good and bad situations in my life, but coming out of all situations with a feeling of ‘all is going to be okay’ and ‘it all works out for the better.’ ”
Una would know. While music was always an early passion for the Toronto-based artist, Una ultimately attended Ryerson University on a scholarship, double majoring in Psychology and Business. “I dropped out to care for my young family,” she shares, “but after the birth of my second daughter in 2008, I had an epiphany and picked up the guitar again.” It was there a new chapter in her book was formed: “I left behind three fiancés, drug addiction, and began my journey in the professional music scene in Toronto and Montreal — as well as performances in Peru and Brazil.” In 2013, Una was approved for an entrepreneurship grant, which bolstered her music industry ambitions as an artist even further; the result would be developing her own label, Peaceful Revolution Music.
It’s this rich diversity in her life experiences — navigating love, loss, and surmounting such personal hurdles — that lays the foundation reflected in the diversity of her sound. Set for release this April, Enlighten lands as a musical genre mixer, interconnected and distinctly reflective of her expansive range in interests and influences. “I categorize it as an original fusion indie pop, but there’s rock, hip hop, r&b, and folk as well,” she hints at what’s to come in the follow-up to her 2014 debut LP, Music Therapy. “Being born and raised in Toronto, my musical interests and surroundings were diversely eclectic. I’m sure my songs will touch people’s hearts, because that’s where it all came from.”
Watch Catch above and keep up with Prescilla Una via her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
