AEM wants you near in her seductively cool single Hot In The City — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
A smoky alt-pop slow-burner fashioned from a headnodding groove, glistening tones and a sliding bassline, the veteran Canadian singer-songwriter’s debut solo track spins a tale of lovelorn yearning perfectly in tune with these pre-post-pandemic times — and precisely poised to slot into a playlist next to the likes of Lana Del Rey.
“It represented a lot of my feelings in one song,” says AEM, formerly known as Alberta country artist Amy Metcalfe. “Over the last few years and as you grow up a bit you realize the only thing that matters is having someone you love around. Whether that be family, friends or a significant other, humans are designed to be surrounded with love, they’re designed to be surrounded with their people.”
That’s been especially true during these isolated times, as illustrated in lyrics about ‘concrete walls bringing me down.’ “I didn’t realize at the time that I wrote it but I think that line really illustrates how I felt during the various lockdowns of the last (almost) two years. The isolation would have been bearable if we were all able to be around everyone we love. We couldn’t go to the movies or go out to eat, but once you break it down all that kept ringing through my head was ‘I just want someone I love near.’
“I wrote this song during a time that (despite a lot of the division that happened between people) was a time that everyone in theory should be in the headspace of empathy and relation. And now that it is summer and we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I just think it is the perfect fit. Was it written for this reason? No. But when you write every day it becomes a diary for what you’re feeling, and when the world is going through something together it just kind of makes sense that everyone would be able to relate to it, so I hope that’s the case.”
A serial songwriter, AEM is making it her mission to be heard in 2021. After earning multiple award nominations and penning a Billboard-charting hit as a country performer, Metcalfe began exploring other genres, quickly realizing her skills were perfectly suited to pop-alt — a creative evolution chronicled in her YouTube docuseries Journey to Now. Her first pop creation was the single Letting Go. Written in 2017 with DJ Kav and performed in front of a sold-out crowd at a Chainsmokers concert in Calgary, it cemented AEM’s belief in her new artistic goals and direction.
Shifting her musical focus from Nashville to Los Angeles, AEM has made a splash on the West Coast, gaining the attention of Dubkiller, who has worked with Rock Mafia and had his hand in hits for Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Zedd, Britney Spears and more. The duo, augmented by writer Robin Schorr, had a track picked up by a major publishing company in late 2020. It’s just one of more than 100 songs AEM has crafted over the last two years as she hones her writing and production skills en route to an album in the near future.
Check out Hot In The City above and meet AEM on her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
