Rachael Blanche needs a Translator to decipher your love language in her seductively smouldering new soul-pop single — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The first of six songs the globe-trotting singer-songwriter is readying for release over the next year, Translator incorporates all the classic hallmarks of chart-topping songs by Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez and Alessia Cara. Set atop a slow-rolling, head-nodding groove decorated with crisp fingersnaps, twinkly keyboards and gently bubbling sonic flourishes, Blanche sweetly swoons about a new love, while trying to parse some romantic code:
“Look how I’m overthinking,
Just gotta let this sink in,
How did you do this to me,
Not quite myself and all my friends agree
Being patient isn’t in my nature,
Gotta be on my best behaviour,
Cos you know, I wanna see you later, yeah.
I’ll just bite my tongue and take it slow,
Cos boy I don’t even think you know …
Trying to decode what you say,
Do you feel the same way,
This could be major,
I just need a translator.”
“Translator is all about the early stages of dating, where miscommunication over text and social media leaves so many questions,” Blanche explains. “Any girl has been a part of many group chats where someone is sending screenshots of a conversation that the group is decoding. He keeps texting me, but doesn’t ask any questions, he’s asking what I’m doing this weekend, but doesn’t ask me out. When you meet someone and think it could be something major, you just need a translator!”
Fortunately, you don’t need an interpreter to know Blanche is on the cusp of something big. The singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur who splits time between England, her Australian birthplace and the United States has always had a passion for music. In her younger years, she would sing in front of her entire primary school every week for the parade, which led to creating her first demo at 11 and a constant presence performing in musicals at local theatre companies including the Brisbane Arts Theatre, where Australian national treasure Geoffrey Rush cut his teeth during his formative years.
Much like Rush, Blanche’s natural talent, and ease at shining the brightest under the lights, has always served her well, leading to starring roles in high school productions of Neil Gooding’s acclaimed musical Back To The ’80s and Glamalot, a wickedly wonderful sendup of the Arthurian legend. After graduating, she studied acting before moving to British Columbia, where she was runnerup in a national singing competition.
From there, she moved to the U.S. to continue acting while working with various producers to develop her sound, which gravitates between indie-pop and modern dance-pop a la Ellie Goulding, Fletcher and Tove Lo. In 2014, Blanche appeared on Heart In Motion, a crossover smash by disco wonder-kid Tyler Touché. With her hypnotic vocal powering the funky dance-floor anthem, the track, and its corresponding mixes, stormed the club charts with heavy support from Triple J, Australia’s most influential radio outlet.
Segueing that success, she began collaborating with ARIA-nominated producer Stuart Stuart (Dean Lewis, Sheppard, The Veronicas) on a batch of EDM-flavoured pop songs, including 2021’s melodic earworm, Catch My Breath, with its hint of Chainsmokers.
Check out Translator above, sample Catch My Breath below, and follow Rachael Blanche on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
