Words by: Amanda Marano

Tali shares her latest EP Shadows, out now via MXDWN. The intoxicating three-track project finds Tali joining her skillful crafting and lyricism with high-end, sonically ambient production. With a sound that find a home in the sweet spot between pop, soul, R&B, jazz, and electronica, and lyrics that that tackle lessons of letting go, self-reflections, conflicts, and contradictions of love and life, the album is the perfect culmination of her style and step towards the light.

“That’s also what the title means to me,” Tali shares. “It’s about leaving the past in the shadows and going with the flow. It took me a long time to learn that. I used to obsess over things.”

The EP opens with, “(Don’t) Wanna Be Yours,” a soulful glimmer that Tali describes as a, “can’t-live-with-him, can’t-live-without-him romantic conundrum. The song came to me when the guy about whom I wrote this song, lit up his chocolate-flavoured cigars even when I’d ask him if he would not smoke around me, and he still did. This song details other ways he’d get on my nerves in our short-lived romance, such as how differently he’d treat me around his friends. This song was written in Nicaragua.”

The previously released, “Back To You” follows as a powerful ballad about finding your way back to yourself. She sings, “I want to run to you/ My bones will break in two/ If this is the last thing I do/ I find my way back to you.” Indie88 premiered and praised the song, noting how it “builds with a sustained guitar line before launching into an explosive chorus.”

Speaking on what inspired the track, Tali explained “‘Back To You’ has many meanings. To me, it’s about the process of learning and unlearning – as you grow up, naturally, and tread through life you experience ups and downs, trials and errors. This song speaks to me about the concept of losing myself and finding my way back to myself, coming home – no matter how far I might stray.”

“Walking Paradox” is an intensely seductive, intoxicating tale of a toxic relationship.  Framed with her powerful vocals and unmatched production, the track perfectly closes the EP and leaves listeners wanting more.

Of the EP, the self-proclaimed night-owl shares, “Coming out of the Shadows: learning about myself, relationships, getting a sense of the world around me in ways I never knew before. Other interpretations of “Shadows” are the battle/contrast between the mind and the heart (the paradox) and how one always follows closely to the other, walking closely behind like a shadow; love and loss, letting the old fall into the shadows and new love come into your life; losing yourself and falling into the shadows, and coming back to yourself even stronger. “Shadows” encapsulates the nighttime; peoples’ true natures coming out of the shadows (in relationships etc.) I’m a night owl, I love the night – the art cover really displays these themes.”

Tali is a Toronto-based R&B singer. She fell in love with singing from a young age, and growing up she was always musically oriented and loved to write poetry. She inherited her brother’s DJ set at 16, and learned to write and produce her own music, drawing on her inspiration from the art and films she loves, as well as her personal experiences.. She eventually began sharing her music on SoundCloud. Of her style, Tali explains, “My music is a collection of experiences, inspirations, and observations that I’ve been perceiving ever since my thirst for curiosity began.”

“I have a million notebooks with poetry and lyrics and words that strike a chord with me,” she shares. While she already has a ton of tracks being prepared for digital release soon, Tali hopes to soon return to live performance and to continue to evolve her craft and go where the wind takes her. “It’s really important to me on my journey not to be like anyone else. Everyone’s path is unique. That’s something I wish I had known years ago. But I know it now.”

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