As Beth Macari unveils her new release, ‘Summer Feelin’’, Lee Allcock caught up with her to speak about her time in Tenerife, about empowering women, and just simply having a good time.
What can listeners expect both sonically and lyrically from ‘Summer Feelin”?
It’s a real feel-good pop song. The aim of the song, for me, was to create something that takes people to a sunshine paradise, even if you’re actually just listening from your kitchen. I hope that you can’t resist singing and dancing along to it.
What inspired you?
Being totally honest, I was just in a really good mood when I was sat writing the song from my living room. But second to that, a lot of my music comes from a very honest place and not always from positive experiences. My most recent releases have been driven by my attachment to strong empowering women and female independence, but I always like to challenge myself to change my writing style. So ‘Summer Feelin‘ is simply an uplifting pop anthem for the summer.
Tell me a bit about the writing and recording process and what you learnt along the way…
This song is really stepping towards a more mainstream pop sound which, production-wise, was an amazing experience to create with my producer, PhilTheBeat. There are so many layers to the instrumentation – little hidden gems and cheeky melodies deep within the track which we loved building – but this also meant the mixing was a bit more challenging than what we’re used to. It did mean the single took longer than planned to be release-ready. Our good friend DJ Keeza got on board with the mixing and I think that we all learnt a lot from this song – and now I’m even more excited for the world to hear the finished product.
Tell me a bit about the video too…
This was way too fun to make. My videographer Dan and I wanted to create a high-energy smash of a music video that instantly transports the viewer to a dreamy summer holiday. I think we achieved it.
Where was it filmed? And how did that come about?
It was actually filmed in Tenerife. It was my first experience of shooting a video outside of the UK and it was everything I imagined and more. We shot it in multiple locations which, prior to filming it, was actually a fairly nerve-wracking process. I obviously wasn’t able to scout or visit the locations prior to shooting, I hadn’t worked with the MUA and hairstylist before, the hot weather wasn’t a guarantee, so there were just many elements that could have been a disaster….but it all worked out amazing. The team were brilliant, the venues were perfect and to top it off, myself and Dan got to have three days of filming in the sun (although I did get seasick on the boat we hired). I’ve learnt not to let my mum do the driving as she had a little bit too much fun thinking she was in an action movie and it resulted in a huge wave drenching the boat and everything and everyone in it.
And what else do you have planned for the remainder of the year?
The focus for the remainder of 2023 is definitely my debut album. I have so much new material demo’d and I’m almost ready to start deciding which have made the cut. I’m also revisiting some material I’ve previously written and gigged but never released to see if any are album worthy.
You can listen to ‘Summer Feelin’’ now on all major streaming platforms.
