Music News - Ōtautahi’s Valere releases 'Lily’s March', a soulful tribute to Motherhood
14 March 2024 - 0 Comments
Valere is the musical project of Shana Graham (she/her), an award winning songwriter based in Otautahi (Christchurch).
Over the last decade Valere has built a back catalogue of romantic R&B, characterised by a seamless blend of soulful vocals and intimate bedroom production.
Lily’s March contains a visceral vulnerability, with Graham reflecting on her own upbringing and in turn, her aspirations for raising her own daughter. Using marching drums, glockenspiel and synths, Graham navigates the fears of parental missteps, ultimately finding solace in acceptance, intuition, and love as guiding lights on her journey.
“I wrote the song shortly after having a daughter,” says Graham. “I was up one night trying to put my Lily to sleep (she was probably about 3 months old at the time), and I started sway-walking to the rhythm of a march, and hummed the melody. The lyrics of the chorus came soon after that, also a middle-of-the-night excursion trying to put Lily down. I started to reflect on how my Mum raised me and how I was going to raise my own daughter. I had a lot of fear of messing it up, but took solace in the fact that maybe it boiled down to loving your kid through the good and the bad.”
Lily’s March is accompanied by a video featuring Shana’s circle of friends and family. Directed by Graham’s husband and made with assistance from NZ on Air Music the video acts as a 'moving photoshoot' of Mums and their daughters.
“Each filming session was quite special and organic. With kids, you never really know what you'll get, so we just went with the flow and let the poses happen,” says Graham. “I'm pretty lucky to be surrounded by amazing wāhine who witness to this awesome vocation. My Mum and sister are in the video as well as my mother and sisters in law, and then my close mates and their Mums / Daughters. Finally, I have myself and my daughter Lily making an appearance too.The studio session with Lily and I was pretty special too - it was the first time I actually sang the song to Lily in full, and awake! I got pretty emotional there.”
Now the song is out Graham reflects “I'm excited to see what people will think and get out of this song, and excited to honour all the mothers out there!”
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