In the summer of 2022, Donna Missal was disoriented to find herself living out of her car and on friends' couches in Los Angeles, questioning whether she could continue - financially and emotionally - to make music. In the past five years, she had collected tens of millions of streams across platforms, cultivated a passionate fan base for her heartfelt songwriting, played festivals from Bonnaroo to Bottle Rock, and toured with high-profile artists including Lewis Capaldi, CHVRCHES, and King Princess. Rolling Stone calls her music "stunning", and Billboard has hailed her "drop kick of a vocal." But still, Missal was struggling. Working through the pain, she found refuge in the creative process, digging deep into her beliefs about safety and satisfaction. The result is Revel, a dance-heavy and intimate album about enduring and transcending pain to find bliss from within.
Last year, Missal shared on Twitter that she'd been let go at the end of her four-year recording contract. "It's emotionally exhausting to posture like everything's cool," she wrote, of the "optics Olympics" that keep artists from sharing their challenges openly. Missal's record deal had felt meaningful - it included resources, structure, and a set of people contractually obligated to believe in her. With this barometer of self-worth removed, she was unmoored and devastated. Fighting to take care of her basic needs while still working in the studio with other artists, Missal gained a new awareness of the tenuous nature of success in the music industry.
Missal had started out as a songwriter and backing artist, collaborating with artists like Tinashe, Sharon Van Etten, Macklemore, and Lee Fields, and landing a publishing contract in her early 20s. After what The Guardian called the "strident queer torch songs" of 2020s 'Lighter', Missal became a sought-out vocalist, tapped to contribute a cover of Cigarettes After Sex's "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" for the Oscar-winning film 'Promising Young Woman'. In the confines of the early pandemic, Missal dove into bedroom pop recordings, using her powerful voice in a quieter way to avoid disturbing her neighbors. She showcased this spare and sexy homespun electronica on 2022's in the mirror, in the night EP, which was executive produced by Sega Bodega (FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek).
Since then, Missal has leaned into computer and dance music, and Revel contains all of these new reference points - space-filling singing, heated lyrics, big drums, and complex programming - with nods to Frou Frou's Details, and Lady Gaga's 'Art Pop', as well as Radiohead, Massive Attack, and Robyn. "Out of Me" channels the expansive grooves of Madonna's 'Ray Of Light', a major influence on Missal as she sought a musical vocabulary of the sublime meeting the dancefloor. "Move Me" is a pulsing slow jam that ignites with Missal's ecstatic murmurs and ethereal high notes, culminating in an addictive chorus about hope in despair. On "God Complex", Missal uses the moody tension of trip-hop sounds to work through vulnerable feelings about security and belonging. Her voice is at first grounded as she pleads for clarity in relationships, then layers into an aural collage of heady bewilderment.
To represent her journey through the last year for the nightclub anthem "Flicker", she enlisted choreographer Sadie Wilking to work with her on a video centering Missal performing a combat dance sequence in a grimy warehouse. Missal didn't want it to be sexy. She wanted it to look like she was fighting for her life, and she trained for months to manifest the sequence's display of physical power. Sweaty and muscled, Missal's visceral movements in "Flicker" contrast with the ethereal sounds of the song. It embodies and completes her transformation.
It was through making Revel that Missal examined her motivations for making music. She asked herself who she was without the expectations and accolades that came along with label support, and found that she was still driven to create. With external markers of success and joy taken away, she let go, turned inward, reframed her sense of self, and came to a sense of peace. Emerging with strength from a cocoon, 'Revel' showcases Missal's metamorphosis into a purposeful independent artist with a strong creative vision.
~~~~~~~~
On her debut album This Time, L.A.-based singer/songwriter Donna Missal shows the elegant collision of elements at play in her music: a poet's command of tone, a soul singer's boundless intensity, a bedroom musician's willful embracing of intimacy and experimentation. Along with channeling the raw passion she first ignited by playing in rock bands in her homeland of New Jersey, This Time expands on the melodic ingenuity displayed in recent singles like "Driving" and "Thrills." Above all the album is a testament to the sheer force of Missal's voice, a dynamic but delicate instrument that achieves a beautifully nuanced expression even as she belts her heart out.
With its title taken from a track Missal co-wrote with her frequent collaborator Sharon Van Etten, This Time is an uncompromisingly honest look at living entirely on your own terms. "I've spent most of my life being hyper-focused on time, which I think is something that a lot of women obsess over," says Missal. "We're in such a rush to make things happen, when really we should take the time to figure out what we actually want out of life. And even though it's so fucking hard to have that kind of patience, I think it's so important to believe in yourself enough to let things develop in a way that feels right to you."
Produced by Tim Anderson (Solange, BANKS, Halsey), This Time matches that defiant spirit with a sound inspired by the rule-bending sensibilities of mixtape culture. Blending elements of soul and hip-hop and rock-and-roll, Missal shaped This Time's sonic landscape partly by laying live recordings down on tape, then sampling those recordings to imbue her songs with a fresh yet timeless energy. Much of that live recording took place at the iconic Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, with the sessions headed up by Missal and Nate Mercereau (a musician known for his work with Leon Bridges). "I really wanted this album to reference my history of playing in bands," Missal points out. "It's all these very pure, talented musicians playing together in a room, but then we took that and sampled it and altered in a way that creates something totally new."
Throughout the album, Missal brings her time-warping but gracefully arranged sound to songs that capture the most specific of emotions. Crafting her lyrics with the kind of idiosyncratic detail that instantly etches each line onto your heart, Missal explores self-empowerment on tracks like "Transformer"--a fiercely charged anthem about "having the courage to take what you want from life, without apology." On "Thrills," with its softly swaying groove and dreamy guitar tones, Missal's voice soars and shatters as she muses on self-love and sexual confidence. "'Thrills' is about owning what makes you real," says Missal. "There is a shift happening in our societal standards of beauty and sexuality, and the more we embrace our flaws the closer we become to effecting real change. I'd love for people to hear the song -- and not just women, but anyone who feels disenfranchised-- and remember that being sexy and confident comes from self-acceptance."
Elsewhere on This Time, Missal infuses social commentary into songs like "Girl": a stripped-back yet intricately textured track that unfolds with both gentle playfulness and piercing vulnerability. "I wanted to address this idea that women need to be pinned against each other in order to succeed, or need to point out the flaws in other women just to feel good about themselves," says Missal. "That kind of thinking has been around forever, and it doesn't feel like it's going away--but the more we talk about it, the better it's going to get." And on "Driving," Missal delivers one of the album's most mesmerizing moments, with her flowing melody, hypnotic rhythms, and ethereal vocals merging with a quiet grandeur that's simultaneously escapist and inspiring. "'Driving' is about being on the precipice of taking control over your life--that feeling of seeing something you want in the distance and making the decision to go for it," says Missal. "It's about saying 'Even if it takes a long time, or I hit some bumps along the way, it's all okay because I'm the one behind the wheel.'"
show less
Last year, Missal shared on Twitter that she'd been let go at the end of her four-year recording contract. "It's emotionally exhausting to posture like everything's cool," she wrote, of the "optics Olympics" that keep artists from sharing their challenges openly. Missal's record deal had felt meaningful - it included resources, structure, and a set of people contractually obligated to believe in her. With this barometer of self-worth removed, she was unmoored and devastated. Fighting to take care of her basic needs while still working in the studio with other artists, Missal gained a new awareness of the tenuous nature of success in the music industry.
Missal had started out as a songwriter and backing artist, collaborating with artists like Tinashe, Sharon Van Etten, Macklemore, and Lee Fields, and landing a publishing contract in her early 20s. After what The Guardian called the "strident queer torch songs" of 2020s 'Lighter', Missal became a sought-out vocalist, tapped to contribute a cover of Cigarettes After Sex's "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" for the Oscar-winning film 'Promising Young Woman'. In the confines of the early pandemic, Missal dove into bedroom pop recordings, using her powerful voice in a quieter way to avoid disturbing her neighbors. She showcased this spare and sexy homespun electronica on 2022's in the mirror, in the night EP, which was executive produced by Sega Bodega (FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek).
Since then, Missal has leaned into computer and dance music, and Revel contains all of these new reference points - space-filling singing, heated lyrics, big drums, and complex programming - with nods to Frou Frou's Details, and Lady Gaga's 'Art Pop', as well as Radiohead, Massive Attack, and Robyn. "Out of Me" channels the expansive grooves of Madonna's 'Ray Of Light', a major influence on Missal as she sought a musical vocabulary of the sublime meeting the dancefloor. "Move Me" is a pulsing slow jam that ignites with Missal's ecstatic murmurs and ethereal high notes, culminating in an addictive chorus about hope in despair. On "God Complex", Missal uses the moody tension of trip-hop sounds to work through vulnerable feelings about security and belonging. Her voice is at first grounded as she pleads for clarity in relationships, then layers into an aural collage of heady bewilderment.
To represent her journey through the last year for the nightclub anthem "Flicker", she enlisted choreographer Sadie Wilking to work with her on a video centering Missal performing a combat dance sequence in a grimy warehouse. Missal didn't want it to be sexy. She wanted it to look like she was fighting for her life, and she trained for months to manifest the sequence's display of physical power. Sweaty and muscled, Missal's visceral movements in "Flicker" contrast with the ethereal sounds of the song. It embodies and completes her transformation.
It was through making Revel that Missal examined her motivations for making music. She asked herself who she was without the expectations and accolades that came along with label support, and found that she was still driven to create. With external markers of success and joy taken away, she let go, turned inward, reframed her sense of self, and came to a sense of peace. Emerging with strength from a cocoon, 'Revel' showcases Missal's metamorphosis into a purposeful independent artist with a strong creative vision.
~~~~~~~~
On her debut album This Time, L.A.-based singer/songwriter Donna Missal shows the elegant collision of elements at play in her music: a poet's command of tone, a soul singer's boundless intensity, a bedroom musician's willful embracing of intimacy and experimentation. Along with channeling the raw passion she first ignited by playing in rock bands in her homeland of New Jersey, This Time expands on the melodic ingenuity displayed in recent singles like "Driving" and "Thrills." Above all the album is a testament to the sheer force of Missal's voice, a dynamic but delicate instrument that achieves a beautifully nuanced expression even as she belts her heart out.
With its title taken from a track Missal co-wrote with her frequent collaborator Sharon Van Etten, This Time is an uncompromisingly honest look at living entirely on your own terms. "I've spent most of my life being hyper-focused on time, which I think is something that a lot of women obsess over," says Missal. "We're in such a rush to make things happen, when really we should take the time to figure out what we actually want out of life. And even though it's so fucking hard to have that kind of patience, I think it's so important to believe in yourself enough to let things develop in a way that feels right to you."
Produced by Tim Anderson (Solange, BANKS, Halsey), This Time matches that defiant spirit with a sound inspired by the rule-bending sensibilities of mixtape culture. Blending elements of soul and hip-hop and rock-and-roll, Missal shaped This Time's sonic landscape partly by laying live recordings down on tape, then sampling those recordings to imbue her songs with a fresh yet timeless energy. Much of that live recording took place at the iconic Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, with the sessions headed up by Missal and Nate Mercereau (a musician known for his work with Leon Bridges). "I really wanted this album to reference my history of playing in bands," Missal points out. "It's all these very pure, talented musicians playing together in a room, but then we took that and sampled it and altered in a way that creates something totally new."
Throughout the album, Missal brings her time-warping but gracefully arranged sound to songs that capture the most specific of emotions. Crafting her lyrics with the kind of idiosyncratic detail that instantly etches each line onto your heart, Missal explores self-empowerment on tracks like "Transformer"--a fiercely charged anthem about "having the courage to take what you want from life, without apology." On "Thrills," with its softly swaying groove and dreamy guitar tones, Missal's voice soars and shatters as she muses on self-love and sexual confidence. "'Thrills' is about owning what makes you real," says Missal. "There is a shift happening in our societal standards of beauty and sexuality, and the more we embrace our flaws the closer we become to effecting real change. I'd love for people to hear the song -- and not just women, but anyone who feels disenfranchised-- and remember that being sexy and confident comes from self-acceptance."
Elsewhere on This Time, Missal infuses social commentary into songs like "Girl": a stripped-back yet intricately textured track that unfolds with both gentle playfulness and piercing vulnerability. "I wanted to address this idea that women need to be pinned against each other in order to succeed, or need to point out the flaws in other women just to feel good about themselves," says Missal. "That kind of thinking has been around forever, and it doesn't feel like it's going away--but the more we talk about it, the better it's going to get." And on "Driving," Missal delivers one of the album's most mesmerizing moments, with her flowing melody, hypnotic rhythms, and ethereal vocals merging with a quiet grandeur that's simultaneously escapist and inspiring. "'Driving' is about being on the precipice of taking control over your life--that feeling of seeing something you want in the distance and making the decision to go for it," says Missal. "It's about saying 'Even if it takes a long time, or I hit some bumps along the way, it's all okay because I'm the one behind the wheel.'"
In the summer of 2022, Donna Missal was disoriented to find herself living out of her car and on friends' couches in Los Angeles, questioning whether she could continue - financially and emotionally - to make music. In the past five years, she had collected tens of millions of streams across platforms, cultivated a passionate fan base for her heartfelt songwriting, played festivals from Bonnaroo to Bottle Rock, and toured with high-profile artists including Lewis Capaldi, CHVRCHES, and King Princess. Rolling Stone calls her music "stunning", and Billboard has hailed her "drop kick of a vocal." But still, Missal was struggling. Working through the pain, she found refuge in the creative process, digging deep into her beliefs about safety and satisfaction. The result is Revel, a dance-heavy and intimate album about enduring and transcending pain to find bliss from within.
Last year, Missal shared on Twitter that she'd been let go at the end of her four-year recording contract. "It's emotionally exhausting to posture like everything's cool," she wrote, of the "optics Olympics" that keep artists from sharing their challenges openly. Missal's record deal had felt meaningful - it included resources, structure, and a set of people contractually obligated to believe in her. With this barometer of self-worth removed, she was unmoored and devastated. Fighting to take care of her basic needs while still working in the studio with other artists, Missal gained a new awareness of the tenuous nature of success in the music industry.
Missal had started out as a songwriter and backing artist, collaborating with artists like Tinashe, Sharon Van Etten, Macklemore, and Lee Fields, and landing a publishing contract in her early 20s. After what The Guardian called the "strident queer torch songs" of 2020s 'Lighter', Missal became a sought-out vocalist, tapped to contribute a cover of Cigarettes After Sex's "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" for the Oscar-winning film 'Promising Young Woman'. In the confines of the early pandemic, Missal dove into bedroom pop recordings, using her powerful voice in a quieter way to avoid disturbing her neighbors. She showcased this spare and sexy homespun electronica on 2022's in the mirror, in the night EP, which was executive produced by Sega Bodega (FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek).
Since then, Missal has leaned into computer and dance music, and Revel contains all of these new reference points - space-filling singing, heated lyrics, big drums, and complex programming - with nods to Frou Frou's Details, and Lady Gaga's 'Art Pop', as well as Radiohead, Massive Attack, and Robyn. "Out of Me" channels the expansive grooves of Madonna's 'Ray Of Light', a major influence on Missal as she sought a musical vocabulary of the sublime meeting the dancefloor. "Move Me" is a pulsing slow jam that ignites with Missal's ecstatic murmurs and ethereal high notes, culminating in an addictive chorus about hope in despair. On "God Complex", Missal uses the moody tension of trip-hop sounds to work through vulnerable feelings about security and belonging. Her voice is at first grounded as she pleads for clarity in relationships, then layers into an aural collage of heady bewilderment.
To represent her journey through the last year for the nightclub anthem "Flicker", she enlisted choreographer Sadie Wilking to work with her on a video centering Missal performing a combat dance sequence in a grimy warehouse. Missal didn't want it to be sexy. She wanted it to look like she was fighting for her life, and she trained for months to manifest the sequence's display of physical power. Sweaty and muscled, Missal's visceral movements in "Flicker" contrast with the ethereal sounds of the song. It embodies and completes her transformation.
It was through making Revel that Missal examined her motivations for making music. She asked herself who she was without the expectations and accolades that came along with label support, and found that she was still driven to create. With external markers of success and joy taken away, she let go, turned inward, reframed her sense of self, and came to a sense of peace. Emerging with strength from a cocoon, 'Revel' showcases Missal's metamorphosis into a purposeful independent artist with a strong creative vision.
~~~~~~~~
On her debut album This Time, L.A.-based singer/songwriter Donna Missal shows the elegant collision of elements at play in her music: a poet's command of tone, a soul singer's boundless intensity, a bedroom musician's willful embracing of intimacy and experimentation. Along with channeling the raw passion she first ignited by playing in rock bands in her homeland of New Jersey, This Time expands on the melodic ingenuity displayed in recent singles like "Driving" and "Thrills." Above all the album is a testament to the sheer force of Missal's voice, a dynamic but delicate instrument that achieves a beautifully nuanced expression even as she belts her heart out.
With its title taken from a track Missal co-wrote with her frequent collaborator Sharon Van Etten, This Time is an uncompromisingly honest look at living entirely on your own terms. "I've spent most of my life being hyper-focused on time, which I think is something that a lot of women obsess over," says Missal. "We're in such a rush to make things happen, when really we should take the time to figure out what we actually want out of life. And even though it's so fucking hard to have that kind of patience, I think it's so important to believe in yourself enough to let things develop in a way that feels right to you."
Produced by Tim Anderson (Solange, BANKS, Halsey), This Time matches that defiant spirit with a sound inspired by the rule-bending sensibilities of mixtape culture. Blending elements of soul and hip-hop and rock-and-roll, Missal shaped This Time's sonic landscape partly by laying live recordings down on tape, then sampling those recordings to imbue her songs with a fresh yet timeless energy. Much of that live recording took place at the iconic Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, with the sessions headed up by Missal and Nate Mercereau (a musician known for his work with Leon Bridges). "I really wanted this album to reference my history of playing in bands," Missal points out. "It's all these very pure, talented musicians playing together in a room, but then we took that and sampled it and altered in a way that creates something totally new."
Throughout the album, Missal brings her time-warping but gracefully arranged sound to songs that capture the most specific of emotions. Crafting her lyrics with the kind of idiosyncratic detail that instantly etches each line onto your heart, Missal explores self-empowerment on tracks like "Transformer"--a fiercely charged anthem about "having the courage to take what you want from life, without apology." On "Thrills," with its softly swaying groove and dreamy guitar tones, Missal's voice soars and shatters as she muses on self-love and sexual confidence. "'Thrills' is about owning what makes you real," says Missal. "There is a shift happening in our societal standards of beauty and sexuality, and the more we embrace our flaws the closer we become to effecting real change. I'd love for people to hear the song -- and not just women, but anyone who feels disenfranchised-- and remember that being sexy and confident comes from self-acceptance."
Elsewhere on This Time, Missal infuses social commentary into songs like "Girl": a stripped-back yet intricately textured track that unfolds with both gentle playfulness and piercing vulnerability. "I wanted to address this idea that women need to be pinned against each other in order to succeed, or need to point out the flaws in other women just to feel good about themselves," says Missal. "That kind of thinking has been around forever, and it doesn't feel like it's going away--but the more we talk about it, the better it's going to get." And on "Driving," Missal delivers one of the album's most mesmerizing moments, with her flowing melody, hypnotic rhythms, and ethereal vocals merging with a quiet grandeur that's simultaneously escapist and inspiring. "'Driving' is about being on the precipice of taking control over your life--that feeling of seeing something you want in the distance and making the decision to go for it," says Missal. "It's about saying 'Even if it takes a long time, or I hit some bumps along the way, it's all okay because I'm the one behind the wheel.'"
read more
Last year, Missal shared on Twitter that she'd been let go at the end of her four-year recording contract. "It's emotionally exhausting to posture like everything's cool," she wrote, of the "optics Olympics" that keep artists from sharing their challenges openly. Missal's record deal had felt meaningful - it included resources, structure, and a set of people contractually obligated to believe in her. With this barometer of self-worth removed, she was unmoored and devastated. Fighting to take care of her basic needs while still working in the studio with other artists, Missal gained a new awareness of the tenuous nature of success in the music industry.
Missal had started out as a songwriter and backing artist, collaborating with artists like Tinashe, Sharon Van Etten, Macklemore, and Lee Fields, and landing a publishing contract in her early 20s. After what The Guardian called the "strident queer torch songs" of 2020s 'Lighter', Missal became a sought-out vocalist, tapped to contribute a cover of Cigarettes After Sex's "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" for the Oscar-winning film 'Promising Young Woman'. In the confines of the early pandemic, Missal dove into bedroom pop recordings, using her powerful voice in a quieter way to avoid disturbing her neighbors. She showcased this spare and sexy homespun electronica on 2022's in the mirror, in the night EP, which was executive produced by Sega Bodega (FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek).
Since then, Missal has leaned into computer and dance music, and Revel contains all of these new reference points - space-filling singing, heated lyrics, big drums, and complex programming - with nods to Frou Frou's Details, and Lady Gaga's 'Art Pop', as well as Radiohead, Massive Attack, and Robyn. "Out of Me" channels the expansive grooves of Madonna's 'Ray Of Light', a major influence on Missal as she sought a musical vocabulary of the sublime meeting the dancefloor. "Move Me" is a pulsing slow jam that ignites with Missal's ecstatic murmurs and ethereal high notes, culminating in an addictive chorus about hope in despair. On "God Complex", Missal uses the moody tension of trip-hop sounds to work through vulnerable feelings about security and belonging. Her voice is at first grounded as she pleads for clarity in relationships, then layers into an aural collage of heady bewilderment.
To represent her journey through the last year for the nightclub anthem "Flicker", she enlisted choreographer Sadie Wilking to work with her on a video centering Missal performing a combat dance sequence in a grimy warehouse. Missal didn't want it to be sexy. She wanted it to look like she was fighting for her life, and she trained for months to manifest the sequence's display of physical power. Sweaty and muscled, Missal's visceral movements in "Flicker" contrast with the ethereal sounds of the song. It embodies and completes her transformation.
It was through making Revel that Missal examined her motivations for making music. She asked herself who she was without the expectations and accolades that came along with label support, and found that she was still driven to create. With external markers of success and joy taken away, she let go, turned inward, reframed her sense of self, and came to a sense of peace. Emerging with strength from a cocoon, 'Revel' showcases Missal's metamorphosis into a purposeful independent artist with a strong creative vision.
~~~~~~~~
On her debut album This Time, L.A.-based singer/songwriter Donna Missal shows the elegant collision of elements at play in her music: a poet's command of tone, a soul singer's boundless intensity, a bedroom musician's willful embracing of intimacy and experimentation. Along with channeling the raw passion she first ignited by playing in rock bands in her homeland of New Jersey, This Time expands on the melodic ingenuity displayed in recent singles like "Driving" and "Thrills." Above all the album is a testament to the sheer force of Missal's voice, a dynamic but delicate instrument that achieves a beautifully nuanced expression even as she belts her heart out.
With its title taken from a track Missal co-wrote with her frequent collaborator Sharon Van Etten, This Time is an uncompromisingly honest look at living entirely on your own terms. "I've spent most of my life being hyper-focused on time, which I think is something that a lot of women obsess over," says Missal. "We're in such a rush to make things happen, when really we should take the time to figure out what we actually want out of life. And even though it's so fucking hard to have that kind of patience, I think it's so important to believe in yourself enough to let things develop in a way that feels right to you."
Produced by Tim Anderson (Solange, BANKS, Halsey), This Time matches that defiant spirit with a sound inspired by the rule-bending sensibilities of mixtape culture. Blending elements of soul and hip-hop and rock-and-roll, Missal shaped This Time's sonic landscape partly by laying live recordings down on tape, then sampling those recordings to imbue her songs with a fresh yet timeless energy. Much of that live recording took place at the iconic Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, with the sessions headed up by Missal and Nate Mercereau (a musician known for his work with Leon Bridges). "I really wanted this album to reference my history of playing in bands," Missal points out. "It's all these very pure, talented musicians playing together in a room, but then we took that and sampled it and altered in a way that creates something totally new."
Throughout the album, Missal brings her time-warping but gracefully arranged sound to songs that capture the most specific of emotions. Crafting her lyrics with the kind of idiosyncratic detail that instantly etches each line onto your heart, Missal explores self-empowerment on tracks like "Transformer"--a fiercely charged anthem about "having the courage to take what you want from life, without apology." On "Thrills," with its softly swaying groove and dreamy guitar tones, Missal's voice soars and shatters as she muses on self-love and sexual confidence. "'Thrills' is about owning what makes you real," says Missal. "There is a shift happening in our societal standards of beauty and sexuality, and the more we embrace our flaws the closer we become to effecting real change. I'd love for people to hear the song -- and not just women, but anyone who feels disenfranchised-- and remember that being sexy and confident comes from self-acceptance."
Elsewhere on This Time, Missal infuses social commentary into songs like "Girl": a stripped-back yet intricately textured track that unfolds with both gentle playfulness and piercing vulnerability. "I wanted to address this idea that women need to be pinned against each other in order to succeed, or need to point out the flaws in other women just to feel good about themselves," says Missal. "That kind of thinking has been around forever, and it doesn't feel like it's going away--but the more we talk about it, the better it's going to get." And on "Driving," Missal delivers one of the album's most mesmerizing moments, with her flowing melody, hypnotic rhythms, and ethereal vocals merging with a quiet grandeur that's simultaneously escapist and inspiring. "'Driving' is about being on the precipice of taking control over your life--that feeling of seeing something you want in the distance and making the decision to go for it," says Missal. "It's about saying 'Even if it takes a long time, or I hit some bumps along the way, it's all okay because I'm the one behind the wheel.'"
show less
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