Musical Influences
Image: Soph Alex.
Adelaide’s estée recently shared her new single, twenty eight. To celebrate the release, the singer has curated an exclusive playlist for MILKY, full of some of her musical influences.
Speaking of the track, the singer shares: “twenty eight is about the really simple aspects of being in love, and just the feeling of love itself - whether romantic or platonic. I’ve always been someone who loves watching the sunset, and this song is totally centred around that image and setting. In high school, I used to go to lookouts with my friends all the time. We’d get frozen cokes, sit in the car, laugh and talk while watching the sun go down and that’s a really sweet memory of mine, and I tried my best to capture that feeling in this song.”
STELLA BROWN - JELANI ARYEH
This song was what kickstarted ‘twenty eight.’ Kanada and I were trying to figure out what kind of vibe we wanted to go for, and I’d been listening to this song on repeat for a while at that point in time! You can definitely hear the influence in the beat and chord progression.
CAN I CALL YOU TONIGHT? – DAYGLOW
I’ve loved Dayglow ever since I was in high school. Listening to his Fuzzybrain album on repeat has definitely influenced my writing heaps. Just kinda makes me feel like, “I’m literally the main character, do not talk to me.”
NO TEARS LEFT TO CRY – ARIANA GRANDE
Probably my biggest inspiration, in general. I’ve loved her since her Victorious era, and I’ve definitely learnt a lot from her vocally. My melodic choices come a lot from her.
GOOD DAYS – SZA
Around the time of writing ‘twenty eight,’ I’d been listening to this song everyday RELIGIOUSLY – to this day. I feel like SZA’s writing style and choices are so unique and her delivery is insane, standing out from everyone in the industry. I’ve definitely been learning a lot from her.
MADLY – MYKEY
MyKey plays around with a lot of vocal pitch-shifting, which we’ve incorporated in this song. I think it makes it sound fuller and just creates different angles and dimensions to the song. Also, MyKey totally followed me back this year on Instagram which blew my mind.
POSITIONS – ARIANA GRANDE
Another Ari song, we shouldn’t be surprised. I really wanted the mix of my vocals to somewhat match this, especially with the layers of harmonies I’ve incorporated. I love building harmonies and vocal layers in my own songs, it’s always fun to play around with different parts and see what works, and it just adds to the comfort and softness of my sound.
MY DUDE – LITANY
This song is so nostalgic for some reason even though it was only released in 2019. The feel of it is so 80s, I especially love the melody line. I think I wanted to have that same hint of nostalgia in ‘twenty eight’.
LANCASTER NIGHTS – CHARLIE BURG
I absolutely am in love with Charlie Burg, I think everything he does is so cool. This song especially I’d say has such a feel-good energy to it, and I wanted that same energy in my song! The harmonies in this one have also inspired the harmonies in ‘twenty eight’.
BRANDY (YOU’RE A FINE GIRL) – LOOKING GLASS
This one is just a 70s classic. Love screaming it in the car – I’m a sucker for any music from the 50s and onwards. My mum always tells me I’ve got an old soul and I think that shows in some of my writing.
LONG SLEEVES – GRACIE ABRAMS
This song is honestly so freaking sad but I love the space she has between phrases, totally makes me cry. I also love the use of harmonies in this song, just so well-placed and intentional. I love how honest the lyrics are, I wanted to make sure I had that level of honesty in my writing to evoke a strong emotional response in people by hopefully reminding them of a good time of their life.
twenty eight is out now!