Single Review: Fire by ZOE From Earth
By Vince Leigh (Pseudo Echo, John Farnham, Tina Arena) of Australian Radio Promotion for Sheldon Ang Media
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Fire is the debut track for Australian music artist ZOE From Earth, taken from her forthcoming debut EP Sun. The song attempts to explore some big themes, and for the most part, this attempt produces a satisfying result. Lush pads cushion a swell of melodic inventions, with alchemising reverbs and a slow-build rhythm accompaniment never allowing the focus to shift away from the governing force—ZOE From Earth’s vocal and the delivery and reinforcement of her lyric.
The imagery aptly utilises the elemental and frames them within the context of the personal, with lines such as, ‘I know all that you are / And you know we’re made of the same star / I know all you are inside and you know / That we’re made of the same fire.’ It all works when attached to the sonic backdrop, producing a kind of melancholy grandness brought down to earth by ZOE From Earth’s vocal approach, vulnerable though self-assured yet also tinged with fragility.
As ZOE From Earth says about her new single, ‘The song talks about fire as the essence of humanity, our core energy. Humans have always gathered around fire. So, in a way, fire becomes the place we are truly known. It also talks about finding home in each other and goes on to talk about the space that is left to grow when there is nothing (external) else left to find. It’s a song that kind of wants you to get through all the bullshit and materialism and then go, what is left now? What’s really important? The answer to those questions is really what the song is getting at.’
Before beginning the recording process in Kalbarri, Western Australia, on a 10-date tour of the songwriter’s home state of WA, ZOE From Earth performed the song and other tunes while travelling around Australia for the previous two years. When asked what motivates her, the singer-songwriter shares the following: ‘The best things about being alive on Earth. The worst of it. Everything. I adore the vivid spectrum of reality, and also the un-imagined. I think what inspires me most is what people don’t think is possible. Finding what that impossible looks like and finding out how to make it appear possible.’
And ZOE From Earth has achieved that with Fire, forging a work that radiates a sense of attentive sincerity, a quality that will appeal to a broad audience.
