Photo by Caitlyn Phu
This spring, Niina Soleil will release her debut full-length LP, Heliophilia, a free-spirited love letter to the unique summertimes that decorate The Cradle of Cool, Southern California. The album is a gentle meshing of her previous singles delicately interlaced with new additions, expressions each as dynamic as her landscapes.
No song haunts like Soleil’s “Whiskey Valentine,” her first single of the album (out today via all DSPs). This track finds her shining under cover of darkness, blazing bold across the San Bernardino county line. Leaving the beach and heading for the cacti-speckled territory of Lana Del Ray’s haunting lilt, Jack Nietzche’s baritone twang, and Joni Mitchell’s perpetual nights. Star-crossed sentiments inspire a lyric that conveys the fun of being bad in the kind of place where anything goes.
With Heliophilia, Niina Soleil has completed her “cosmic puzzle” –a term she invokes to better define the craft of songwriting.
“When I’m working with other writers, it’s like a game that we’re all trying to solve; how do we make this story both fabulous and sensical? But when I’m writing by myself, it sometimes feels like a benevolent form of haunting. Like I’ll get a piece of an idea—a scrap of melody or lyric— and it’ll just… haunt me until I finish it. An unfinished song is a bit like a beautiful spirit with unfinished business if that makes any sense at all— I just try to interpret what the song wants to be until I’m satisfied that I got it right.”
“A “Whiskey Valentine” is not your true love, but someone to fight the loneliness with. There’s something so timeless and human about making eyes at the stranger from across the bar and willing them to become your evening company. But the song only exists in the aftermath of love and loss— it maintains the mystery of how they got there and where they’re going. I wanted to write a tune that could tell a story and keep a secret, too.”
