After dropping a string of lush, alt-R&B singles in recent years, Iyves returns with a full body of work: her debut EP Chromatic is out on Friday (June 15). One day ahead of the release, the songstress has shared its title track, premiering exclusively on Billboard.
If the songs on Chromatic were a color, they would radiate a glistening gold. For the artwork of the single and EP, the Brooklyn-based artist looks divinely feminine bathed in the rich hue that matches her spiral curls. Iyves opened up to Billboard about the introspective moments that led to the creation of her EP, written alongside Zach Lipkins aka REFS.
“I wrote this material over a time of heartache and despair which led into a period of new found strength and relationship with myself,” she reveals. “This EP sort of feels like a metamorphosis for me.”
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Iyves paints a colorful picture through her music, one that weaves together hyper-electronic production with the artist’s sensual voice. “This is chromatic, all color no static,” she sings on the otherworldly title track, which “was written in a moment of stillness, reflection and a sense of newness.” When the beat drops, the glitchy song swells with energy — a symbolic representation of the EP as a whole, which Iyves says picks up as each tracks unfolds.
The release of “Chromatic” was preceded by Iyves’ empowering single “Not Afraid to Fall.” Written months after a breakup, she calls that her anthem track. “It was my statement that I have moved on, have moved forward with strength, I’m ready to take on whatever might come my way,” Iyves tells Billboard. While the EP is meant to be listened in order to follow the artist’s “experience and emotional evolution,” the first singles perfectly preview the story of triumph soon to be revealed.
Listen to “Chromatic” below.