New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Softee (the stage name of actress and rising DIY pop creator Nina Grollman, she/they) today drops "
Red Light Green Light" (out via City Slang Records), a taste of the innovative pop wonder's forthcoming album and proof as to why she is one of the indie world's most exciting new technicolor voices.
Soulful & otherworldly with a disco shimmer meant to raise your dopamine levels alongside lyrics that squarely aim to call out elitism and nepotism in modern society, "
Red Light Green Light" is a prime example of the duality of Softee's music.
The video (also out today and co-directed by Softee with Charlie Cole, with creative direction by Machel Ross) is a powerful yet cheeky statement in itself, finding Softee inhabiting the character of a businessman going out on the town and selfishly indulging in his own bravado and lavishness.
"The birth of this song actually came from a beat that a friend Namir Blade made that sampled a moment in Squid Game. I loved the show so much and the beat was so intoxicating, I wanted to do something with it. I wrote most of the lyrics as a response to Squid Game," said Softee. "The song is a tirade against nepotism and elitist thinking. What makes me so different from someone who has a trust fund other than their proximity to wealth? These questions swirl around in the song, but subversively, because it's so danceable I don't think you really hear the lyrics unless you're paying close attention. That is my favorite kind of pop music- the kind where you have to look up the lyrics and it gives the song a whole new meaning."
Shot with a DIY approach on the streets of New York, Softee shared that "We went into the shoot with a solid plan, but we left plenty of room for spontaneity within that framework. We were constantly pushing what we could get away with filming in public places."
Machel Ross added "When I'm thinking of building a world for a music video, I like to listen to a song on repeat and see the way that the song scores the randomness of life. I was listening to Red Light Green Light on the train and I saw this incredibly glamorous woman in her 70's across the platform wearing a fur coat. The song's interrogation of the 1% perfectly scored the gaudiness of her aesthetic against the grittiness of the subway."
"
Red Light Green Light" follows the recent release of sister track "
Molly", which Billboard called a "funky indie-pop vibe-fest", and which captures the very real first date that Softee had with hew now-fiance (who coincidentally also directed the music video which serves as a near play-by-play recreation of the aforementioned first date).
From a childhood spent singing karaoke in her parents' basement and idolizing pop stars, to performing on Broadway with Denzel Washington in The Iceman Cometh, to past acclaim from Rolling Stone, to today's new track, Softee's journey has led her to the forthcoming unforgettable album. More details to come.
