Have You Heard? Mellah - What It Is

Liam’s voice is thrust to the front, and given a cleaner expression: it’s one he uses to hammer home a vital message.
Across two early EPs, London’s Liam Ramsden has proved himself a singer-songwriter able to form a brilliant, creepy connection with his leftfield jams as Mellah.
On new track ‘What It Is’, his attack is a little more straight-forward. Set over choppy acoustic guitars and panned percussion, Liam’s voice is thrust to the front, and given a cleaner expression: it’s one he uses to hammer home a vital message.
“‘What It Is’ is essentially about remaining hopeful in the face of seeming hopelessness,” he says of the track. “On a daily basis we’re faced with a torrent of injustice and oppression from all around the world, it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed. I started writing the track from a place of trying to stay hopeful within myself but it progressed into a sort of wider call to arms to keep on fighting for those with less means to fight for themselves. To keep hope in the possibility of change and not to become complacent and subsequently complicit.”
The message anchors the song brilliantly, just about staying afloat amongst a torrent of doubt and uncertainty. “It is what it is, but what it is isn’t right,” he repeats throughout the track, refusing to settle for the status quo. It starts as a softly spoken refrain, but as the track progresses, it becomes an impassioned bark, the song gathering power and extra meaning as it rattles along, to the point where, at the track’s conclusion, it serves as a vital rallying cry.
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