Estere Shares Double Album 'My Design, On Others' Lives'

Wellington-based singer and producer Estère has unveiled her much anticipated double-album My Design, On Others’ Lives following a captivating run of immaculately produced releases and videos. The artist shared the first half of the record as a mini-album My Design (Part 1) in October, and has dropped the concluding collection of tunes with those songs today to create a powerful sonic statement, spanning futuristic neo-funk, heart-melting soul balladry and more. It's been a huge year for Estère, she supported disco legend Grace Jones in March, will be playing release shows at Wellington's Caroline and Auckland's Cassette Nine next week, and is heading off to tour Europe and the UK including a performance at the Afropunk Paris festival. Estère reflected on the multifaceted makeup of her new record in a statement, read her words and listen up to My Design, On Others’ Lives below...

“I am really passionate about production and this album was partly an exercise in learning how to translate what I hear in my mind, to real compositions. It made me work and learn, hard. ‘Gun Kid’ is probably the best example of this, the entire song structure, the strange juxtaposition between violent electronic and soft acoustic, was in my head before I made the beat. I’m really fascinated by this cross-pollination of influence and ideas. I think when people listen to it, they will hear so many elements and, it’s a bit of a weird body of work in that way. I’ve always wanted my musical progress to be transparent to fans. I want people to tangibly hear how I’m learning and developing my own artistry, songwriting and production when they listen. I don’t want things to come off perfect and polished, because that is not who I am as a human or artist.”