American-Icelandic singer and songwriter Gaby DeSpain infuses modern pop with a dreamy, electric blues sound in her music to great effect.
DeSpain, who was raised in India and Turkey before settling in Seattle, spent her entire childhood travelling to different countries throughout Europe and Asia, and that world view shows in her music.
These events and relationships had a significant impact on her work, resulting in a dark-pop sound and performing style reminiscent of Billie Holiday and old Hollywood – nostalgic, fluid, and sensual at the same time. Her melancholy wrapped enticing licks on her new single “Settle For Skin Deep” demonstrate her contemplative lyrical stylings well.
The vocalist, singer, songwriter composed “Settle for Skin Deep” after being inspired by a scene from Breakfast At Tiffany’s in which Holly Golightly is drunk and morose at a strip club. She herself had been lonely and frustrated while dating in their 20s, settling for drunk hookups, as she puts it.
She has combined acoustically sensual glam from the 1950s and 1960s, such as Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” with modern pop and her snarky, smokey, tongue-in-cheek attitude, to tell her story.
Watch the video for “Settle For Skin Deep” below:
#Peace.Love.SettleForSkinDeep
