After a long stint in London and Europe honing her indie pop craft, Bela Chase (formerly of her band Bela Takes Chase) has returned to Sydney and gone solo, releasing her new EP Velocity Raptor.

Working with Studios 301 producer Jack Prest (Flume, Sampa The Great, Skrillex, The Preatures), she’s put together four tracks of vibrant electro pop, and has run us through each of the tracks and their long genesis overseas.

Bela will be taking to the Oxford Art factory stage on November 4 with FROYO, Sonia and Taka Perry, while Velocity Raptor is out now through Ditto Music and available for your streaming pleasure below.

Velocity Raptor

This track is still a wonderment to me, as it’s the first track I wrote after leaving London during my stay with my brother in Germany. I really thought the first thing I would write after such a stormy time would be really down and depressing. Instead, this upbeat pop-like riff just came to me out of nowhere!

For me, this track expresses the light-hearted side of relationships and life during a very dark time. From writing this song I gained some independence which I think was a super important realisation for me at that time in my life.

I Forgot To Say

This track evaluates the darker side of dealing with my decision to return to Australia and the transition of relocating after such a long time away. It still holds some command within me, in that, I have said all I needed to and I’ve come to the realisation that I can’t make everything last forever.

I guess amongst all the thinking (and overthinking), it’s quite easy to forget that just a few simple words like, “Goodbye”, is all you need. Listening back and reflecting on this track I still don’t feel like I was given time to say those words and it was really the only thing that needed to be said.

Dirt Face

I’m not gonna lie this track is simply about the awkwardness of a one-night stand… OK, a booty call to be exact. It’s a very upbeat song which is still a strange adventure for me as a musician. In my adult life, I’ve found myself in some brutally awkward situations.

So, this song reflects the beginnings and quick endings of a one-night stand and that pressing question, “WHY? We knew this was a bad idea!”. Lyrically it’s a practical description of trying to make an early morning break for it, which I’m sure is relatable for most of us.

Space Kicks

This is the single track and was the last song I’d written for the EP. It was strung together in the studio after my producer (Jack Prest) had the idea to put two existing songs together. So, we took the chorus from one and the verse from another and it’s now my favourite from the EP.

Space Kicks is a raw and honest expression of how I feel about the density of my relationship with London, contrasted with all of those who had gotten under my skin for good and for bad. I felt like I didn’t have the life experience to say the things that needed to be said at the time. So now I am expressing them in this song. Also, I wanted to explore that short period of time that comes after a relationship breakdown.

When you simply can’t be around that person because you still love them, but you know that it’s over and it has to end – which is what I was feeling upon my arrival back to Australia.

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