Ayelle tackles controlling relationships on new cut "Issues"

With two EPs under her belt, 2014's What You Made and last year's Machine, Ayelle has shown a tendency to expand and reinvigorate her sound with every release. Latest single "Issues" does just this. The song is shrouded in downtempo beats and bittersweet R&B tones, reflective of both sadness and pain.

On the new single Ayelle discusses abuse and how "abusive personalities can make you feel as if you can’t live without them, their love or their approval. Ultimately, they wish to control you, and will use whatever means available to them to do so. Even after you think you’ve gotten away from them, the abuse continues, and "Issues" is about the aftermath that follows.”

Writing about pressing issues is not new for Ayelle, her songwriting often challenges the patriachy and confronts misogny directly. She explains "I wrote ["Reclaim"] about living in the shadow of a man, where his needs take centre stage and you morph into the accommodating girlfriend. It's something that's perpetuated by social norms, which makes it easy to fall into, but harder to get out of." Previous single "No Harm" is "about trying to understand the reasoning and frame of mind of three different rapists, who probably don’t understand that they are rapists."

"I think music lets you have an almost direct line of contact with the listener in that moment where they choose to listen to a piece of music," Ayelle tells us. "There are so many undercurrents and influences that reach us on that level, and I think that it can make music one of the most powerful methods of activism. In my case, it's about putting an emotion to the face of activism that you can't deny. Regardless whether you agree or not, if the song speaks to you then it's bound to make you feel something, and hopefully also make you think."