Austrian singer and rapper Mavi Phoenix speaks out on personal new single “Love Longtime”

She explains via email that “Love Longtime” came from a place of having to “deal with the situation that society even goes so far to tell you who to love. There's nothing more intimate and private than your love life, and still sometimes it feels like you don't have full control over it.”

The track itself opens and closes with a piano instrumental and features flickering beats and drums throughout, adding a welcome level of distortion as Phoenix uses her lyrics to question societal norms. The song begins with just piano, is played by Phoenix’s best friend and collaborator Alex The Flipper. “I immediately knew that I wanted to build a track around it. I remember that everything came super naturally. The first demo does not really differ from the final result.”

The song’s themes of breaking down boundaries and having the freedom to express your love, no matter who you love are echoed in the production. Phoenix tells us this message of freedom meant “I deliberately didn't set myself boundaries in the making. I didn't think about structure or if I could really use this much autotune on my voice. I just let my creativity run free.”