Mere Child turns paternal wisdom into dance-flecked pop with "Jot of Joy"

Pairing pulsing electronic beats with emotion-packed lyrics, the siren call of Aimee Hebert-Smith’s vocal will lure you to the shore of her musical mind.

Reminiscent of both Robyn’s “Body Talk” collection, and the soaring folk of Robyn Sherwell, the “sad disco” track sees the artist’s genuine emotion and melancholic lyrics uplifted by the dance flecked-pop of the 80s inspired production. Emotion is something which is key Hebert-Smith when making her music and sharing her personal experiences.

Following a three year hiatus, she states, “I felt the need to start writing and recording in a different way to how I had done before. Somehow, going solo at this point seemed fitting with the content of the songs - more vulnerable and anxiety driven.”

The song was written around a phrase given to Hebert-Smith by her late father: “every jot of joy is worth a hundred moments of despair”. Over email she explains how “watching someone you love suffer changes a person and when you're surrounded by a world of darkness and pain it can be hard to find any happiness, even in the smallest of moments.” Listening to the track again, this insight is piercingly clear.

Her connection to water and her home is also evident in the lyrical landscape of “Jot of Joy”. “Through all the moments of my despair I craved the sense of weightlessness you feel in the sea.” Having always lived by the sea, Hebert-Smith explains, “it has felt like my safe space to escape to.”

With music focusing on the changes in her life, including loss, marriage and birth, the Mere Child project, much like her beloved sea, seems to be a safe space for Hebert-Smith to limitlessly express her being.