Premiere: VAVÁ, ‘When the Lights Go Out’

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VAVÁ

On her first EP under the name VAVÁ, singer-songwriter Vanessa Wheeler turned heads with her not-for-the-faint-of-fingers guitar playing and rich lyricism. “The Other Side” earned descriptors like “prog” and “avant,” yet you never felt as though you needed an advanced degree to love it.

The Brazilian-American singer-songwriter and composer returns this week with “When the Lights Go Out,” a single that hews closer to contemporary pop-soul yet is no less engaging. Here, the lightning in her guitar and her luminous vocals illuminate what amounts to a nocturnal anxiety attack, with the track’s rhythmic bounce and backing vocals bringing her safely back to dreamland. The tune calls to mind current artists such as HAIM.

“‘When the Lights Go Out’ was written on my birthday in 2018 during a particular difficult few months in which I battled insomnia,” Wheeler says. “No sooner would I close my eyes, would I then begin to hear the voices of doubt and fear created by my subconscious. Oddly, once I finished the song, I went to bed and of course the voices began to rattle around until I asked myself, ‘What can I even attempt to accomplish at 2 a.m.?’ Well, the answer was, ‘not a single thing,’ so I shut my eyes, gave up a little control, and finally slept through the night.”

Since the release of her EP in early 2018, Wheeler has been dipping her toes into the pop game, recently co-writing with “The Voice’s” Jackie Lipson on her song, “Someday.” “When the Lights Go Out” is the first single from a series of three VAVÁ EPs that will culminate in a vinyl release.

||| Stream: “When the Lights Go Out”

||| Previously: “The Other Side”