The Isle of CC's latest EP release 'Void' and its leading single 'Little Black Dress' immerses you in the sweet sounds of relatable soul. Available on all streaming platforms now.
Serena Robb [Sebastian] AKA The Isle of CC, is a gender-fluid alt-soul solo artist from Milton Keynes.
Alongside being a solo artist, she/he is one of the directors of Wordplay Magazine, a radio host, writer, and interviewer.
Since the release of The Isle of CC's EP, she/he has supported runner-up on The Voice UK Leah McFall for her 'INK' tour, performed a Live BBC Introducing session with Melita Dennett, and In addition to this her/his debut single 'Losing' was aired on Huw Stephens' BBC Radio 1 show back in 2017.
The Isle of CC's ‘Little Black Dress’ song portrays her/his feelings towards the sublime confusion of dating in your early 20s. The melody is accompanied by backing vocals that give reminiscence of a university girl gang, set atop a gospel/funk dreamscape of instrumentation.
This floating neo-soul track perfectly encapsulates the feelings that many of us may have experienced, notwithstanding the added trials of coming to terms with fluid gender identity.
You can listen to 'The Little Black Dress' on all major streaming platforms and it is included on The Isle of CC's latest EP ‘Void’, which brings the wistful and bass-driven song ‘Solitary’, and up-tempo, no holds barred ‘Friends’.
You can listen to 'Little Black Dress' by The Isle of CC on all major streaming platforms here.
Head of Local Music, Jodie Erica, asked The Isle of CC some questions.
Tell us more about your latest release, is there a meaning behind it? Do you write your own songs?
There is definitely a story behind ‘Void’!
At its core, the song is about the fantasy of a relationship, but not truly being in one. I’ve written the lead and backing vocals in such a way that the song ebbs and flows between fantasy and reality. The experiences that led to ‘Little Black Dress’ taught me growth not only as an artist but as a human being. I felt that ‘Little Black Dress’ should be the single to lead the ‘Void’ EP as it represents the middle of my journey, not quite being happy alone, but also not sure I wanted to be with anyone else. It seems to be the stage that people don’t often sing about, it’s either ‘I’m so lonely’ or ‘forget everyone I’m fine'.
“Friends” isn’t truly about me. While it does deal with the difficulties I’ve faced as a mediator in other people’s arguments, the core hook is sung from those parties' perspectives. It plays on the schoolyard ‘I don’t want to be your friend anymore’ insult, and uses tempo changes to try and explain the chaos of people fighting within a friendship group. From my perspective, this is the song where I felt I came out of my slump, and thought ‘if everyone wants to behave like this, I’m just gonna focus on me’, and that was liberating.
‘Solitary’ was an extremely difficult track for me to write at the time. It’s a raw account of the personal heartbreak I faced when some of the people I knew acted poorly and started behaving differently. The overcompensation in their behaviour to try and ‘protect me’ from something they thought I didn’t know ended up making me feel I’d just be better off alone. It was a dark journey, and I think the repetitive, slightly jarring nature of the rhythm section really reflects the low points there, while the crescendo ‘you overcompensate...’ shows off the anger that had been boiling beneath the surface.”
Do you have anything new on the way that you can tell us about?
I am currently working on a new single that I am planning on releasing early next year. Definitely am looking forward to working on some collaborations as well, I wanna be a bit secretive about who I am thinking about for now hehe.
How long have you been performing? Tell us some backstory about your journey so far.
I started off with a passion for dance at a young age, I did ballet for about 2 years. I really loved music! I was surrounded by it growing up and my parents sing and my father plays guitar and bass. I was involved in productions, I did drama and musical theatre as well. It wasn’t until college that I explored all the different areas of dancing, acting and singing on a regular basis.
I remember watching an Erykah Badu video of her performing ‘Otherside of the Game’, it was incredible. I realised at that moment I actually wanted to be a singer and focus on honing in that craft. When I went to uni I wanted to practise singing in a more stylistic way in the hope that I would find my own sound. I became quite fascinated with backing vocalists and the way they harmonised. I feel that this is because of my background of being part of a choir.
One of my favourite things to do even now is to listen to a song and harmonise with it. At home, someone will start singing a acapella song and then another person will start harmonising naturally, it’s super sweet. Anyways so at university, I was still finding my sound and in my first year, I decided I just wanted to do backing vocals for someone else. Someone actually challenged me and said ‘are you only saying this because of a confidence thing or?’ They were right it was due to confidence so I started to push myself more, and get out of my comfort zone.
Even singing songs I would never normally sing. In my final year of uni, I decided to release my own music, it was a sold-out show I couldn’t believe it. I know that going through that journey lead to me where I am now. I will continue to grow, experiment and evolve.
Who are your musical influences and inspirations?
I would say my strongest musical influences are Erykah Badu, Solange and Kelela.
They are all different but there are elements that each of them has that I really love. Erykah’s stage presence stands out to me a lot in how she commands the stage effortlessly and her vocals, her body of work. Solange’s visuals, lyrical content and bodies of work. Kelela’s vocal ethereal qualities over electronic music are something so special. There are definitely crossovers with what I love about all three but that’s just a small insight as to what stood out to me with them.
The name ‘The Isle Of CC’ comes from a nickname my mother gave me, my two middle names both being a ‘C’. ‘The Isle’ part represents me being on my own island and in my own space, my musical space.
Which musician would you like to collaborate with?
There’s a few I would love to collaborate with Erykah Badu, FKJ, Gwen, Bunn, Jordan Rakei, KAYTRANADA and Emmavie.
What other hobbies/passions do you enjoy regardless of music?
I do enjoy watching movies at the cinema, I’m a bit of a Marvel fanatic. I occasionally like to dabble in some mindfulness colouring and reading too.
If you did not become a musician, what would you be doing right now?
I think I would have gone into theatre or dance. Since I had a passion for both of those I definitely think that I would have pursued them.
Do you have a favourite musical memory so far, maybe of a performance?
I actually did a performance recently and I have to say I definitely have a wonderful music memory. I met someone who said that the second song I sang ‘Solitary’ really spoke to them. They told me they were going through something and hearing that song confirmed something for them. Honestly, I was so nervous about that gig because it has been such a long time since I had performed. I have always said that with my music I wanted it to speak to people. So the universe really did a number there.
You can listen to 'Little Black Dress' by The Isle of CC on all major streaming platforms here.
Keep up-to-date with the latest from The Isle of CC here.
