In the middle of November 2025, I felt a very strong urge to release one last single before the end of the year. I’m in the mixing phase of my next album, and I’m planning a slow rollout beginning in January 2026, but I felt like I needed a small moment to separate the last cycle from the new one :)

I get some slack sometimes for power-writing songs. I don’t think it’s deserved. I think we all have our methods, and for me, setting deadlines and timers goes a long way. The landscape of my brain is vast, and I get lost chasing vague concepts easily when I don’t set guardrails. It’s not for everyone, but personally, it helps me focus. That is, of course, not to say I would ever release a piece I didn’t think was up to par. So in November, I decided I wanted to release a dreamy, wintry piece by early or mid-December…and 'Solstice' was born.

As we wrap up the end of the year and celebrate the solstice annually on December 21, it feels like a time for reflection, but also hope for what is ahead. I knew with this theme that I wanted the song to feel hopeful and bright, almost like hopping onto a chair lift as we close out a year filled with triumphs & errors, and prepare for the new one with optimism & integration.

The actual song project for ‘Solstice’ is cool. If you’re into nerding out on production at all, I have a new favorite plug-in called Portal by Output (shout out to Landoni for turning me on to this one), which I used on a few of the atmospheric pads that are glitching and swirling around the stereo field. If you’ve been following me at all, you know how much I love a plucky harp, so obviously the production has one of those postured as the chariot leading the journey. I also used a panning tool to make the vocal texture and one of the atmospheres sound as if they are rotating around you every four bars, to represent the theme of the solstice itself—it’s about rotation, and we, the listener, are standing at the axis. I thought it was a fun concept!

And the chords…ahh. I love these chords. I had picked them out months ago for something special that I hadn’t found the right message for yet. It’s always really important for me to find the right key and chord progression before doing any other writing. If the landscape isn’t conducive to the story or idea, nothing else matters (*in my opinion 😏). But the day I decided on birthing ‘Solstice’, I knew these were the chords. The project had nothing other than the harp (which is still in the song), but I had named the project “You Wished For This.” It captured that sparkly, hopeful moment of presence + gratitude, which ‘Solstice’ expresses in a similar way.

I’ve been really bored with standard song structures lately (I’ve been writing soooooo much over the last three years), so I’ve been attempting to shake things up a bit. If you follow me on Instagram or TikTok and saw my lament about getting critical feedback…it was on this point. The song is (roughly) intro–chorus–bridge–chorus. Safe to say, a few outspoken people did not like that. Lol. But I stand by it! #noregrets, truly. We're here to do us, baby!!

There are also 13 vocal tracks in this song! A few of my upcoming songs have up to 18. Chiesa loves a choral moment, and it shows (sounds? eh?).

So, if you haven’t already, pour a glass of sauvignon blanc + three ice cubes, and enjoy this Enya-meets-Guy-Gerber-meets-Nora-En-Pure, icy-blue, glittery snow falling from the sky.