renforshort’s debut album “Dear Amelia” narrates an up-close and thrillingly honest journey through the darkest parts of her psyche
renforshort is a 20-year-old Toronto-based artist who conjures emotionally charged anthems accentuated with her intimate delivery and sincere lyricism.
From her singles “mind games” and “waves” going viral in 2019, and the success of her EP “teenage angst” in 2020, to “off saint dominique” in 2021 gaining over one million monthly listeners on Spotify. Since she started writing music, it’s always been about emotional parts of the songs. It’s a way to express what she goes through at the time that would also help other people. Renforshort makes her songs as open as possible for listeners to interpret and still have a clear message.
Earlier this year, she released the single “moshpit,” which received widespread acclaim and popularity. Now, renforshort’s unbreakable spell will only grow stronger on her forthcoming full-length debut, “Dear Amelia”.
In her new single “Dear Amelia”, renforshort takes us on an honest journey through the darkest parts of her mind and builds an elaborate sonic world around her detailed exploration of mental health. With its raw account of depression and disassociation, anxiety and self-erasure, “Dear Amelia” opens on “i miss myself” a gorgeously devastating track that renforshort describes as especially difficult to write. “It’s about feeling like you need to be all these other people, until eventually you don’t know who you are anymore,” she says. Opening in a stripped-back haze and reaching a wild fearlessness at the bridge, “i miss myself” also reveals ren’s gift for elevating her storytelling through ingenious use of sonic contrast and dynamics. “I wanted the song to feel like when you’re having a conversation and trying to stay calm, until you finally can’t hold back anymore and everything just explodes,” she explains.
“I think it’s fine to have songs without a resolution because at the time of writing I didn’t have this resolution”
Since her first single she changed in so many ways, she believes. Ren kept her core values in music making – honesty. Over the time she feels that her writing definitely matured. She feels that she’s had to grow up faster than other people and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. And that helped her in a way with writing music. Over the years consuming more media, meeting more people and learning more from personal experiences, it changed her as an artist and as a person.
The past two years have seen Canadian alternative pop-star capture the world's attention and hearts with track after track that blurs anthems with vulnerable songwriting. The result is a budding Gen Z pop-star whose music feels equally as powerful blasted in stadiums as it does in the comfort of your own four walls.
The rawness of her lyrics allow people to examine not only how she feels but how they feel as well.
