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Now What (feat. Mawaddah, Donna Maciocia, Jonnie Common)

by Ensemble

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100% of profits from sales will go back into funding Ensemble activities.

The award-winning Ensemble songwriting project for young people, many with experience of homelessness or mental health issues, release Now What (feat. Mawaddah, Donna Maciocia, Jonnie Common) the third single from their debut album 'No Place Like It'.

Now What features a stunning and powerful debut vocal performance by Mawaddah, with vocal improvisation and production inspired by Billie Eilish. The song was written by Mawaddah and Scottish songwriters Donna Maciocia and Jonnie Common.

Mawaddah says "Donna helped me write the lyrics and find melodies and chords and different ways of singing the song. She gave me word magnets and I started putting random words together like ‘silent’ and ‘bloom’ and ‘dead’ and ‘flower’ - these became the main idea for the chorus. It was really fun coming up with rhymes for the lyric.

"We were both listening to Billie Eilish lots at the time so we asked Jonnie to make a beat inspired by her music. He recorded me improvising and singing random stuff in the middle of a songwriting workshop and put that in the song too. It was super cool."

lyrics

-----------------------------------

Why are you like this?
Why can’t you abide?
Why can’t you be normal?
Why have you no pride?
Why did you come here?
Where did your mind go?
D’you think you are special?
Why’re you so cold?

My heart’s thumping like crazy
My breath’s heavy and shaky
But I feel alive
And I’m scared, but I like it
Not gonna smell heaven

I’m in silent bloom, no more a dead flower
I’m in silent bloom more a dead flower
I’m in silent bloom, no more a dead flower
I’m a primal scream, no more a whisper
I’m a primal scream, no more a whisper
I’m a primal scream

Why did you leave?
Was this always your plan?
Marked from the get go
Stains on your hands
Always a black sheep
Always so private
She who knows better
Shoulda stayed quiet

My heart’s thumping like crazy
My breath’s heavy and shaky
But I feel alive
And I’m scared, but I like it
Not gonna smell heaven

I’m in silent bloom, no more a dead flower
I’m in silent bloom more a dead flower
I’m in silent bloom, no more a dead flower
I’m a primal scream, no more a whisper
I’m a primal scream, no more a whisper
I’m a primal scream

-----------------------------------

credits

released April 23, 2021
Written by Mawaddah, Donna Maciocia, Jonnie Common

Mawaddah: lead vocals
Donna Maciocia: backing vocals, casio synth
Jonnie Common: all other instrumentation

Recorded 2019/2020 by Donna Maciocia and Jonnie Common
Mixed by Jonnie Common
Mastered by Paul Gallagher

Artwork by studioLEMM

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Ensemble Glasgow, UK

Ensemble is an award-winning youth songwriting project based in Glasgow, funded by Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative (YMI) and supported by Wheatley Care. Ensemble empowers young people, many with experience of homelessness or mental health issues, to write songs with the help of professional songwriters and musicians. ... more

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