Emerging Hip Hop duo Scintilla hail from South England, with a sound that tips a hat to the likes of production wizard Mike Dean (Travis Scott) while illuminating and acknowledging their plethora of inspirations and attitudes from the 21st century.
Up until recently, they took their talents to create beats as jesting gifts for their mates. After seeing their potential, they mutually decided that Scintilla would take the name for the pair's future work.
Fresh off of the release of the single and music video for "Hillside," Scintilla takes an animated approach to the visual concept as the harmonious utopia of dreamy soundwaves infiltrates the speakers in the sonic offering of this release.
"Hillside" thrives in a buoyant atmosphere that chimes into the blithe liveliness dancing throughout the instrumentation. Still fixating upon the heavy bass elements, the manner in which the musical arrangement delves into numerous emotions stirred is noteworthy. With the reverberated vocalization of Scintilla washing over you in one fell swoop, you're whisked away by the flowing timbres that glisten in an effervescent tone.
The animation embodying the film component allocates hues of mauve and gold as Scintilla cruises the streets in a warm cityscape, vibing to their sound with the top down. Combining the brilliant versatility of emcee-like verses with wistful tenors radiated in the head-bopping chorus, the way that the visual and sonic components pair together is a match made in heaven. You're pulled into the mesmerizing allure that a series of limited scenes with few special effects deliver instead of dragging your attention to the various quick-cut scenes that some choose to opt for.
Scintilla continues to establish their name through a unique sound that allows musical influences to speak into their music while creating a lane that is entirely their own. The approach is taken in "Hillside," which allows the song to brilliantly glow as we get lost in the therapeutic appeal provided listeners.
The concept of the music video fits into the soundscape so effortlessly; we love it. When did you know that would be the approach you would take towards the music video?
Harry: We wanted to write a hopeful and inviting new tune, and whilst the restrictions here in the UK still permit us from having our full amount of freedom, we wanted Hillside to paint a picture of what we will one day have again. We wanted to bring the track to life by adding in some narrative, so we chose a small story about two characters who are constantly one step ahead of each other. Peter expanded on the chorus’s narrative and took it in a variety of different directions during his verses, incorporating some twisty-turny phrases that stay creatively relevant. We wanted to reflect some of our narrative subjects through the use of effects, see how many you can spot!
You worked with Tash Tully in order to create eye-catching visuals. How was this collaborative experience? What was it like working with one another? Scintilla: It was a pleasure working with Tash on this project. She really understood the aesthetic we were looking for with the track and was able to bring our ideas to life in a brilliant way! From the beginning, we were envisioning a nostalgic Miami-esque setting, full of rich purples and blues to contrast against the bright orange sunset peeking over the hills. On top of this, to have our own custom avatars driving through this striking scene is amazing, and a nod to the lyrical content in the song. So yeah, we’re very happy with the visuals and the way it gels with the feel of the track! Could you please take us into what the creative process looked like when fashioning together such a warm vibration as exuded in “Hillside?" Harry: When I started writing Hillside, I wanted to go simple, so I chose fairly basic chord progression and then spiced it up with some alterations at the end of each phrase, it was a loop that felt natural to… keep looping! After layering some parts and putting the beat together, the chorus just came naturally, and it acquired this summery sound. Peter sent over his ideas from his studio, and the verses were created. After more tinkering and mixing, we decided to get in touch with producer Tom Waterman, who mastered our track and brought out all of the good stuff! This was our first mix with Tom, and would highly recommend Hip Hop artists to take note! In terms of themes and messaging, what are you hoping that your listeners take away from this release? Scintilla: As our second single, we wanted to start showing our listeners that our music is able to shift and transform depending on our narrative. Our previous single Nothing On This delivered a more aggressive tone. We wanted to enter the music world with a bit of edge, but now we’re showing that we’re here to deliver some good vibes too. We’re always sharing different music with each other as musicians, so it’s hard to predict how future material will sound, but we like to maintain some elements - hard bass, heavy beats, soulful overtones, and breezy raps. This new track was sort of supposed to paint a picture of the summer. Here in the UK, we’re just coming out of our third lockdown, so we felt that a sunny track with some warmth yet a strong rhythmic pulse would be our listener’s doorway to more exciting, sunnier, happier times. What's next for you? Scintilla: We’re really happy with Hillside, so right now our efforts are going into this. We’re interested in trying to try and start off a summer trend with people sharing our tune amongst nostalgic summer videos. If you’re reading this and do possess some nostalgic, summery photos or videos, we’d love to see Hillside as your soundtrack! Email: scintillamusicuk@gmail.com