Seraphina Simone has released her new single ‘Hollywood $$$’.
The track follows the release of her debut ‘Cherry <8’ which received top reviews and Spotify playlist listings including Fresh Finds.
Speaking of her new single, Seraphina said: “’Hollywood $$$’ is about the Lynchian, fame-obsessive undercurrents of tinsel town, with its sirens, starlets, leeches & letches. It’s about that world of smoke and mirrors – where nothing and no one is really as it seems, and the world of celebrity – where we deify or demonise people into these superhumans or arch-villains. It’s about how seductive fame can be, how it’s something we all envision in the back of our minds – the perfect life without money worries where everyone loves us and we can do whatever we want – but it comes at a huge price and can destroy you if you chase it too hard.”
To celebrate her single release, Seraphina shared with us 5 tracks that influenced ‘Hollywood $$$’.
Britney Spears – Lucky | Listen via Spotify
The whole concept of this song is a pretty big influence on ‘Hollywood $$$’ – the idea of this adored movie star at the height of her fame and fortune who’s still miserable and lonely.
The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist | Listen via Spotify
I love collage music, layering samples from non-music artefacts into songs and recontextualising them – you can hear a few different samples tucked into ‘Hollywood $$$’. The Avalanches are so creative in the way they weave and stitch tracks together – their whole debut album is amazing but this is probably their most well-known track from it.
Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein – Stranger Things | Listen via Spotify
When I was finishing up ‘Hollywood $$$’ in the studio, I remember feeling like it was missing an extra synth layer. The producer I was working with, Tom, has a modular synth, so started fiddling around with it to come up with the right sound and I just kept saying ‘STRANGER THINGS STRANGER THINGS STRANGER THINGS’ because I wanted that crunchy, super 80’s arcade-game vibe. He nailed it and we used it to open the track.
Sharon Van Etten – Seventeen | Listen via Spotify
I was listening to this album a lot when I was writing these tunes, and just love everything Sharon puts out, but this track, in particular, is so fire. I love the momentum of the drums, and the layers of synths and guitar feedback and sonic effects. It’s so textured. I did a lot of layering of synths and atmospheric guitars because of this album and listening to her Song Exploder episode on this tune.
Echo & The Bunnymen – Lips Like Sugar | Listen via Spotify
I love their use of reverb and echo, and the way they layer up all these guitar riffs and motifs all panned to call-and-respond to each other. The lyrics in the first pre of Hollywood $$$ are a kind of nod to this song, with ‘sweet as sugar’ and ‘lips like poison’.
You can stream Seraphina Simone ‘Hollywood $$$’ below via Spotify: