SONG PREMIERE: "RADIO SILENCE" BY NATALIE CRESSMAN

We are excited to premiere “Radio Silence” the fist single from Natalie Cressman’s upcoming album titled The Traces EP today.

You may know Natalie from her touring work with the Trey Anastasio Band, who provides an impressive and sometimes jazzy trombone to the equation as we witnessed on NYE at MSG. While we love that side, her solo work is a whole different and pleasing animal that we are happy to share. “Radio Silence” is firmly rooted in the electro-pop genre and with its heady beat and ethereal vocals, makes us want to dance in the office. Despite the track’s *serious message, it is something we can enjoy, all while recognizing gender equality.

Luckily for us, we received an advanced copy of the new EP, which is due out in March and can tell you that the five songs are all quality and is an impressive piece of work. We’ll be reviewing The Traces EP, so until then, keep this in your feel-good playlist.

*”I wrote Radio Silence about the trials of being a female instrumentalist in the man’s world that is the music business. I often feel a lot of frustration about being being pre-judged because I am a woman playing trombone. The discrimination shows itself in many ways: either by people under-estimating my abilities, or hiring me just because of my gender and looks, as the “token” girl in the band or part of a miniskirt-clad chick horn section, not because of what I can do musically. I’ve been kicked out of backstage multiple times at a gig because the assumption has been made that there was no way that I was one of the performers, because the prevailing and sometimes subconscious assumption is that being a musician is a “man’s job” if you’re not a singer. This song was about not really feeling “seen” or “heard” for who I really am and for what’s really important, the music. And that one day people would come to regret their small-mindedness and prejudice. I think many women both in music and beyond encounter sexism at work in their day to day lives so I wanted to put these feelings into a song in the with the hope that it might contribute to better treatment of female musicians in the future.” – Natalie Cressman