I've been a huge fan of Tei Shi for a couple of years now, first hearing her late night on Rage. 'Bassically' was the Song that had me singing (screaming) and dancing along immediately, so I rushed to check out the rest of her stuff. At that point she'd only released two EPs, Saundade and Verde, but I adored every single one. Her voice is angelic but strong (as you can probably tell if you've listened to the last half of 'Bassically', she can really fucking belt out those notes) and musically, she falls into the alternative/pop kind of genre, but it's hard to classify her. From the simple, but beautiful 'Sick As Fuck' to 'See Me', her style and voice shows her gentle side, but again, songs like 'Bassically' and her cover of Beyonce's 'No Angel' (which is fucking amazing) gives us a glimpse into how strong both her voice, and herself as a person is. 

Her debut Album, Crawl Space, is due at the end of this month, and I'm so, so excited. The first two singles released from it have been incredible so I'm expecting the entire album to be equally as amazing. 'Keep Running' is a classic, fun pop song, but it strays from being the kind that quickly becomes boring. 'How Far' is another example of Tei Shi's impressive vocals, as well as her ability to be vulnerable and open with her music. It starts off slow and relatively quiet, her gentle side, being almost shy, and grows into her belting out the chorus (after a pitch change, too). She said she wrote the song while crying, and while I never want her to be upset (especially over a boy, come on) she perfectly put that mix of sadness and anger and every emotion in between into this song.  Even though I don't have anything from my personal life to relate it to, I still know how she feels and it's another song that has me dancing around my room screaming out the lyrics. 

I know it seems like I haven't said too much about her, but that's mostly due to her being yet to release more music! I have no doubt whatsoever, even after her debut album, anything she puts out will be gold so make sure to follow her.

Banks for catalogue magazine

You all know how much I'm in love with miss BANKS. Can I remember how I discovered her? Nope, but fuck I'm glad I did. I've always been a sucker for deep, RnB inspired pop, and that she certainly provides. I do know that Brain was the first song of hers I ever heard, and it came at a time I desperately needed it. My last year of high school was full of me crying about a boy, and the lyrics fit perfectly to what was happening and how I was feeling. From that moment I knew this was a woman who I connected with, so it wasn't a surprise that I loved her first album, Goddess. It offered a collection of moody, deep electronic songs that you could both dance to and cry to, with a softer acoustic track and some powerful, raw, piano based ones thrown in. My favourites from it are Brain, Goddess, Change and Fuck Em Only We Know. I also loved the aesthetic of the album and videos that accompanied the singles. You all know red is one of my favourite colours. I also love her style.

Her almost modern-gothic like aesthetic fits her music so well, especially when listening to tracks like 'Goddess', 'Poltergeist' and 'Trainwreck'. It gives her an edginess and strength, but that doesn't mean she shies away from being open and vulnerable (which she expressed with her latest album artwork where she's left her freckles uncovered). If you listen to her lyrics, you'll find yourself connecting and falling in love with her, because you know exactly how she feels and a lot of the time you'll want to just give her a hug and say that she'll be ok. That, or you'll connect the lyrics to your own life, because she writes about relatable, universal subjects like love (for others and for ones self), anger, sadness, happiness (every emotion basically) and importantly, depression. With the release of her latest album, The Altar, Banks has been open about her struggles with depression, which is so important and reminds, and makes her fans feel, a little less alone (including myself).

The majority of the album is full of angsty, badass 'fuck you' kind of songs, but it was also full of healing and self love (Fuck With Myself, Weaker Girl and specifically Mother Earth). It was where Banks realised the importance of being open and expressing herself in a more straight forward way, as she's said, anyone who connects with her music connects with her which is an important part to all of this. It's also so important for younger girls, to see a woman like her. You can't simply fit Banks into a box; she's shy, strong, confident, emotional, loud, quiet, insecure but she loves herself and projects that love onto others and that's really what other girls and women need, someone who can show their many sides and be ok. 

Both of these women are beautiful badasses who aren't afraid to be vulnerable. Their music is truly a representation of them, nothing more, nothing less. If you love pop, alternative or RnB inspired music please check both of them out, especially since Tei Shi's debut album is so close to release and deserves all the support in the world.

** I do not own any pictures used in this post. They were collected from both Tei Shi and Banks' social media pages.