The last line of singer/songwriter Moira Bren’s artist bio on Spotify reads “Oh, and she has this thing called synesthesia. Look it up – it’s sensational.” Well, if you don’t know what synesthesia is, allow me to save you some googling.
To borrow an explanation from Scientific American, “Synesthesia is an anomalous blending of the senses in which the stimulation of one modality simultaneously produces sensation in a different modality. Synesthetes hear colours, feel sounds and taste shapes.”
If you’re still not getting it, consider Bren’s latest release 6 Is Green as a soft start before your next Wikipedia deep dive on neurological phenomena.
“Ever since I was a kid I’ve seen letters, numbers, and words in colour… I just thought it would be cool to have six tracks on an EP that was called 6 Is Green. The promotion for this EP was super fun to do because to promote each track on the project, I got to dress up in the colour I see each track. Like 1 is light blue, 2 is yellow etc.”
6 Is Green is the first full solo release from Bren. The six-track EP feels much like a coming of age movie. The project conveys a minimalist folk-pop sensibility with limited instrumentation, often just Bren and her Ukulele.
On the opener, “Afraid of Your Heart“, we get just that. An intimate ukulele ballad, with tight harmonies and some bouncy electronic drums. Bren wrote the track from the perspective of an abusive relationship. When the song was released as a single prior to the release of the EP, Bren donated 50% of proceeds to the Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre & Sexual Assault Services Association.
On “Red Flare” Bren serenades over some picked electric guitars and a marching snare, that gives shades of Phoebe Bridgers. On the shorter side at just under two minutes, “Red Flare” almost serves as an interlude to its follower “Just Cars“. Over a single acoustic guitar, and the occasional sound of a car speeding by, Bren gives new life and potential to these empty vessels.
“’Just Cars’ was originally a poem that I wrote six years ago moving across the country while sitting on our new washing machine and staring out the window at the road. I wrote about how the cars felt empty, with no personal connection – they were just cars.”.
“These songs were all written at different points in my life,” Says Bren, now in her fourth year of University. Each track on 6 Is Green captures a different experience, a different emotion, by someone who by nature, feels everything in ways that most people can’t. What results is a record that feels unequivocally intimate and personal. It gives the impression that this is what you’d hear if she’d left the door open just a crack, and you happened to walk by at just the right moment.
Some might recognize Bren as the titular Moira in the sister tandem of Moira & Claire who have been releasing tracks together since 2017. When asked about the differences between writing together, and for yourself Bren said:
“My sister is so so talented and she can come up with the prettiest sounding chord progressions and melodies so it’s so fun writing with her. By myself, the writing is obviously more personal and I don’t have to make sure it makes sense to someone else. If it makes sense to me, then we’re good.”
Rest assured, the sister duo are still making music together, and have a single planned for release in a few weeks time.