Features : Phoenix Rein’s first single, “Spinning Around,” brings a new, rich pop talent into full view

“Spinning Around” is more than a fine, fun dance-pop love song. It is also a great introduction to new young singer/songwriter Phoenix Rein.

After a 10-second orchestral opening, the beat and Phoenix’s rich, lush, wide-ranging voice kick in and the listener is spinning with her on a fast ride around love.

“When people hear ‘Spinning Around,’ I want them to feel like, ‘I can take on the world.’ I can do it, and if they were already happy, it just gives them that extra boost — ‘Yes, let’s go! Let’s get inspired. Let’s get creative.’ Let’s become who we really want to become, because that’s what ‘Spinning Around’ is about for me.”

I’m spinning like a top 
Got me spinning around 
Can’t wait ta reach the top
Ain’t no stopping us now 

She lives in Canada, where she went after emigrating from her native Jamaica five years ago. During her time in Canada, she has become the artist she wants to be.

In Jamaica, she performed and recorded as a gospel and reggae artist, won awards and performed before crowds of up to 40,000 people.

“I grew up in Jamaica, so music was a part of our backbone. I was influenced from gospel all the way up — Shirley Caesar, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross or Tina Turner and Michael Jackson.”

She goes on to list all kinds of music and other artists — Beres Hammond, Bob Marley, Whitney Houston, Prince, and Sly and Robbie’s studio, where she hung out when she was a kid, “and all the artists would pass through and vibe.”

“You could name all of them, and I’d say, ‘Yep. Listened to them. Loved them. They influenced me.’ I was just influenced by so many people in music and I want to share that.”

That quote there is like the sandwich that is her metaphor for her music.

“I tell you what. You put anything on my plate, and you put any form of bread on there, I’m gonna make it into a sandwich. I just want all those flavors in my mouth, and that’s what music reminds me of. You got all those instruments coming together, the melody, the singer. I just love the combo.”

Her enjoyment is on full display in the song, in her videos and in the way she talks about her music.

For her, “Spinning Around” is more than a fun love song, though it is that. It is also “a song about love, about unity, about the feeling of falling in love.”

“It’s about just wanting to feel good in life. ‘Spinning Around’ is something that was created from the heart, and the intent around it was to have that moment when you know that you can always turn to a song to remind you that you are not alone.”

In Toronto, she found her production and writing team of Dank and Cybin and the Knuckle House Productions label, all the people there, and Sony Orchard, which distributes her music. She gives credit to all of them because they are helping her put together her sandwich.

“I came to Canada and finding a producer and a label to work with here was a little bit on the difficult side. You immigrate and you’re trying to find people in your type of genre and field, and I just couldn’t find that. And then, all of a sudden, I guess God shined down on me, and I met producers from Knuckle House Productions, and we really hit it off. One of the things that they said to me was, ‘We were looking for somebody with your tone for a while.’”

Next is a remix of “Spinning Around,” “an amazing take on what ‘Spinning Around’ is about,” coming out in the next couple of weeks, and more singles after that.

Also coming up is “something major,” a project she and her label are keeping under wraps for now. But, she said, “A release party is coming.”

Her music, her sandwich, she says, is all the music she has ever listened to and loved, and she wants to put all that into the music she creates.

“I was influenced by so many other things in life. So, we’re trying to bring the old into the new. All those people who blazed before left us some really amazing music. When people hear ‘Spinning Around,’ I want them to hear the people that were before me. Yes, it is dance pop music, but it’s good to remind you of who came before us. It’s just good to have that feeling.”

Get the feeling. Connect to Phoenix Rein on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

“Spinning Around”
Website
Amazon Music