By Bridney C.
Erycka Ortiz is keeping the positive vibes coming during trying times. The 21-year-old mellifluous melodist enlisted the help of artist and spoken word poet, AnUrbanNerd for her new single, "Drive."
Released on March 12, the soothing song finds Erycka Ortiz offering soft pleas for an anonymous deuteragonist to give in to her needs. The inspiration behind "Drive" stemmed from a specific moment Ortiz experienced with another human being.
The detailed lyric describes more of Ortiz's experience, "I drive this car down 95, looking for a place we can hide. So you can give in to my sweet divine..." Ortiz wrote about the small intimate details someone may pay attention to as they intimately bond with another person, such as the smell of the air or the way the trees are moving.
"Drive was one of my favorite songs to make... It was written as if it was straight out of my diary. I wanted it to feel extremely intimate. It took me, I wanna say an hour or so to write and really get my thoughts together," says Ortiz.
Ortiz says she knew what she wanted the song to sound like before writing and producing it. "Drive" was re-recorded more than 10 times within one month before the final version was released.
Ortiz says she was not pleased with the early recordings of "Drive." "Recording it was very frustrating for me... I know what I want and how I want things to sound, so the process was kind of all over the place," says Ortiz.
How did the collaboration with AnUrbanNerd happen?
In 2019, Ortiz showed AnUrbanNerd the demo of "Drive" she was working on while they both attended the same studio session. After listening, AnUrbanNerd loved the song and expressed his way of connecting to it.
According to Ortiz, he said "let me hop on the remix," and she instead offered him to be on the original version. AnUrbanNerd recorded his verse that same night and a few weeks later completed all of his other parts for the final version.
"She played the song and the beat instantly hit me. When she explained the vibe of driving with someone and that awkward feeling of not wanting the moment to end, it resonated with me. Who hasn't sat in the car with someone they liked and felt a flood of emotions? I think that's why it was easy to write to. I knew the vibe and I paid attention to how Erycka told the story," says AnUrbanNerd.
Ortiz's favorite part about the recording process was recording the melodies at Cultured Studios with AnUrbanNerd and Juanita, the owner. "They were very helpful during the process, and helped put me at ease while recording," says Ortiz.
Her upcoming EP, titled Erycka Ortiz will be released April 2020. It will contain 6 songs, including "Drive" with each song touching on mature, deep subject matters Ortiz considers to be "revealing."
Listen to "Drive" on YouTube.
To hear and see more from Erycka Ortiz, be sure to follow her
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