Single out now: Sparklmami "si"

Chicago’s own multihyphenate artist Sparklmami follows her debut album, in this body, with a brand-new funky single “si,” out now via Verve Records / slowplay. Full of synthesizers and 1980s electric piano, “si” finds Sparklmami realizing that what she admires in her love interests is what she truly appreciates about herself. Listen to the new single here and her debut album in this body here.

An ode to self-love, Sparklmami embraces jazz funk and spoken word interludes with a play on words, singing, “i hit them with a ‘cease and exist’ / see, i exist.” Produced alongside Sparklmami’s longtime friends and trusted collaborators Eddie Burns (drums) and William Corduroy (bass), ”si” captures the fantasy of having a crush and what happens when reality creeps in. Speaking on the song, Sparklmami said,

"I was visualizing ‘shiny toy syndrome’ when I was making the song," Sparklmami says. "How the things we often like in a crush are the parts we can't see (si) in ourselves."

In June, Sparklmami welcomed listeners into the dreamy world of in this body, a sonic and visual refraction of her childhood. She mined her psyche and spins up surreal imagery to make sense of childhood memories with a refreshed adult perspective, each song serving as a portrait of a moment in her life. Dazzling tracks like “no te vayas” and “quisiera” are shaped by the generational and cultural music that colored her upbringing — from the vibrant jazz of 1970s Brazil to the Mexican boleros that radiated through her home growing up. Expansive and free, the album moves like a radio dial scanning through the soundtrack of her life.

Sparklmami’s vulnerability and creative freedom also shaped how the album was made, as Sparklmami and each member of her band improvised and brought ideas to the table, composing songs symbiotically. In addition to executive producers Burns and Corduroy, Josh Jessen (Keys, Synths), Kenneth Leftridge Jr. (Saxophone), and Alec Trickett (Percussion) were all involved in bringing the music to life, guided by Sparklmami as the album’s audacious conductor.

It was revelatory for Sparklmami to merge musical improvisation with her love of visual art on the album. Prior to making music, she earned her BFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where her work explored memory and identity through dioramas of her childhood home and green screen recreations of the telenovelas she watched growing up. As she leaned further into the spontaneity of live performance, Sparklmami carried her visual practice with her. Through music videos and visualizers directed by Sparklmami and produced alongside her collaborator Steven A. Garcia, she continues to build the immersive world surrounding her music.

Sparklmami’s new single arrives following her recent European tour in the UK and EU, where she performed with a trio in Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. To close out the tour, Sparklmami performed at the COLORS: Tones of London showcase in September alongside similarly budding artists like band Florence Road and British rapper M Huncho.

Listen to in this body above and see her live in New York at BRIC JazzFest on October 16th. Tickets can be found here.