FEATURE: Spotlight: Unflirt — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Claryn Chong

Unflirt

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WHILST her friends and family…

know her as Christine Senorin, the music world knows her as Unflirt. The London artist has been tipped by several sites, including NME, as one of the most important names to watch this year. I love last year’s E.P., Fleeting. An amazing cover and a distinct and beautiful collection of songs, I want to put this artist on other people’s radars. I am starting out with an interview from CLASH. Spotlighting Unflirt as part of their Next Wave series in January, I do feel that her best days lie shortly ahead:

“As a Filipino, music was never too far from her, growing up with a ballad loving mother and father who played guitar, it seemed like a path waiting for her. “My dad taught me how to play the guitar when I was like six-years-old… Subconsciously I feel like that type of music influenced me”. When talking about releasing music Unflirt admitted to never fully getting over the initial fear of posting and seeing people’s reactions to her work. “When you’re sharing something that’s so vulnerable and personal, I feel like I’m really… I guess I’m a bit more private when it comes to my personal life online… Having the response from people and seeing them relate and resonate to what I’m feeling helps”.

‘Fleeting’ moves away from Unflirt’s previous releases, proving to be a renaissance for her and a reflection of the chaos circulating her life at the time. This new EP signifies her acceptance of the past, choosing to live in the moment instead of pondering on what has already been, like many of us do. “For the past two years of my life I was going back and forth from Brazil a lot because I was in a long distance relationship…The way you perceive and value time changes when you have such limited time with someone you love. There are a lot of different themes around the EP, with this I just wanted to make life easier for myself, and stop writing songs about missing things that were over”. Finally accepting the frustrating lack of control this life provides, Unflirt told Clash, “With this project I was just trying to accept that time is fleeting, and time is always changing, and things are always changing. There’s nothing I can do, and I just need to stop resisting it”.

Unflirt provides sentimental value to her music, vulnerably inviting us into her inner world through the alluring shoegaze and bedroom pop mix. Providing a space to contemplate on the complexity of our feelings, she found solace in writing about the unspoken obsessive pondering we bully ourselves with, and the relief of finally accepting every aspect of life instead of shaming yourself. “When writing ‘fleeting’, I had to acknowledge that I was feeling that… I do feel jealous, I do feel this horrible emotion. It’s such a normal feeling, and I feel like writing those songs helped me understand myself, and realise that these negative emotions are fleeting. Looking back at some of the songs, I wrote them like the world was going to end. Even though I will inevitably feel these horrible things sometimes, it won’t last forever”.

The songs started to take shape in Brazil when she had time to just be with herself and her guitar, writing, and taking inspiration from artists like Gal Costa and Arthur Verocai. Getting into the flow of things, Unflirt was able to write without the pressure of making a fully fleshed out song. “I was writing every single day, and I feel like that time really helped me focus on the songwriting and the base of the song. After my time in Brazil I found out I was going to LA to record. We recorded a few songs there, and then I went back to London, and that’s where all the more depressing songs came… After recording in LA I thought I was finished, but I went back to London, wrote all these other songs, and realised it really wasn’t finished at all. I was itching to release new music, but I’m really thankful everything happened the way it did”.

There are a couple more interviews I want to include, just to give you some insight into the work and life of Unflirt and her amazing new E.P., Fleeting. The Line of Best Fit featured her last year and noted how this artist on the rise is creating music that will endure. Such a hugely promising artist from West London who blends ethereal Pop and Shoegaze, I don’t think there is anything quite like her on the scene:

“There's something timeless about Senorin, and on Fleeting, this timelessness comes through in earnest. Though only 25, Senorin carries the torch of soft, melancholy early-2000s singer-songwriters, putting out work that feels like it’s caught in the grain of a film photograph. Her world is sun-faded and intimate: thrifted knits, washed colour palettes, a quiet self-possession that lingers in both her look and her sound.

Now signed to FADER Label, Fleeting is the project that has allowed Senorin to find her voice. These last two years have been ones of major growth for her, both personally and sonically. As Senorin explains: “[My] age played a big part in this EP… being 23, 24, 25—things go so quickly. For some reason, 25 feels so much older.” Coming into adulthood, Fleeting reflects her new sound and the colliding of past and present.

Fleeting “feels like a better representation of who I am and where I am in life,” she says. While her work as an artist began in her quiet London bedroom during lockdown, her catalogue has grown into a catalogue of shoegaze reflections. Since her first recordings in 2020, Unflirt’s angelic, wandering voice has drawn an ever-widening orbit of listeners.

Surrounded by that warmth, the songs took shape. In Brazil, days moved slower. “It was one of the first times I wasn’t rushing,” she says. “I’d go days without touching my phone and just write or sit there listening.” That quiet rhythm, compounded with an Adrianne Lenker songwriting course that pushed Senorin to pay attention to the mundane and quotidian, became an unlearning: no studios, no pressure, just the guitar and the feeling of being alone with her songs.

The resulting raw honesty of Fleeting thus put Senorin’s voice and inner life front and centre. “I used to hide under the guitars and production,” she says. “There was a huge wall of sound and me behind it. But this was the first time I really understood that less is more.” For Senorin, maturing comes with not being afraid of a stripped-back, intimate song.

Fleeting is coming-of-age in the present tense—the emotional oscillation of coming and going is the root of Senorin’s nostalgia. The songs were shaped in motion, written between airports, bus rides and bedrooms. Its first single, “Seasong”, and final track, “Sopro”, are mirror emotions, two versions of the same farewell.

Between places and years, from Brazil to LA and back to London, Senorin will always have her process: writing on the floor of her bedroom with her acoustic guitar, even when the rest of her life feels in motion. That small ritual keeps her tethered to herself. “The one thing that helps the project flow,” she says, “is that it all came from the same root: being written on a bed or on the floor in my room with my guitar”.

I am going to end with 10 Magazine and their conversation with Unflirt. It is interesting seeing where Unflirt is now and the music is producing. And where she heads from here. I do hope that there are a lot of tour dates later in the year. An opportunity to see her up close on the stage. I would be interested to seeing one of her shows:

“Describe the new EP in three words.

Fresh, Dreamy, Intimate.

How has your Filipino heritage had an influence on your sound?

Growing up in a Filipino household for me meant always being surrounded by music and karaoke. My dad taught me how to play the guitar when I was seven and to this day plays the electric guitar for several hours everyday. My mum on the other hand has always had the radio on my whole life and like many Filipinos, loves all the classic anthemic ballads. I guess these things rubbed off without me realising and can explain a lot of my sound.

What does the word ‘fleeting’ mean to you personally?

For me, ‘fleeting’ represents accepting uncertainty and inevitable change that comes with the passing of time. It’s an attempt to stop resisting time and try to be as present as possible, whether it was a beautiful moment I didn’t want to forget, or an uncomfortable emotion that I had to go through.

You wrote the album in Brazil, did you go on any fun adventures during your time there that you can share with us?

I spent New Years on the beach on the coast of São Paulo, and on the first day of the year we hiked to the most beautiful waterfall. So many special and surreal memories!

What’s next for Unflirt?

So much! To keep making music, experimenting and exploring new sounds, but also getting ready for my first headline tour at the end of the year”.

Among all the promising artists being tipped for big things this year, Unflirt is someone I am especially excited about. In terms of how her music will build and evolve in the coming years. Fleeting is her latest offering and a step up, yet I do feel that her best work lies ahead. Whilst she still might be seeking her true sound and niche, the music she is putting out at the moment is incredible. If you do not yet know about Unflirt, then do go and spend time…