Toronto-Based Trip Hop Artist Nathalie King Releases Captivating Single “Within A Dream” from Her EP PTSD
There are songs that one can’t help but listen to for their infectious riff or groove. And there are others because you never know what’s around the corner. The latter is certainly the case for “Within A Dream,” the latest lavishly produced single from Munich, Germany-born, and now Toronto-based trip-hop singer Nathalie King. It’s a song that is equally unnerving and dreamy as King’s commanding voice works perfectly in tandem with the hushed trip-hop structure.
“Within A Dream,” written by King, features musicians Joseph Paris and John Snook providing cinematic soundscapes that could be mistaken for a title song from a forthcoming James Bond film. Bringing to mind the work of Portishead and the band’s singer Beth Gibbons, PJ Harvey, and Bjork, among others, “Within A Dream” has a dreamy, lullaby feel at times while brimming with industrial-tinged tension and gravitas in others. This dichotomy provides the single with a beautiful blend of highs and lows, darkness, and eventual light.
Do you know what it feels like
Waking up in sweat all night?
Do you hear the screams?
Do you know how it feels?
Within a dream, within a dream
Wake up within a dream
The song’s tone mirrors the trauma of bullying, and verbal and physical abuse King experienced growing up, hence the aptly titled EP PTSD. “PTSD is about the hurtful stuff I’ve gone through as a child, the stuff that affects you negatively as you grow up and the stuff that needs work on, to dig and reach deep down into the well of compassion and self-regulation of the nervous system,” King wrote on Instagram days prior to the EP’s release.
“I cried, I pondered, I felt anxiety, and I did it. Writing music plays an integral part in my life and is one of many outlets to heal trauma and grow out of it. PTSD is a looking glass at my childhood trauma, my journey through it, and the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Within A Dream,” written by King, was co-produced, co-recorded, and co-engineered by Joseph Paris and John Snook. Both Paris and Snook perform on the song providing various beats, textures, and atmospherics to give the single such wonderful weight. Anastasia Petrova mixed “Within A Dream,” which was mastered by Reuben Ghose. King says the song’s process started with her on piano and developing her “vocal melody and lyrics” before Paris’ production commenced.
The single, the follow-up to her dynamic single “You” also from PTSD, is another high-water mark for the singer who grew up in Munich, Germany. King’s affinity for music began when she was nine years old and started playing saxophone. By 16 she was singing in a weekly class focusing on jazz and musical theater. A dream of learning musical theater in England morphed into filmmaking classes, then studying animation and acting in Vancouver. But then things took a downward spiral.
After surviving a nervous breakdown and other health ailments (including a fractured tailbone), King says “an inner voice” or “female angel-like entity told me to do music” when she was at her lowest. Heeding that advice, King launched her music career as a jazz singer in Toronto while performing songs that would be placed in television shows and commercials. In 2013, she released her debut album Odyssey. Since then, she’s had songs appear in The Fosters, Love Island Germany, Law and Order: Toronto, and the 2022 nature documentary Soul of the Ocean.
Now with a slick, cathartic, and mesmerizing single “Within A Dream,” the reality is Nathalie King’s trajectory is rising sky-high, coming into the light after a dark personal tunnel.
Upcoming Show:
December 12, 2024 — Pearson International Airport — Toronto, ON
Hi, Nathalie! Good to see you again! What have you been up to since we talked talked?
Hi Canadian Beats team! Thank you so much for having me again. I have been working on a ton of things since we last talked haha so I shot a music video for one of my tracks on the album PTSD. I organized and prepared my album release show at Supermarket in Toronto, which was just on Sunday and a massive undertaking for one person to execute. It ended up so beautiful as it was an immersive audio visual experience with dancers, visual art projection that was audio reactive, electric violin and motivational speeches, other musicians and surprise guest artists, prizes and merch. It was a whole thing. I’ve been creating lyric videos and social media videos to promote my release and have applied to upcoming festivals. There is a lot more work to do in the next while and I’m excited to be sharing PTSD with audiences worldwide.
The single explores themes of trauma and healing. How did your personal experiences shape the lyrics and tone of the song?
The focus track “Within a Dream” is the most sultry and darkest track from the EP but the content is anything but sexy. It’s about the anxiety I felt as a child, laying in bed at night sweating and having knots in my stomach and the thoughts I had as a kid that were deeply disturbing and questioning my own worth. The healing part of my journey is being discovered in the last two tracks of the album “Ad Astra” and “Outro”.
You’ve described PTSD as a reflection of your childhood trauma and your journey toward healing. How tough was it to get the lyrics down and out into the world for all to listen to?
It was tough and it took us 4 years to make the EP. The tough part was to find a way to express my story in a way that is authentic and dives right back into the past moments but without sounding too sad, or blaming or preaching. I wanted to find snapshots of moments of different aspects of my life. Moments when the trauma happened, moments how my coping mechanisms and lack of balance or healthy responses affected my adult life and aha-moments when I started feeling enlightened and continuing to make progress to become a better version of myself. It was also crucial to set a boundary of how much I wanted to get into details about my personal life and what to reveal to the world.
And through all that I was interested in experimenting with new electronic sound, as I was very emotionally taken by certain artists like Burial, Hope Sandoval, Massive Attack. So I wanted to create a new style of mine.
The song has been compared to the work of Portishead, PJ Harvey, and Björk. How have these artists influenced your sound and creative process?
Only Portishead has probably subconsciously influenced me as I grew up listening to Trip Hop bands and it’s a vibe that I get into a lot because it resonates on a deeper level with me. The sadness, the soft vocals almost reminiscent of jazz vocals, the cool vibes and different synth or atmo sounds. Joseph and I definitely referenced some artists from that genre throughout our creation process. Like use a bass that drops like in Burial for “Within a Dream” or something along the lines of Clams Casino and some elements from Sevdaliza for “Unreal”.
You’ve had songs placed in shows like The Fosters, Law & Order: Toronto, and Soul of the Ocean. How has your experience writing for TV and film influenced your approach to storytelling in your music?
That’s a good question. I don’t think that fact influenced my storytelling or way of creating music. I write about what I know and it is a healthy outlet for my emotions. After the songs are done, they get pitched and sometimes end up in film/tv/commercials.
I have always seen visuals or felt emotions when creating music. Sometimes I see a visual or feel a feeling first and then write on piano. Sometimes I play around with a vocal melody or some chords on the piano and then a visual or emotion pops up.
When I get hired to write trailer music for sync libraries, that’s a bit different as they look for a specific format of feels and topic and structure. And even then, I write from what I know from life or what comes to mind in my imagination.