DISCOVER BELLE SHEA
Superbly Confessional: Art of Years
When asked about the process behind picking the title for her debut album, singer-songwriter Belle Shea laughs.
“It’s a wild title for your first album,” she admits. “I’m aware of that. I did a lot of listens with my friends to pick a title and everyone was evasive about it. One of my friends finally said ‘Honestly, the title of this is clearly The Art of Years. You can’t run from it.’ I think I just succumbed to the inevitable that it was the through line of the album, this sense of patience.”
Patience is something Shea keeps coming back to while we talk, and it’s understandable. She’s been writing the songs for the past eight years, drawing on her extensive travels and experiences.
“I think the places I’ve been to are as much an inspiration as the relationships I’ve had along the way,” Shea shares. “All the songs are very much informed by a sense of place. To me, there’s definitely a feeling of traveling between the different spaces I was in and head spaces, which is why the songs all sound so different.”
She worked on the album with friend and producer Jason Sill, comparing their relationship to famous collaborators Lorde and Jack Antonoff.
Speaking about the standout track “Smoke & Mirrors,” she shares, “That was one of my favorite processes working with my producer. We built it for a long time….we just played around with it for so long and it was a big leap of faith musically. I’m really proud of it.”
Lorde and Antonoff aren’t her only musical heroes. Shea draws inspiration from notable songwriters of the present and past, like Taylor Swift, Joni Mitchell, Harry Styles, and Carole King. It’s easy to hear these influences in her music, from confessional songwriting to ambitious musical arrangements.
The Art of Years is Shea’s debut, but it sounds like the work of a mature artist. She’s made a musical scrapbook of her life using songs she’s written over the last ten years.
“The album spans such a long stretch in my life and so many different kinds of songwriting and realizing that that sense of patience was tied to the album,” she trails off. “You know, I do have a lot to say and it did take a long time to pull this together. Patience is the through line of this album.”
With thousands of streams on Spotify, the upcoming release of a live video performance of the track “Easy to Love,” and hopes for live shows in the future, it looks like Shea’s patience has paid off.
