Montreal-based folk-pop artist Silka Weil combines unapologetic sexiness with raw vulnerability on her jangly, electric-infused new single “Unsatisfied” – available now – telling a complex story of evolving emotions.
Weil’s voice captures the perfect amount of Stevie Nicks huskiness, and “Unsatisfied” doesn’t recount a narrative so much as it captures a heady cocktail of emotions in the aftermath of a story. It’s driving and soaring, with a slinky, gritty, slightly psychedelic sensibility. Lyrically, there’s shame and anger, but also jolts of naked desire:
Sometimes I feel unreachable
But if you break me I might fall
Sometimes I’m good yes I can walk
Sometimes I just need to crawl
So push me up against the wall
In the corresponding video, Weil runs playfully through a snowy wood, leaning suggestively against the trees, and you can see her laugh a little when she sings the line “And screw me good/’Cause it’s not nice.” Eventually, she’s caught by a man whose face we never see – his arms wrapped around her lovingly. The final provocative shot is a closeup of a tree’s branches, the snow shaking off of them rhythmically.
“‘Unsatisfied’ is an unapologetic track about giving into what we want, consequences be damned,” Weil explains. “It provides a refreshingly honest take on female desire unburdened by social norms. It’s a fun and flirty track that defies the stale narrative that women can’t have as much of a libido as men have.”
The song captures Weil’s real emotions from a situation that felt complex, and the song changed from when it was first written to when it was recorded.
“Initially, I was exorcizing shame and anger. I was ashamed of myself for letting myself be mistreated and then crawling right back to the same situation,” she divulges. “But over time, I have leaned into something more playful and rebellious. I wasn’t a victim – I had agency and I made choices. Even though the lyrics haven’t changed, I’ve managed to access another aspect of life in the song. Less shame and more reveling in the pleasure of the moment. Shame and pleasure do, on occasion, shadow one another.”
Weil purposely left the song, and the video, ambiguous so as to allow the listener to the fill in the narrative gaps. “I explore the playful parts of the song more in the music video where I laugh and dance in a snowstorm,” she says. “While running from something or someone. Who or what? That is left to the imagination.”
Still, the song is meant to foster connection, to get listeners to tap into their own vulnerability, and their own desire. “When I first started to play this song in bars, I felt exposed,” Weil recalls. “So if you listen to the song and it feels like I’m letting you in on a secret, it’s because I am. I think this is why it ended up being the song people would connect with the most. It moved them. It’s always the one I get approached about after a set.”
Silka Weil is a Montreal-based singer-songwriter who has been active as a musician for several years. Weil’s debut single “Capsized,” her first commercial release, was well-received by critics and listeners alike and received international radio play. Her second single, “Unsatisfied,” is the precursor to an EP that will be released this Spring.
Weil layers silky vocal arrangements full of poetry and emotion with atmospheric instrumentals for an ethereal musical experience. Her folksy pop-rock sound draws inspiration from vintage pop and contemporary artists, with a particular affection for ’90s female powerhouses like Alanis Morissette, PJ Harvey, and Dido.
