Esther Mics - Love and Sisterhood

I’m glad I stuck around, if I hadn’t I might not be writing this at all. It was June 2019 and I was seeing a good friend, Max Churchill in their band The Motion open an evening at the Hoxton Underbelly. Naturally we stayed for some drinks after their set, when a band took to the stage that caught my ears by surprise. Seven Sunshine Ladies in the form of Esther & The Sisters were playing a set, they had the whole place moving to their empowering music, of which there is plenty. Of course it’s been difficult for bands to get together since the start of The Thing, so Esther Mics has elected to release her latest single alone with an upbeat story for a downbeat time.

Esther & The Sisters, from left to right: Lauren Buist (guitar), Nora Geidmane (backing vocals), Ana-Maria Lazar (bass guitar), Esther Mics (lead vocals), Ishara Andrews (drums), Boglárka Mics (backing vocals) and Deborah Abraham (keyboards)

Formed while the band members were studying at The Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Esther & The Sisters are a band of international origins. Esther Mics, the band’s leader, songwriter, keyboardist, lead vocalist and occasional flautist is from Hungary, as is her sister, Boglárka (of genuine family connection) who is one of the band’s backing vocalists. Nora Geidmane, also on backing vocals, hails from Latvia while Ana-Maria Lazar on bass guitar and backing vocals is from Romania. Guitarist Lauren Buist is Scottish with keyboardist Deborah Abraham and drummer Ishara Andrews being British. Previous guitarist Grace Jolly is also British and former backing vocalist Maggie Gelin is from Belgium while occasional drummer Cherry T. is from Switzerland. Phew. I’m glad that’s all clear.

From left to right: Boglárka Mics, Nora Geidmane, Deborah Abraham, Esther Mics, Lauren Buist, Ana-Maria Lazar and Cherry T.

Esther & The Sisters released their debut EP ‘Seesaw Ride’ in 2017 featuring five originals including ‘Stardust’, ‘Sunshine Ladies’ and ‘Lemonade’. Lemonade is based off of Esther’s favourite drink at the time and the song received a music video with a party atmosphere. At this time Grace Jolly was on guitar while Deborah Abraham had yet to be recruited into the sisterhood. Fast-forward a couple of years - our story here begins in 2019.

Considering this was my introduction to the band, it’s a very good start. This was the current single when I first saw them perform, a powerful track about equality where all the Sisters are equally vocal. The chorus features some of the great harmonies that translate so well live; ‘I’m A Sister, I’m a daughter, someday I’m gonna be a mother, tell your father and your brother, we gotta learn to respect each other.’ This song is a message to everyone – nothing will change if we don’t try. The music video is a great representation of the personalities in this band, in particular I’m always struck by how happy Ana-Maria Lazar looks on and off stage, oozing a feeling of being so content on her musical path.

‘This next one is very new, and it's called Red. Hope you like it.'

I saw Esther & The Sisters play again when I bought a ticket to see Esther’s birthday gig at The Islington in London. An unforgettable night, their set was packed full of originals, plus a cover of Toto’s ‘Africa’ complete with flute solo from Esther herself. ‘Red’ was my favourite song of the evening and soon after it was announced as the next single.

Featuring an impassioned lead vocal from Esther, Red is another interpretation of empowerment from the Sisters. One of my favourite lines is ‘there’s only two types of women: Those who say red is the new pink, and those who don’t wanna accept this.’ There’s also a guitar solo from Lauren Buist, who definitely deserves more of this kind of sonic space. This music video covers the aesthetic of Red comprehensively. Playing piano keys of flowers is such a beautiful image, and the supporting cast of Deborah Abraham, Ana-Maria Lazar and Lauren Buist are indispensable in their on-screen contributions.

‘Upside Down’ was the first song the band played at The Islington gig, but it wouldn’t be released as a single until the summer of 2020. The music video is a different flavour with trippy kaleidoscopic nature scenes interspersed with performance-based shots of the band. Noticeably, Lauren Buist and Deborah Abraham are absent with Esther Mics playing keyboards and Grace Jolly on guitar. I love the backing vocals from Boglárka Mics and Nora Geidmane, and to see Ishara Andrews behind the drum kit is a treat, whose jazz flavour was a highlight of The Islington gig for me.

This brings us to Esther Mics’ solo release ‘Love You More’ which is a totally different kind of output than Esther has released before. This is a love song, dedicated to her husband whom she married during the summer lockdown, with this single being released six months after their wedding day. The video is so natural and seemingly effortless, mirroring the track with Esther’s trademark vocal arrangements all over the song. It’s so refreshing to hear a love song inspired by something real, and not with a chart position or number of streams in mind. Look how happy this woman is! How wonderful that in a time when our collective outlook is so bleak, that we can all experience something so astoundingly beautiful.

1. Your new single 'Love You More' is more of a solo venture to your usual band orientated music - do any of the Sisters perform on this track with you?

Yes, it is a solo venture indeed, so this track doesn’t feature my Sisters. After producing a demo of the song, I have sent it to my wonderful friend who’s a super talented producer, Will Looms, and he wrote an arrangement for the tune then recorded all the instrumental parts himself.

2. It's been a strange year to get married! What made you want to release this song instead of keeping it as a personal recording?

Yes, haha, let’s just say that our wedding was nothing like we planned! :D My husband and I were going to get married in Hungary (where both of our families live) and have a huge reception for a 160 guests at a beautiful, fancy venue, hiring an excellent 5-piece live band and I was gonna wear the most princessy dress you can imagine…so you got the picture! Obviously, this wasn’t possible at the middle of lockdown. Once we realised that this wedding we planned will not be happening we immediately decided that we still want to get married because we agreed that there are things in life which are simply too important to delay. Like when two people made the decision that they wanna spend the rest of their lives together. I believe in that case all you need to do is to stand before God and make a vow to each other. So that’s what we did, we got married on the 23rd May at Studland Bay Beach only being accompanied by my sister and her boyfriend. And you know what? In a way this was absolutely perfect for us, very intimate and romantic! And I guess with the release of the song I kind of felt the same way. I didn’t want something that is so important to me to be cancelled because of the current unusual situation of the world. This track means a lot to me, I was finally able to write about something very personal that is really difficult for me to express in words, but I feel like this time I was successful! And I wanted to share this success and all these positive emotions with everyone because I feel like we all need to concentrate on something good at the moment. And what could be more beautiful and universal than love?

3. With production from Will Looms, what was his influence on the track?

After listening to my demo Will asked me if there’s any particular song in my mind that is a great influence for this tune I’ve written or if there’s any song that I wanted this single to be similar to sound wise. So, I sent him “Breathing Underwater” by Emeli Sande, which in my opinion is such a gorgeous pop song! And Will has done such a fantastic job, he immediately understood the elements I wanted him to include in his production and he also added a lot of his own creative ideas. I particularly loved the acoustic guitar theme he recorded. I usually write my songs on the piano so when he changed the arrangement and made this acoustic guitar theme the most dominant part, it took the song to a completely new direction that I really enjoyed! (Esther inserts a smiley face here!)

4. The video for 'Upside Down' is so fitting! Where was the band shot for this video?

Oh, thank you very much! My multi-talented musician/photographer friend, Elina Tikkanen had filmed the band while we were working on the recording of “Upside Down” at Big Smoke Studios in London. She was there with us all day, capturing the feel of the session with her camera so well.

5. It's pretty cool to see the band in one room when every other band is recording videos apart, could Lauren Buist and Deborah Abraham not make that video shoot?

That’s a funny story! The thing is, this recording session actually took place ages ago, back in the Autumn of 2018 when our wonderful guitarist and pianist, Lauren and Debbie weren’t part of the band yet. We had another lovely guitarist, Grace Jolly who was there to record the guitar parts of the song and I was recording the keys parts myself. But for some reason we didn’t finish the project. But then I kept hearing from people who came to our gigs that “Upside Down” is such a hit, it’s so catchy, one of their favourites from us, and I realised we should release this song as a single as it deserves to become a proper recording. So, I collaborated with a wonderful producer, Abel Quintana and we finished the track, then with the help of my husband I created a very arty music video for it, using the video recordings from the day we spent in the studio.

6. Since the release of the band's debut EP 'Seesaw Ride', it's interesting to see band members come and go, is the line-up based on who can make it at the time?

Oh yeah, we are pretty famous about always going on stage with a slightly different line up. Sometimes all 7 of us are there, sometimes it’s a more stripped back acoustic formation, sometimes we have other fantastic female musicians joining us for a gig. And although, this has its challenges, I really enjoy having the opportunity to play around with things, and being able to provide a performance that is literally never exactly the same as the previous one. I guess I began to think of “Esther & the Sisters” as an exciting, everchanging collaboration, where I get to play live with likeminded, super talented female musicians, rather than being a band in a more conventional sense. I think with everyone being busy with their lives, their own musical projects and all the other collaborations they are involved in, this is the most fun and agreeable way for all of us to work together. Plus, if you ask me, the music industry is constantly changing too, and if you are a singer-songwriter you have to be very determined but also super flexible if you want to keep a project together.

7. I've had a great time seeing the band perform a couple of times - what's been your favourite gig to play with the Sisters?

Well I had an infinite amount of fun being on stage with my Ladies over the years but one memory that really stands out is our EP release gig at Guildford’s longest running live music venue, the Star Inn. It was a great turn out that night and all of us were just celebrating this achievement and really enjoyed each other’s company on stage. But I also loved performing at Staycation Live festival last summer. Truly great British summer vibes and a very enthusiastic crowd we had there!

8. With Esther And the Sisters unable to perform in much of 2020, what has everyone been up to?

Oh, this year has been such an unusual one! Honestly, I don’t think any of us could have ever think of a year when we aren’t just deprived of playing gigs together but also, aren’t able to see each other for so long! One of the things I love most about our band is what an international bunch we are, but this also meant that we ended up spending a big part of this year in different countries. Nora went to spend some time in Latvia, continuing her solo musical project there, Lauren went back home to Scotland, both my sister, Bogi and I spent some time in Hungary with our families given that there wasn’t much going on live music wise in the UK. I guess everyone just tried to concentrate on family and even though most of us had to put live music on hold for a while, I know that a lot of the girls were still creating from home. I personally started a solo venture, created a YouTube Channel where I’m uploading cover videos every week. It’s such an enjoyable adventure for me, being able to write creative arrangements for my all-time favourite songs. By doing this I also gained a lot of experience in recording, video editing, directing, photography and I really love how this has given me the opportunity to develop new skills. I also wrote quite a few new original songs during this period of time so I’m super excited to see what next year brings and hopefully soon enough the Sisters and I will be able to reunite and work on some new tracks.

9. It's been a while since the band's debut EP was released, could there be another collection of songs coming in 2021?

Well, as I mentioned we had a couple of recording sessions in the past from which we still have so much great musical material that needs to be finished and I would really like to aim to do this next year! Those tracks deserve to be completed and hopefully become some real Sisters hits! ;)

10. Sometimes tastes can change, is lemonade still your favourite drink?

It’s funny you should ask this! It was only a couple weeks ago that I actually made the observation that as much as I used to be a “Lemonade Girl”, I’m not so sure that this description fits me anymore. I have changed so much since I wrote the song “Lemonade” which was 3 years ago (and for the record it was really my favourite drink, you couldn’t possibly spot me in a pub without holding an ice-cold lemonade in my hand). But as you grow you obviously develop new habits and looking back this year, I’d say I’ve become more of a “Peppermint Tea Lady”. Quite metaphoric but I can’t help it, I love to look at life in an artistic way! And who knows, maybe soon you’ll find yourself listening to my new song I wrote about this mysterious “Peppermint Tea Lady”. :P

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Purchase ‘Seesaw Ride’, the debut EP from Esther & The Sisters on CD and digital here.

Follow Esther & The Sisters on facebook and instagram @estherandthesisters.