It has been an incredibly creative year for artist Pena Hughes-John also known as Lethia’s Natorium, with the releases of Lullaby, Sorry No Longer Cuts It, Here We Go and Inner Child, so when we heard that the rising superstar just released You Lived Here Like a Tenant, and the full album, which features all of the songs that we have fallen in love with over the last year, we couldn’t wait to experience it!
With a vibrant guitar intro, featuring an almost Americana-hybrid vibe, Lethia’s Natorium opens You Lived Here Like a Tenant with drama, a sense of nostalgia and thought provoking lyricism.
When discussing the inspiration for the track, Pena Hughes-John shares her creative depth by saying, “Having watched several episodes of the real-life documentary series : Slum Landlords/Nightmare Tenants and Neighbours from Hell, coupled with climate change being the main issue, was the thinking behind this song.”
The progressive and talented artist continues, “Yes, it would have been easy to write a general climate change song but instead, I wanted to look at it as if it was a landlord and tenant relationship. The landlord being the earth and the ‘unruly tenants’ being the human race. Unlike a normal landlord and tenant, where the tenant generally pays rent, the landlord on this occasion starts the song off with : ‘I allowed you to live here. Did not charge you a fee….'”
We appreciate the sentiment and high concept nature of the opus, and Pena Hughes-John never fails to bring to life contemporary issues through a philosophical and profound lens! We love her poetic prowess and the dimensionality with which she delivers her cerebral art!
With reference to the sonic design of the composition, Pena confesses, “There were two musical influences behind the song’s production. The chord structure was based on the Abba song One of Us, where I was inspired by the ‘around the houses’ way that Abba did the chord sequence whereby, the song starts in one chord, goes all around the houses (the verse and the chorus) and then returns back to its original chord, in time for the next verse. I used this as the basis in ‘You Lived here like a Tenant’, with the song starting in the chord of C and the sequence ending in the chord of C. The vocals were sung in the style of the B52s.”
We are in awe, and there is no doubt that Pena Hughes-John is a master of her artistry and universe. This single is included on the album Tenant and the video accompanying this particular campaign reveals the cover of the album itself! The single, album and music video are all out now, and we have added the powerful and evocative You Lived Here Like a Tenant to our New Music Spotlight playlist, whilst we stream the album in full!