iönä - TICK TICK (Single)
Photo Credit: Jenna Smith
Fresh from opening for Band Of Skulls at the 100 club and hosting the Berlin Music Awards, the London-based Swedish singer-songwriter and producer iönä unveils the hypnotic and dark-pop song that is « TICK TICK ».
Co-produced and co-written with Danny M. Allin (Labrinth, Emily Sandé) and mixing up sonorities reminiscent of Portishead or FKA Twigs with Britney Spears-like creek vocals, “TICK TICK” is a beautiful ode to mental health and raises awareness on how hard the journey can be to be at peace with yourself.
iönä explains “Danny and I produced my first single “Take Me To The Sea” together, we really clicked so we decided to write something together. Danny had made a beat that he called ‘tick’ and I instantly got inspired by it. We were in his studio in Wood Green, and we heard a siren going off outside. It inspired us to recreate that sound and create a stressful atmosphere in the song, which went really well with my idea to write about mental health and an inner war. “
Writing lyrics and melodies from an early age, being in bands from age 13, growing up with a musician dad, iönä can’t remember a time when she wasn’t involved in music. After having suffered a cyst on her vocal folds forcing her to leave music for a while, she picked up on her passion again and moved to London from Sweden in 2017 to follow her creative path and created FVRmind. Playing venues such as The Garage and The Paper Dress Vintage, Lilla Vega (Copenhagen), the trip-hop and Scandinavian folk FVRmind split in 2022.
In the meantime, iönä started working on her solo project and changed her legal name from Isabella to Iona.
She explains “I was never able to fully relate to my previous name, but I thought that the disconnect I felt was something I had to live with, until I realized that actually NOPE! My life, my name, my choice. Choosing my own name was empowering and freeing. I used it as a fresh start to fully be myself, and it helped me let go of some traumas from my past. I was in the car with my parents, my phone was dead and my brain was roaming free, and it just went « let’s change name to Iona. It felt exciting and obvious at the same time, like a missing piece of a puzzle finally finding its way home. I am 100% comfortable in my name now, and more comfortable in myself in general so it made sense for me to launch my solo project under a name that feels like me. I Swedified ‘Iona’ by adding the Swedish letters ö an ä , and VOILA! Here I am ‘iönä’ ( ee–oh-nah)