Leeds/London based, British-Ghanaian-Danish artist ATO drops his introspective, candid new single ‘no caroline’ is a heart-rending track, brimming with raw sentiment stemming from past trauma, dysfunctional relationships, and is influenced by ATO’s on-going journey of self-discovery, defining his identity and understanding his heritage. An artist unafraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, ‘no caroline’ was originally written by ATO about a personal situation, quickly developing into a no-holds-barred deep dive into his own emotional shortcomings rooted in his experiences. In his own words, “the tensions of growing up black in a white city with no real understanding of my black history – lost identity, abandonment, and so on – correlated to the struggles of lost love.”
A track of two parts, the first half of ‘no caroline’ see’s ATO singing rather than rapping, making light of a dysfunctional relationship, acknowledging an incapacity to relate to a partner on an emotional level. An impactful, lightening-fast energy surge flips the second half of the track from a hyper-pop influenced, experimental UK rap offering into a drum’n’bass free for all. Rapping over breaks, ATO soundtracks a sudden explosion of emotions, exploring the complex experiences of his past.
Speaking on the single, ATO says,
“no caroline began as a response to failed relationships, trivialising my own experiences of emotional detachment. The first part was written in my sleep (literally in a dream) and recorded the morning after. It was a new sound and I honestly thought it was done. But the production team introduced a second section that dragged me into different parts of my past. I wrote and recorded the entire second verse to what is now the outro before EDEN flipped the most of the section into a drum ‘n’ bass free for all.”
The second single taken from ATO’s highly anticipated forthcoming EP Side A, due for release this Wednesday (25th August) via MCMXCV, ‘no caroline’ follows recent releases including ‘Muscle Twitch’, 2020 single ‘Yours Now’, EP3, and his feature with Vic Mensa on 2019 single ‘falling’. Standing out from the crowd with pensive, poetic charm, earlier releases of ATO’s have seen him garner support from global tastemakers The FADER, Complex, Trench and Crack and
So here’s your chance to check out a truly astonishing artist at work…
New Lease Music 