# ALICIA BLUE Releases Captivating ‘Inner Child Work’ EP, “DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)” Premieres via Under The Radar

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/alicia-blue-releases-captivating-inner-child-work-ep-dtmts-dont-tell-me-to-smile-premieres-via-under-the-radar/
- Published: 2022-07-15T12:30:00-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/4533e635-
c735-7f39-2335-1ad9ba83915d.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

“With ‘DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)’ Blue diverts from her folk roots, instead
crafting her take on shimmering indie rock. Blue’s layered vocal harmonies and plaintive
melodies steadily build into an emotive ballad, bolstered by iridescent guitar textures
and cathartic lyrical confessions.” – **Under The Radar**

“…listening to her songs feels like being invited into her intimate diary, a world
full of dreams and secrets.”  – **Atwood Magazine –  **_**2021 Artists to Watch**_

“Blessed with a rich, resonant voice, Alicia Blue invests every phrase of her songs
with gutsy attitude.” – **Music Connection**

” … mystical and chill-inducing…. Raconteur and chanteuse of the people, Alicia 
Blue invents her own line of folk with every release.” – **Grimy Goods**

“….[_Inner Child Work_] sparkles and shines, with enough darkness to provide satisfying
contrast, making it shine even brighter throughout. She is a top-notch song writer
and has always been. But her new work looks to make a bigger splash where her folkier
music would probably only have a niche audience. Intelligent, catchy, prescient.
It’s an impressive batch of songs from an evolving artist. The best of folk, the
best of pop.” – **Northern Transmissions**

“[‘Saline Waters’] is hauntingly beautiful, and her vocals have an alluring Tori
Amos or Kate Bush quality to them. The song has a dark-wave beat that gets you lost
in the music. The picturesque lyrics linger.” – **Riff Magazine**

**ALICIA BLUE**
**Shares Captivating **[**_Inner Child Work_**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=48714413b6&e=615f2b8493)**
EP**

**Focus track “DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)” Premieres **_**via**_** Under The
Radar**

[**Video Out Today**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=c9c45d8dc7&e=615f2b8493)

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/f6d2ecdb-
f4d1-5a29-15ef-a13a1156abdd.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

_**Inner Child Work**_

**JULY 15, 2022 (Nashville, TN) –**“This EP and my existence as an artist come from
a need to connect and develop relationships—yet simultaneously, I’ve always felt
like this lone candle in a dark room,” says Nashville-based magnetic indie-folk 
singer-songwriter **Alicia Blue **about her cathartic and powerful [**_Inner Child Work_**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=cdfa6fb081&e=615f2b8493)
EP (out today _via_ **Magnetic Moon)**. The EP finds her grappling with some long-
overdue emotional reckonings uncovering who she was and setting her sights on where
she wants to be. “My artistry and the album have this wildness to them. But I can
also feel this softening happening. _Inner Child Work_ is caught right at the point
of in-between, which I would call healing,” she adds. The witty, indie rock EP focus
track “[**DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=b244a2c3df&e=615f2b8493)”
is proof of that healing. She tells **Under The Radar** who premiered the track,“’
DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)’ was written in about 30 minutes with [co-writer]**
Bre Kennedy**. I don’t think I’ve ever had a song reveal itself so quickly.” The
accompanying video (out today) was directed by Blue herself and was shot on an iPhone
ProMax 11 and edited by **Tammie Valer**.

Blue adds that she needed the lyrics on “DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)” to mirror
both the external and internal worlds of her experience, which she found a pattern
in both. “For one, I’d been hearing ‘You should smile more’ from men in public for
years. And, of course, every woman hates that, knows that, and lives that. But, 
when it’s in your own home, when your lover or parent or anyone that’s your #1 is
saying it, it’s brutal. It’s never said directly, but it’s implied. How do we handle
this? How do we create awareness around this, especially when the world is afraid
to sit with something imperfect, less than happy, and then label it negative? I 
think I was just trying to create space around being an honest human so that one
day my [hypothetical] kids can live in a world that doesn’t gaslight us for being
fully alive.”  

[⌊YouTube video thumbnail⌉⌊YouTube video thumbnail⌉
Watch this video on YouTube

**Alicia Blue – “DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)”**

For Blue, each song on _Inner Child Work_ is really about the “difficulty of navigating
this life” and not having all the “proper tools” to live it in the most “successful”
or “healthiest” way. “I like to think that getting this all out helps me in some
way,” she says. “I got my first therapist a few years ago and realized there were
things holding me back from doing what I wanted with my life. Things like anxiety,
depression—I just had no language to describe them previously, so there was no way
to deal with their existence.”

The former Los Angeles native found herself working with Nashville-based songwriter
and producer **Lincoln Parish**, originally of the band **Cage the Elephant**, who
helped to provide a solid musical foundation for her songs so she could focus on
doing her best and most creative writing work to date. Recording in Nashville also
gave Blue a perspective on her life in Los Angeles. Having been born and raised 
in Southern California, and never having left the city, not even for college, she
began to see in hindsight how much personal turmoil she had navigated through her
years there. “Every time I write a song, it’s deeply connected to some chaos that
was never figured out,” Blue says. There are moments on _Inner Child Work_ that 
focus on more immediate, pressing matters, like the EP’s previous single “[**Saline Waters**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=98270b6dfc&e=615f2b8493)”(
about facing mortality and is like a “darker and more aggressive take on Joni Mitchell’s’
classic ‘Circle Game’) and the EP’s first single/video “[**Dog Days in LA**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=91fd0a0b5d&e=615f2b8493)”(
about her realization of how much she _didn’t_ have her life in California figured
out). As **Incoming and Outgoing Magazine **describes, _Inner Child Work_ finds 
itself “in a space of music that contains an oxymoron sense of depressing charisma.
Her new work feels self-explorative and slightly experimental while also reminding[
us] of artists such as Lana Del Rey and Marina and the Diamonds. What sets her apart
from these artists, however, is the unique tone that she brings to all her songs.
Her work pronunciation feels reminiscent of folk and bluegrass, but her vocals contain
a vibrato that give her songs a fullness.” Although her folk roots are never far
from the surface, the EP/album also encompasses ’90s alternative rock (“**Dirty 
Hippie**“), and even Tori Amos-esque introspection (“**Fine**“).    

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/f6d2ecdb-
f4d1-5a29-15ef-a13a1156abdd.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

_**Inner Child Work**_

**Stream/share**_** Inner Child Work**_**:**
[https://hypeddit.com/aliciablue/innerchildworkep1](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=c19c84d63f&e=615f2b8493)

**Tracklist**
1.“[Dog Days in LA](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=cf14223591&e=615f2b8493)“
2. “[Saline Waters](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=e2429a4422&e=615f2b8493)“
3.[ “DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me to Smile)”](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=0a4e978867&e=615f2b8493)
4. “Fine”5. “Dirty Hippie”

Even when noting her admiration for authors like Jack Kerouac and Joan Didion, it’s
still difficult to pin down her exact musical influences on _Inner Child Work_—and
that’s exactly how the California singer-songwriter likes it. **Alchemical Records**
lauds,** **“Perhaps some of the best music of our day is the music that exists somewhere
between worlds; music that feels slightly elevated above the familiar without being
derivative. The music of _Inner Child Work_ fits that description. Containing songs
that, at their core, are gems akin to her influences by poets like Bob Dylan, Joni
Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen, the production leaves lots of room for future interpretations
and arrangements, yet none of the songs feel lacking in any regard.” 

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/bef5f4c9-
bb83-9303-6f30-b5f625b4eb1f.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

**Alicia Blue**
Photo credit: **Tammie Valer**

Releasing her first EP in 2019, fate fell immediately for her with Starbucks asking
for her song “Magma” to be featured in stores worldwide _via_ their Starbucks Acoustic
playlist on Spotify. Garnering immediate attention as a songwriter and singer, Alicia
quickly became a pivotal figure on the LA songwriting circuit. She’s been featured
in publications including **Billboard** and **Atwood Magazine**, as well as LA’s
legendary **KCRW**. Alicia Blue’s first full-length album **_Bravebird_** was released
April 2020 in the middle of a global pandemic, securing spots on Spotify’s influential
_Fresh Finds Pop_ and _Fresh Finds Rock_ playlists and garnering a whole new round
of buzz and attention. In January 2021, she was featured at the top of **Atwood 
Magazine**’s “2021 Artists to Watch.” 

With new music in hand, Alicia Blue is poised for a breakout this year. 

[_**Inner**_ _**Child**_ _**Work**_](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=5e0fe094b8&e=615f2b8493)
is now available _via_ **Magnetic Moon.**

**[Twitter](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=53547aabac&e=615f2b8493)
| [Facebook](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=dad111cc57&e=615f2b8493)
| [Website](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=78d641cd17&e=615f2b8493)
| [Instagram](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=abfc748cce&e=615f2b8493)**

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