I was not sure if I was the right person to write this piece on ena mori. There are several reasons as to why I would think so, but the most obvious of them is that I am a huge fan and I'm far too conscious of how I would describe her music.

ena mori's music always finds its way to our weekly playlist, and I mean always, it also manages to stay there the longest. Her music just stands out, that’s it. I was introduced to her music way back in 2018 with “Got U Good”. An acquaintance from Cebu, Vince Lucero who also plays guitar for St. Wolf, told me about this track and instantly I got hooked. Every release since then from this talented yet underrated Filipina-Japanese pop artist has gotten better and better.

In 2020, ena mori released her self-titled album and I was one of many people excited to see more of her performances. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit and we all know the rest of that story. It would’ve been great to see her tour and perform the live versions of songs like “Telephone”, “Light”, and my favorite “Safe Zone” which was one of the first to be a highlight as the CHOSEN ONE for our weekly playlist The Chosen Dozen. The next time ena mori enjoyed a 4-week strong spot on that playlist was when she released “FALLING INLOVE!” last September 2020.

Now she is back to blow our minds once again with her latest song “TALK! TALK!” and if you think you've heard it all from ena mori, I guarantee you this is going to be different from before. It just might be a pleasant surprise.

“Since the pandemic happened, I had many hours of just spending time alone with myself, I couldn’t help but talk to myself a lot. I have many characters (puppets) in my head that tell me all kinds of things to negotiate with me. They know when I'm weak and vulnerable, and sometimes the voice starts deciding how I should act and think without my consent. I wrote this song to deal with my inner voices.” — ena mori describing the writing process of her new songs with the experimentation of a lot of sounds.

There was doubt present in the process of making the record due to the limitations of being in a pandemic. But ena mori trusted her heart and committed to the project, working once again with music producer Tim Marquez (Timothy Run, One Click Straight) thus creating, I would say, a pop-eccentric masterpiece.

Make sure to support her on all her socials and listen to “TALK! TALK!” which is now available on all music streaming platforms. ena mori is expected to release more music this year under the independent label, Offshore Music.

About The Author

Alex “Phat Boy” Lim started Beat This ON AIR on terrestrial radio back in 2017. His goal was to hold space for Filipino-made music on a global stage. This was a passion project he held onto from the beginning until the present day. Alex believes that Filipino Global is the next wave that will shape the standards of the music industry in the Philippines.