Smokelines Release New Single “Heartbreak Looks Better”
photo courtesy of @smokelinesgroup Instagram
It isn’t often that you come across people as effervescent as Faith Gara and Sky Star, the creators and constituents of Smokelines. The energy the duo radiates is strikingly refreshing, like an oasis in the desert of the procedural cookie-cutter talent the music industry tends to crank out in the status quo. From the quality of their lyrical compositions to the concept artwork showcased on the band’s Instagram, it’s evident Smokelines is dedicated to pushing creative boundaries, proving to be true artists at heart.
“Heartbreak Looks Better” (which you can stream starting November 13th on Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud) is the first song the pair ever wrote together, which goes to show how well Gara and Star managed to connect during its creation. When they first became friends, the two had an honest connection regarding the struggles they’ve faced in their respective relationships, Gara explaining “we just talked about relationships, breakups, ex-boyfriends and how people handle it [all]– and we noticed this commonality of how some girls react going through a breakup, which inspired the song.”
Lyrically the track is riveting and witty, exploring the familiar “glow up” trope many girls find comfort in after a tough breakup. One shouldn’t get too confident though, as Smokelines is known for the lyrical gems and hidden secrets they often bury in their songs. In fact, if you check out @smokelinesgroup on Instagram, you can see they’ve included an array of concept art relating to their most recent single.
Lyrical references can be found throughout the posts, like the handwritten letter referenced when they sing “I found your letter / in your sweater / the girl in leather from better weather.” Both songwriters and storytellers— Smokelines place the utmost attention to their lyrical craft— Gara and Star explaining they actually create entire stories with fleshed-out characters, background stories, and all.
Although these entire stories may not see the light of day, it sheds a light on how seriously Smokelines take their creative process, especially lyrically. In fact, Star jokes that while people often think the band’s name relates to weed (which she is totally cool with) she clarifies that Smokelines represents “Fire Lines” as in fresh or hot lyrics, the element of song development the group values most. In fact, Smokelines is actually known as a songwriting group first and foremost, with both girls still proudly pursuing and supporting one another’s independent pursuits as artists. They each write songs for one another and those around them, but they’d ultimately love to help others tell their stories as they grow and develop the future.
If it isn’t clear from their newest single, (which you should have listened to by now) Smokelines is informed by a variety of influences when it comes to their creative process. Both Gara and Sky hail from opposite coasts— Gara from the rural New York town of Cazenovia and Sky from San Diego— and both girls attribute much of their musical inspiration to their hometown experiences.
Starting our journey on the east coast, Gara always had a passion for music in her youth, she even recounts how her grandma jokes she once sang for a literal five hours straight on a family car ride to the mountains. While she took part in both theatre and choir, she also liked to experiment, writing her first song the very first night she learned how to play guitar, inspired after watching a Taylor Swift documentary. As she grew, she took her technical theatre and choir training, tempering it with a passion for R&B and pop music.
Meanwhile, across the country, Sky was also born with the same lively passion for music, falling in love with a piano she was gifted by her mother at the age of five. She too was also in choir, and interestingly drew some of her musical inspiration from dancing, explaining “music became such a physical part of my being, not only was it audibly in my ears, but I could just feel it in my whole body.” As she became a teenager she fell in love with pop-punk and everything warped tour, which transitioned into a later passion for EDM. At 17 Star told her mom she was determined to be a DJ, even taking community college courses relating to sound engineering in high school.
Ultimately both girls ended up in the same program at Long Island University Brooklyn and Smokelines was born, fusing Star’s dark-pop spunk with Gara’s R&B flair. The group has been described as the perfect duo merging the best influences from the respective coasts they call home. Rather than conforming to the industry standards that often force musicians into groups, Gara and Star are dedicated to exploring music independently, just as they did in their youth. Star explains “Faith is definitely more R&B and pop, her texture and tone has that super silk brass type of beautiful flair to it, and mine has a more dark raspy Sasha Sloan vibe, so our solo music is just so different,” but the difference between the two is what makes their music so great.
If Gara is the color red and Star is the color blue— Smokelines is a vibrant purple— the beautiful result of two individuals coming together to create something new, something neither can emulate alone, which is what collaboration in music should be all about. The best word that could be used to describe Smokelines is authentic. From the very beginning, both girls garnered an honest passion for music, determined to leave it untempered by the demands of the problematic music industry itself.
Smokelines wants to inspire and work with those who feel pressured to conform in the name of success, and rather advocate for independent artists thriving on their own accord. Beautifully cultivating their childhood love of music into adulthood, Smokelines truly exemplifies the type of positivity the music industry is in desperate need of today.