Lara Nakhle, 21 year-old emerging artist from Sydney, takes a refreshing look at the highs / lows of love online with "OK Cupid", a catchy, uplifting song with hook line you won't forget!
Looking for love online is a crazy merry-go-round sometimes, finding that perfect partner, but when you do, you'll know it too! Navigating online dating sites can be a roller-coaster; for a blind, full-time university student; it may be even daunting, but Lara takes it all in her stride and delivers a great pop song in her own, natural style.
OK Cupid tells the story of a young girl who was searching everywhere for love and decided to try the dating app OK Cupid, where eventually she found the man of her dreams. This is reflected by lyrics in the second verse: “who loves to do the dishes and make dinner too”, which then goes on to say “who loves a conversation, I do”, highlighting the similarities these two fictitious characters have in common.
The bounciness and energetic vibe of the vocals in the choruses beginning with “oh oh oh” represents how the girl felt over the moon and couldn’t stop smiling because of how happy she was to have met a guy who was “friendly, tall, dark, not so handsome and 22”.
Another way that this song could be interpreted by those who have not heard of the app, is by thinking that Cupid, (also referred to as Eros, the ancient Greek mythological god of love), who holds a bow and arrow and found the perfect match for the girl. So therefore, this song has a double meaning, which demonstrates that most people should be able to understand the concept the first time they listen to it. Although Lara has never used any dating apps, or intends to, she definitely thinks that many people will be able to relate to the song on some level, as most people are bound to have friends who have used dating apps in the past, or currently do.
The way the song OK Cupid came about was rather unusual, but funny. One day during the summer holidays last year, Lara caught up with two friends, one of whom uses the dating app Tinder. Lara thought she would ask what her friend thought of the app, if it was at all useful and whether she should get it or not? The friend said that she hadn’t found it to be very good, as some of the outings with people she met on Tinder turned into horror stories.
When Lara got home that day, she started thinking about what kind of guys would show that they’re interested by swiping right on her profile photo if she did end up deciding to get Tinder. As a joke Lara asked her mum, if she should sign up for Tinder, knowing that she would most likely say no, however, instead she responded by saying “I don’t think so, but why don’t you write a song about it?” Next day Lara sat down and wrote some rather silly song lyrics and put them with piano chords. After showing them to Roxanne Kiely, her long standing vocal coach and mentor, who is also an accomplished & well known songwriter herself, who collaborated with her on her debut single, “Love Left Behind”, in co-writing that song. At first, she thought that her lyrics were too clunky and unstructured, however, Roxanne liked the idea of the song and thought it would be good to write a song about these times of online dating.
They decided to meet and talk about how they could rewrite it from scratch, but also incorporate some of Lara’s original lyrics and ideas. As nothing rhymed with Tinder, Roxanne asked Lara if she knew of any other dating apps and after naming a few, Lara suggested OK Cupid, which Roxanne immediately thought would sound good in a song. By the time they had the meeting to discuss lyrics, Roxanne had written 5 pages of lyrics they could choose from based on the idea. They spent about an hour experimenting with the different lyrics and how they sounded with different chords. It only took another one-hour session the following week to finalise the verses, choruses and hook lines of “la la” and “OK Cupid”. Stephen Kiely, her piano teacher and also a co-writer /producer of my last song, added the lines “I do, I do, I do” which gave the song another feel similar to wedding vows.
With Lara’s debut single Love Left Behind and now her latest single OK Cupid, both will definitely be part of an EP down the track. Lara is very lucky to have known Roxanne Kiely (her vocal coach) and Stephen Kiely (her piano teacher) for a number of years, as they have helped her significantly and have also contributed immensely to the co-writing of both songs. Lara could not have even started the process of writing and releasing original music if it wasn’t for all their hard work, dedication and support.
‘OK Cupid’ is an independent release written by Roxanne Kiely in collaboration with Lara Nakhle and Stephen Kiely, OK Cupid was recorded and produced at ScoopFX studios in Sydney. Ukuleles, bass, programming percussion with various sound FX, and instrument arrangement by Stephen Kiely.
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LINKS TO LARA NAHKLE
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