After having one of his most prolific years in terms of releases with a single in January called Another Avenue featuring singer Riya Duggal and his five-track debut EP ‘Friends Tonight’, Strangers Again featuring various artists that came out this past September, Bombay-based musician and songwriter David Britto aka Arrows is all set to close out 2023 with a pretty acoustic ballad called Southern Belle, out today 23^rd November 2023.

Penned in July 2023, Southern Belle is the song that broke Britto’s writer’s block after he found himself engulfed in fresh experiences. The song stemmed from a quote, “You deserve to be loved, even when you’re learning to love yourself,” that Britto connected with. Southern Belle is an ode to finding solace in people and is also meant to tell listeners that they shouldn’t be too hard on themselves during tough times.

As always, Arrows brings on collaborators, this time Brent Tauro as producer – who has previously contributed keyboard parts to Arrows songs. Apart from producing the song, Tauro also offers a beautiful piano arrangement, an emotional solo and even handles backing vocal duties. On lead vocals, Arrows tapped his former bandmate and rhythm guitarist from blues-rockers The Tripp, Rinaldo D’Souza aka rinaldo. The singer brings forth his buttery voice to the fray and it sits perfectly over Tauro’s piano and Arrows’ go-to collaborator Siddharth Basrur’s delicate acoustic guitar strumming.

Sharing more about this release, David Britto said, “I present to you 'Southern Belle,' the song that broke my writer’s block and one that is made with immense love, care and gratefulness. I hope you enjoy this late end-of-year postcard. Working with Rinaldo once again after a number of years was so nice and he did justice to the song. As for Brent, I’ve always wanted him to produce one of my songs, and I’m glad that this one worked out, he shines throughout with his piano parts across the track.”

From performing at music festivals such as Bacardi NH7 Weekender to Sula Fest and more with Bombay blues-rockers The Tripp, Arrows is musician and songwriter David Britto’s collaborative project launched in 2018.

If you haven’t seen Arrows playing a show in Mumbai, you’ve probably spotted and saved his music from Spotify’s ‘Rock in India’ and Apple’s ‘Future Hits’ playlists. Arrows sees Britto meld his relatable and powerful songwriting with some of Indian indie’s most powerful names including Raghav Meattle, Blackstratblues, Tejas, Riya Duggal, Siddharth Barsur, Vernon Noronha and The Lightyears Explode.

As a groundbreaking journalist for the native wing of the iconic music magazine Rolling Stone India, Britto has not only chronicled the country’s art as it makes global waves but also developed a fine ear for the intricacies and diversity of India’s striking, new, original sound. Britto also hosts the My First Record podcast which is noted for being candid and a mini master call on music from some of the best artists of our times. Arrows released his debut EP in September 2023.

Credits:

Written and Composed by David Britto

Produced, Piano and Backing Vocals by Brent Tauro

Vocals by rinaldo

Additional Production and Acoustic Guitar by Siddharth Basrur

Mixed and Mastered by Jason D’Souza

Artwork by Darielle Britto