Title: “Here We Stand”
Artist: Alicia Lena
From: TBA (2022), “No Justice, No Peace: The Search for Equality in the US” (2021)
Release Date: October 10, 2021
Format: CD Single, 12” Single, Digital Download, Weekly Airplay, Worldwide Streaming
Recorded: Fénix Home Recording Studios, Phoenix, Arizona, USA / Record Plant Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA
Genre(s): RnB, Soul
Length: 4:39
Label: FREEDOM
Written: September 2020
Writer: Alicia Lena
Producer(s): Alicia Lena, Neveah Martinez

“Here We Stand” is the comeback single by the American RnB singer-songwriter Alicia Lena, marking her first official release since 2016’s “Humans Without Humanity” which was featured on the blockbuster movie ‘The New Heroes: Official Movie Soundtrack’. In a recent interview with Half-Moon Music she teased her return in a rare public appearance, confirming that she had found inspiration once more to continue making music after spending the past five years away from the industry as a whole and focussing on her family life. She returns to the music industry a mother and a wife having moved out to Phoenix, Arizona to embrace a slower pace of life and the opportunity to live as normal a family as she could. But with the interview came the confirmation that she was very much ready to step back into the music industry, she confirmed during the hour long sit-down with Ashford York that she had gradually started writing music again over the past year in lockdown and had begun recording demos at her home studio. One of those demos has evidently turned out to be “Here We Stand” which will be taken as the lead single from her next album which is expected in 2022.

It's also confirmed in the official press release of the single that “Here We Stand” will officially debut during the trailer of an upcoming documentary titled ‘No Justice, No Peace: The Search for Equality in the US’. The single will be part of the official soundtrack for the six part documentary series in which Alicia lends her voice as one of the contributors to the documentary, delivering voice-over dialogue as the HBO Max documentary sets about telling the story of the long stemmed history of police brutality against minorities within the United States as well as taking a look at recent progress made in terms of the protest movements but also the lack of progress historically that continues to this day.
Beyond providing the official song for the trailer, Alicia will provide the voice-overs for the entire series as well as serving as executive producer on the project. In the shows press release, she spoke about the role, “I’m beyond thrilled to have been asked to lend my voice to the documentary and provide a song for the series as well as executive produce the documentary. It’s a cause that I feel very strongly about and one which has just increased in intensity of the past few years. I feel a lot of pride in the movements that have awoken in the aftermath but at the end of the day some real change needs to happen and at present it’s not happening. All too often this level of injustice continues to rear it’s head and I feel like it’s incredibly important at this stage to keep those loud voices of protest as loud as possible for as long as possible until we see real change, real consequences and real justice.”

The track see’s Alicia’s recognizable vocals return once more in true form, crisp and clear as one would expect on this track that would be fairly described as a soulful anthem. Elements that were intrinsically linked to Alicia’s career, the melodic and uplifting piano tones that sound tracked a lot of her early work and the RnB vocal powerhouse delivery that she was known for all return in this latest track. She has the addition of the Angel City Chorale backing her up during the song’s chorus. The choir group from California adding the touch of Gospel to the track which makes the song swell and soar during its middle section and final moments, the inclusion of strings towards the end see the track close out in an epic way. Making the track one of the biggest in terms of scope that Alicia has ever attempted in her career up to this point.

“Here We Stand” is the sixteenth official single released in Alicia Lena’s career and marks the first release of new music in five years since 2016’s “Humans Without Humanity” stand-alone single. It’s confirmed that this is the lead single from her next studio album which has been confirmed to be released in 2022 but is still currently in the early stages of recording and producing as the nomadic singer makes her official return to the music industry as a recording artist alongside a place on the judging panel in the upcoming Star Factory series.
The track was written by Alicia during lockdown in September 2020 in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and was put to one side as she was experimenting with writing music again but without the intention of recording anything. It later became one of the tracks that she took into her newly built home recording studio in Phoenix, Arizona alongside her producer Nevaeh Martinez and it became evident that would be an important place to start in terms of the creation of her next studio album, produced by Alicia alongside Nevaeh they then put the finishing touches on the track at the Record Plant Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California where they were joined by the Angel City Chorale and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to finish up the track with the additions of strings and a choir. The song will be released through FREEDOM as a CD Single, 12” Single, Digital Download and will be made available to Weekly Airplay as well as Worldwide Streaming from October 10, 2021.

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Song Description;

The song begins with a beautiful almost lullaby-esque piano intro, repeated for a couple of bars which immediately gives a reflective and emotive feel to the song from the very beginning even before Alicia delivers the songs simplistic and repetitive hook as the opening to the track with her softer more RnB infused vocal range, it’s sung with a quiet solemn breathy style which adds to the emotional resonance of the song and it’s serious content “Here we stand/Standing stronger together/Whatever the weather/Here we stand/Standing stronger together/Whatever the weather/Here we stand.” with Alicia’s tender vocal delivery of those lyrics it’s fairly clear of the sort of song that we’ll be getting on this track.

The piano melody continues as we move away from the hook intro and into the first verse, making it clear that this is likely to be the same melody throughout the entirety of the song, the pace is increased slightly as the song progresses and Alicia’s beautiful vocal delivery becomes slightly louder and assertive, with a seriousness and underlying power feeling like it’s bubbling just underneath the surface adding to the progression of the song and anticipation seemingly as if it’s slowly starting to build as she sings lyrics that make the songs content obvious this time around “Marching in the street for equality/Searching for change is what we all seek/Let’s raise our voices /Til’ we can’t breathe/And we’ll all take the knee/For our family.” make it clear that this is a song about police brutality and injustice with lyrics referencing the George Floyd murder with “Til’ we can’t breathe” and Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take a knee during the national anthem “And we’ll all take the knee for our family.”
And as the piano melody continues alone for a couple of seconds between the previous verse and it’s follow-up, we’re given a small break before Alicia’s voice comes back into the picture again sounding louder and more urgent, switching from tender and sorrowful to assertive and verging on anthemic as she delivers lyrics of her hopes for the future, “And we can hope and we can pray/And long for such a better day/There’s more voices to the cause than there’s ever been before/We can’t bare to see this happening anymore/Need to rediscover the love that we were born for.” as she sings about dreaming of a world of innocence and love which is essentially what we were all born for, with many losing that innocence and love that they were born with along the way as they become judgmental and warped as they become older.

The power of the song becomes evident as we arrive at the next verse and the transition period of the song that see’s real power and assertiveness find it’s way, the piano although the melody remains the same is even more urgent and faster paced and Alicia’s vocals become belting during the songs middle part, sung crisp and clearly with power coming from the chest as she delivers the words with a slight touch of anger, which take the song into anthemic nature from the previous soft soulful vibe of the song, “Let’s say their names louder/So it’s harder for them to deny their failure/And realize the blood on their hands with their fucked up behaviour/In this modern world we shouldn’t have to tolerate/All this kind of ancient hate/It’s time we start to truly educate/So we can learn to find peace/Before it’s too late.” which truly see’s the song reach it’s peak and see this through to the end of the track.

As we come to the final portion of the song, the piano melody returns to the slightly slower pace of the beginning of the track but this time the added power comes from the arrival of more music, the sound of strings and brass instrumentation from the Los Angeles Philharmonic swelling in the background in combination with the piano continue the anthemic nature of the track despite the music actually slowing back down, added to the strings alongside Alicia’s vocal delivery is the Angel City Chorale as they sing alongside Alicia, never overpowering her but adding the beautiful intensity needed to get the power of the song across as they sing in unison, “Here we stand/Standing stronger together/Whatever the weather/Here we stand/Standing stronger together/Whatever the weather/Here we stand.” and moving into the final breakdown “Let’s make sure they didn’t die in vain/Let’s fight for the change/In this generation that we’re living in/And believe that we can be a part of history for the next generation.”
Before we then see out the song with the tracks hook coming in repeated twice before the strings ease out in the final moment and the sound of the melodic piano tones comes to its end alongside the abrupt final breaths of Alicia’s vocal delivery.

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“Here We Stand”

“Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand

Marching in the street for equality
Searching for change is what we all seek
Let’s raise our voices
Til’ we can’t breathe
And we’ll all take the knee
For our family

And we can hope and we can pray
And long for such a better day
There’s more voices to the cause than there’s ever been before
We can’t bare to see this happening anymore
Need to rediscover the love that we were born for

Let’s say their names louder
So it’s harder for them to deny their failure
And realize the blood on their hands with their fucked up behaviour
In this modern world we shouldn’t have to tolerate
All this kind of ancient hate
It’s time we start to truly educate
So we can learn to find peace
Before it’s too late

Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand

Let’s make sure they didn’t die in vain
Let’s fight for the change
In this generation that we’re living in
And believe that we can be a part of history for the next generation

Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand

Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand
Standing stronger together
Whatever the weather
Here we stand”

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Credits & Personnel;

CREDITS

Produced by Alicia Lena, Nevaeh Martinez
Engineered by Aniyah Jordan
Mixed by DeAndre Patton, Aniyah Jordan
Recorded at Fénix Home Recording Studios, Phoenix, Arizona / Record Plant Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California

PERSONNEL

Alicia Lena – vocals, piano, lyrics, composition, production
Angel City Chorale - vocals
Los Angeles Philharmonic - instrumentation

Nevaeh Martinez – production
Aniyah Jordan – engineering, mixing
DeAndre Patton – mixing