“I have always believed that no two kisses are the same. Each kiss is a world unto itself and has the potential to be an intimate conversation between two souls.”
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For Jenna Torres, the magic of a kiss is an opportunity to feel as close as two bodies can feel—and bring heaven right down to earth. “Tell Me In Kisses,” Torres’ first new single since releasing All Heart earlier this year, passionately maneuvers around the awkwardness and loss of words leading up to that ultimate union.
“In that moment, the best way to say it is to allow for your lips to meet mine and let all the confusion and overwhelm melt away until we are speaking the same language at last,” says Torres. “When words fail, kiss.”
Written along with Charlie Chamberlin and Irakli Gabriel, “Tell Me In Kisses” was pieced together prior to the pandemic in Nashville—where Torres splits her time from her home in New York City—after she finished recording All Heart.
“I was feeling particularly relaxed and open, having just finished a record I felt great about,” says Torres. “We got together with the intention of writing just to write, but about three or four songs in, Charlie turned to me and said, ‘these are your songs,’ and me being the kind of person who will never get enough of making records said, ‘let’s do it,’” says Torres, who returned back to the studio to record the track at Forty-One Fifteen Studios. “So we did.”
Backed with an entirely new batch of songs, Torres is already working on her next album, which she’s tentatively calling “The 4115 Sessions.”
“It’s exciting and stretches some of my musical boundaries while still feeling like home,” says Torres. “The beauty of writing with the guys is that by combining our instincts, we made something that we might never have made on our own.”
A slight departure from All Heart, which found the artist navigating love and her innate attachment to people and places, “Tell Me In Kisses” and the upcoming collection of songs are still emotionally threaded in the album, yet orbit a newer space sonically.
“‘Tell Me In Kisses’ is much more atmospheric than a lot of my previous stuff, and I think it suits the song and sets the stage for the lyrics in a very cinematic way,” says Torres. “The new project is not so different from ‘All Heart’ in that every song on both records was treated like its own living, breathing entity. We let the songs tell us what they needed.”
Torres adds, “It’s amazing how that happens. It’s kind of a deep listening throughout the writing and recording process that allows for the songs to live in the light.”
By 2020, All Heart was ready for release, and it was a struggle for Torres to hold it back another year when the pandemic hit.
“It absolutely felt like I had given birth, because at some point you have to let it go,” shares Torres. “You hold it inside of you, and all those things that stand in the way of letting go, you have to kick them all to the curb. It’s such a powerful kind of metaphor for personal growth, to release and just let it go.”
Back in New York, Torres is forever attached to her other home in Nashville and hopes to return soon and make new music with her “family” there. “My love and longing for my Nashville family has only grown,” shares Torres. “I just feel even closer to them now, and I’m so grateful for the creative body of work that we made. I always harbor hope, so I know we’ll be together soon.”
Recently releasing a video for the All Heart track “Better Boots,” Torres wants to keep the momentum of the album going as well as what’s next. “Music is my medicine,” she says. “It’s not just about giving, it’s about receiving. I do need to remind myself of that, but this is what keeps me going. And because it’s so good for me, it makes it even more valuable to share.”
Though written prior to the pandemic, several songs still hold some prophetic feelings for Torres, who says that All Heart may never have been made if she had to write it during all the uncertainties surrounding the past year.
“Even though we are still navigating shaky ground, I want to honor the lessons I have learned,” says Torres. “When the hammer came down and the streets were abandoned, I was forced to look at what I already had. Much to my surprise, my heart and pockets were full of music. I felt a sense of urgency, the flame ignited, and I saw that there was and is only one thing to do: share it now, show it now, celebrate now, live now, love now.”
A timely Valentine’s Day ode, “Tell Me In Kisses” is a gesture of love and light through all times. “My hope is always that there is something both timely and timeless about the songs I write,” says Torres of the song, which features an ambient visualizer lyric video, produced by Duende Vision. “The human experience is ever-changing and yet somehow always human and that is what makes music and song the perfect place to turn in good times and bad.”
“Tell Me In Kisses” is also Torres’ small way of saying we are all in this together.
“If there is one thing music serves to do, it is to bring us together,” she says, “regardless of whatever else may come and go.”
