London-based Maltese artist Chess Galea is a renowned session vocalist who has been making a name for herself as a solo artist through live sessions across BBC Radio and BBC TV, as well as working with many UK artists, including Jack Savoretti on his album, Europiana.

Her newest single ‘Amber Lights’ continue to verify her status as a name to keep an eye on, especially within the R&B-pop space. Soaked in a warm atmosphere, tightly-knit guitar lines, danceable beats and layers of affectionate vocals, ‘Amber Lights’ is a piece of introspective songwriting that analyses the importance of slowing down.

While the listener can apply this message to any of their personal strategies, for Galea, she navigates self-doubt and social anxiety. It was also a moment of contemplation that produced the title of this song, as she explains, “I was walking home from the train station one day and passed traffic lights thinking – Hmm, Amber Lights seems like a cool name for a song…”

Looking ahead, ‘Amber Lights’ is the first of a number of new singles due in the coming months.  

“I wrote Amber Lights with Lily Lyons, who I met through after an all women’s virtual songwriting camp in March 2021 during the pandemic. She’s in LA (and so is my producer Jeff) and I’m in London but despite the physical distance, we still managed to create such a vulnerable and intimate song.

Amber Lights explores the cagings of anxiety, especially social anxiety, and self-doubt. Amber Lights represent that hesitation, that getting ready to go but not quite making it, that slowing down because you don’t quite have the courage or strength to be totally yourself. It’s funny because the title came before the concept of the song.”

Follow Chess Galea on Instagram.