Bella Novela – “Four Walls” (audio) (Premiere)

Long Beach, CA rock trio Bella Novela is one of those bands that is able to pull off the tricky task of sounding like classic rock without merely imitating the genre’s tropes. Frontwoman Jackie Laws’ vocals bring to mind Heart and Pat Benatar, but she also sounds undoubtedly contemporary, her voice coalescing perfectly with guitarist Jacob Heath’s Muse-esque leads. On its newest tune, “Four Walls”, Bella Novela amps up the drama with a chord progression and vocal line that sound ready to be the next James Bond theme. But rather than go for the classic Bond theme pace of slow and sultry, the trio amps up the energy, due in large part to drummer Jannea McClure’s rapid fills. This sense of bombast is a fitting one for the group’s forthcoming LP, Telemetry, a concept album based on a popular Mexican telenovela. The new prog influences on Bella Novela’s music, especially on “Four Walls”, make it a distinctive voice in the Los Angeles music scene.

Heath tells PopMatters this about the tune: “When we started writing ‘Four Walls’, our singer Jackie was working in a hospital mental ward observing psychotic episodes all day. We wanted to write a song from a patient’s perspective and try to capture the feeling of being powerless, confined, and not in control of your own thoughts; to imagine how it would feel when you see your caretakers as your captors.”

Telemetry will be available November 25th on LP, CD and download via Bella Novela Records.

Catch Bella Novela at any of the following performances:

11/21 Long Beach, CA @ The Prospector (Album release show)

11/22 San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink

11/29 Los Angeles, CA @ Redwood Bar & Grill