NYC Scene Report – Christopher Ardra, Scarlett Macfarlane, & Kyle Morgan

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Christopher Ardra finding inspiration via the MTA, Scarlett Macfarlane confronting her inner demons, and Kyle Morgan with a “Ghost of a Problem.”

* Inspiration can come from a litany of places, and Christopher Ardra found some while looking at an LIRR flyer for suicide prevention.

This was how his latest single, “Colors,” came to be.

“I found ‘has life lost its color?’ to be an incredible phrasing for a flyer by the MTA,” he said in a statement, “I went home and wrote this song in about five minutes. It’s about having someone in your life who loves you for who you are, in this case, my wife Tesha.”

The song – which is from his upcoming sophomore album, Saw It In A Dream, due out June 5th – is gorgeous, and the video features an incredible dance performance from Sylvana Tapia.

Don’t miss this one, it’s an absolute gem.

* Scarlett Macfarlane is hearing voices, and they’re the voices we all hear – the past rearing its head, making us think of mistakes we’ve made, and having us question our previous decisions.

This was the basis for her latest, soaring, pop song, titled “Sorry.”

“I wrote the song based on a bad night’s sleep due to some negative inner voices and an overactive mind,” she explains, “I wanted to be vulnerable about my inner demons, and hope that anyone who heard it could feel seen, feel safe to recognize that we all make mistakes, big and small, and join me in the journey of self-acceptance.”

While the song was originally titled “Regret,” Macfarlane says, “It was always an apology – to others, to the world, to myself.”

Click play on “Sorry,” as it’s an apology you’ll most certainly accept.

* If you’ve ever been through difficult times, you know there are aspects of them that can linger long after the situation has been resolved.

Singer-songwriter Kyle Morgan calls such a concern a “Ghost of a Problem.”

“Ghost of a Problem” is the title track from Morgan’s upcoming album, due out May 22nd, and he explained the song further in a statement, saying, “‘Ghost of a Problem’ is about the experience of having come through great turmoil, knowing full well there is no longer any threat facing you, but nevertheless having a unshakeable sense that something is wrong. The problem is dead, but its ghost continues to haunt you.”

A great tune about something very relatable, it feels like Morgan wants to relieve us of our ghosts with this song. Give it a play, and let it ease your mind of some of your quandaries.

For more of the best of NYC’s indie music scene, come back next Wednesday, and check out the archives for previous columns.