South African-born artist Tan Sholto returns with another reflective, deeply emotive offering, set to release her new EP Christine. The five-track collection explores the complicated journey from childhood into adolescence through the shared lens of a single mother and her daughter—a love that can easily be missed in the heat of the moment. Each song captures a different stage of that evolution: the misunderstandings, the unspoken fears, the tenderness, and the friction that comes with growing up while watching your mother grow too.
The story unfolds across gentle guitar atmospheres and emotive strings, creating space for Sholto’s tender, graceful lead vocals while allowing subtle harmonies to shine. Every arrangement feels deliberate, leaving room for reflection while drawing listeners into the intimacy of her narratives.
In Tan’s words, “At its core, this project is a tribute to my mom—not just as a parent, but as a woman carving out a better life for herself; with strength, sacrifice, and grace. It is honouring how love persists even when words fail, and how contradicting experiences and pain can create the most beautiful relationships.”
The most intimate song on the EP is tash, a track that took more than a decade of understanding to fully take shape. Sholto reflects on her childhood loss: “At its core, this project is a tribute to my mom—not just as a parent, but as a woman carving out a better life for herself; with strength, sacrifice, and grace. It is honouring how love persists even when words fail, and how contradicting experiences and pain can create the most beautiful relationships.
The most intimate song on this EP is ‘tash,’ a piece that took more than a decade of understanding to fully take shape. When I was a child, my father passed away, and the experience of that loss was impossible for my mind to grasp. I didn’t understand what was really happening—only that someone who had been there suddenly wasn’t. My mom, now a single mother, couldn’t explain the weight of it to me; she was struggling with her own grief while trying to hold our family of six together. She was barely surviving. It’s only now, through the lens of adulthood, that I can see her reflection in that time—imagining the nights she must have cried herself to sleep, without the space or safety to truly process her own pain.”
Christine promises to be an intimate, tender exploration of family, growth, and resilience. Each song invites listeners into a private conversation, where the beauty of love and understanding emerges slowly, like sunlight through leaves, illuminating moments that often go unnoticed. With its elegant acoustics and heartfelt lyricism, the EP is poised to resonate with anyone who has navigated the complexities of love, loss, and the passage from childhood into adulthood.
Listen below:
