[Cover photo credit to Cory Dewald]
Selken is the bummer Pop/Indie Rock project of Chicago songwriter Heather Styka. Her current work builds on the period of the pandemic where after many years of touring as a solo Folk artist, she was at home long enough to embrace the change of staying more rooted in Chicago. This also led to collaborating with a band and discovering new sounds.
Styka then teamed up with Producer/multi-instrumentalist JG Shadid to create Selken’s debut album, The Winds. Adding more layers to create more “sparkling” music, Styka wrote new songs as a “cathartic exploration of personal and societal sea change, of burying old dreams to make room for new ones.” The Winds will arrive on vinyl this summer and on streaming services this autumn. Selken will host a vinyl record release show on July 19th, 2025, at The Red Room in Chicago.
Today, we’re very pleased to premier the title track of her upcoming album, “The Winds” here on Wildfire Music + News.
As the title track, the song seems to speak to a particular time in the artist’s life, which may have bearing on the wider album, but it also has an interesting thematic angle since winds are rootless, and move restlessly, whereas Styka has chosen to plant herself more firmly in Chicago these days. It could have the broader implication of the appeal, and the drawbacks, of a touring musician’s life, or perhaps an artist’s life in general, in which well-being can be destabilized by its changeable nature.
But the song itself is far more personal and direct than those speculations. Musically, it’s a charming, reflective, and very melodic track that also conveys a great deal of emotion in a measured way. A dreamy opening sets a reflective tone but we are quickly pulls into Styka’s vocals built on intricate, interlacing rhyme. She paints a picture of a time in life where a relationship is starting out, full of certain hopes and expectations, but she quickly brings in a more current perspective from a place of closure, one that comments on the discrepancies and impossibilities that stood in the way of this past relationship coming to fruition. We see the speaker as someone tucked away from rough weather raging outside and realizing that the shake-up of a stormy relationship is not something that they find attractive anymore. In hindsight, they can see the bruises it left behind.
There’s something particularly compelling and emotive about Styka’s poised vocals returning to the certainty that, “When hear the winds outside the window, I let them blow on and away”, the epitome of letting go of a pattern, a certain type of experience in life. The roll and swing of the song is also delivered from a place of confidence that, at times, is determined and inspiring, even as it acknowledges painful things. Styka also boldly conveys ideas of change, of working on oneself, of realizing that things are not perfect, but equally acknowledging lessons learned. The cyclical nature of the song, returning to these same alluring tendencies, facing them, and deciding how to face them in a current way, is triumphant. With it comes some added commentary on the past, acknowledging the vulnerability that led to heartache. Overall, the song speaks to a position of confidence, and of wisdom that’s been hard-earned, drawn from the texture of experience. There’s also a certain “secret” to the song that preserves an air of mystery, not a dark mystery, but the mystery of self-value, self-love, and the ability to say “no” to things that might steal away hard-won happiness.
Heather Styka shares about the song:
Some years back, I was planning to start a band with the person I was dating, and we were going to call it ‘The Spring Weathers,’ which was hilarious in retrospect, because I thought it would be all melting snow and soft warm breezes, but spring weather is actually violent, unpredictable, extreme. Hot and cold. And those kind of relationships can be the most compelling; you get
addicted to the roller coaster of it.The past few years, I’ve really settled into myself. I’ve never felt this emotionally stable, and sometimes I really miss how messy I was before. I’m looking out the window at the storm, the romance, the drama — longing to get carried away. But I know better now. I know how to choose what’s going to be good for me. This song really came to life when my bandmate JG Shadid came up with the bass line and guitar parts. It was this moment of inspiration and collaboration that
just feels gleeful, like that’s it.
On “The Winds”, Heather Styka plays vocals and guitar, JG Shadid plays vocals, guitars, synths, and piano, Jake Hawrylak plays drums, and Colin Sipos adds additional percussion.
The Winds album was recorded at Gentle Bear Studios, Chicago, Produced by Shadid and Styka, mixed by Colin Sipos at Chase St. Sound, Nashville, TN, and mastered by Mike Bridavsky at Russian Recording, Bloomington, IN. Album design is by Tim DeCosta, and photography is by Cory Dewald.
