London’s Essence Martins turns the pressures of our digital age into a gently radiant plea for presence on “Can We All Slow Down,” a pop-laced indie folk daydream that invites us to step away from the performance of being seen and return to the small, everyday wonders waiting beyond the noise.
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Stream: “Can We All Slow Down” – Essence Martins
The world rarely asks how much of ourselves we lose while trying to keep up.
We smile, scroll, perform, respond, post, compare, and carry on until even rest starts to feel like another thing we are failing to do properly.
Essence Martins’ gently dreamy “Can We All Slow Down” meets that exhaustion with open hands: A beautiful, soul-stirring swell of pop-laced indie folk warmth that moves like an ocean wave, tender in its rise and quietly overwhelming in its release. Can we all slow down / wouldn’t it be wonderful? the North West London artist sings, turning a simple question into a timeless human plea – for presence, for breath, for the right to move through life without feeling watched from every angle.
Smiling is an art form
I’ve got a master’s degree
Saving face, keep the pace
There’s no time to waste
To be something great
Out now, “Can We All Slow Down” follows Martins’ 2024 debut EP Deer in the Headlights, a diaristic coming-of-age record that introduced her as one of the UK’s most thoughtful and emotionally transparent emerging voices. Once an aspiring professional tennis player on an American scholarship, Martins returned home to pursue songwriting, quickly building a world around curiosity, inner reckoning, friendship, family, and the vulnerable work of becoming. Her music still carries that sense of open-eyed wonder, but “Can We All Slow Down” feels even more focused in its clarity: Less about searching for answers, perhaps, than naming the pressure that makes it hard to hear ourselves think in the first place.
“I’d say my music is for those who love the simple beauties of the world,” Martins tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s for those who are listeners, love to read, and those who think about the world around them. I was recently told that I’m soft-spoken, and I’d definitely say that I’m a soft singer too, but I have a lot to say if you want to listen! I love harmonies and subtle time signature changes. I like to tuck little things into my songs that often go unnoticed but can be felt, whether that’s in a sound or a lyric. I write a lot of thought-provoking stuff and love to blend it with organic instruments, lots of harmonies, catchy melodies, poetic lyrics, and some rhythm behind it too!”
Everyone’s an actor
On somebody’s screen
Every strand, every glare
I’m hyper aware
We live under a microscope
That care is everywhere in “Can We All Slow Down.” Martins writes with diary-entry honesty, but the song never feels small; it opens from one person’s overwhelm into a shared portrait of a culture built on constant visibility. Everyone’s an actor / on somebody’s screen, she sings, before one of the song’s sharpest, most modern lines: Being perceived is non-negotiable. Her voice is hushed yet assured, full of tenderness and nuance as she lets the melody drift forward with a calm that feels almost defiant. Around her, organic textures, glowing harmonies, and a slow, hypnotic pulse mirror the release she is asking for. The song does not shout against the noise. It lowers the volume until the quietest need becomes impossible to ignore.
People made of porcelain
Laughter made of glass
Don’t sit down, never frown
You could lose it all
Being perceived is non-negotiable
Can we all slow down
Wouldn’t it be wonderful
If we all slow down
Wouldn’t it be wonderful
“I wrote this song after feeling really stressed from the pressure of constantly posting on social media as an artist,” Martins shares.
“There’s more pressure than ever in today’s climate to be seen and stand out from the crowd. And of course, that’s how you make it in the industry today, but I’ve always been someone who loves peace, and sometimes my natural design goes against the need to be so frequently perceived online.”
“I also wrote this from the realisation of how prevalent social media is,” she continues. “It’s easy to lose sight of what’s real when we live in a digital world. So I was feeling a little suffocated from it all at the time of writing it and imagined I could live off the grid somewhere in a fairy cottage that’s peaceful and away from the stress of being perceived all the time!”
That imagined fairy cottage sits at the heart of the song’s ache: Not escape as disappearance, but escape as a return to proportion. Martins is not rejecting ambition, movement, work, or connection; she is asking what happens when they consume the whole frame. Moving at light speed / I miss precious things that matter, she sings, and the line lands with devastating softness because it names a feeling so many of us carry without stopping to examine it. Life keeps changing. Responsibilities pile up. Childhood curiosity becomes adult maintenance. We learn to keep pace, keep face, keep smiling. “Smiling is an art form,” Martins says of the opening lyric. “It just reminded me how often we put on a show in everyday life and how skilled we’ve become as a society at hiding.”
Moving at light speed
I miss precious things
That matter, climb the ladder high
It’s overwhelming
This life that we lead
Me to the path where I can breathe
To slow down, for Martins, is not to withdraw from life; it is to actually inhabit it.
“Slowing down to me really just means taking a moment to appreciate the wonderful things around us,” she says. “It means being in the moment and taking time away from our phones, or worrying less about how we’re perceived. It’s easy to let beautiful things pass you by when you don’t take the time to step back and appreciate the full picture. This is easier said than done though.” That last admission matters. “Can We All Slow Down” is not naïve about the world it is singing into. It knows presence is difficult. It knows the machine keeps moving. Its beauty lies in asking anyway.
Can we all slow down
Wouldn’t it be wonderful
If we all slow down
Wouldn’t it be wonderful
“Can We All Slow Down” feels like a hand placed gently on the chest, a reminder that breath is still available even when life refuses to pause on its own. Martins hopes listeners feel seen by the song, and that is exactly what it offers: not a solution, but recognition; not an answer, but a moment of shared exhale. With its tender vocals, graceful restraint, and quietly radiant message, Essence Martins has written something simple enough to sing along to and deep enough to live with. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? The question stays with us because it already knows the answer.
Atwood Magazine recently caught up with Martins to step further inside the world of “Can We All Slow Down” – the online pressure that sparked it, the childhood curiosity it aches to preserve, the creative comfort that helped it fall into place, and the small beauties still waiting for us when we finally look up. After all, the world rarely asks how much of ourselves we lose while trying to keep up – but Martins’ music makes room for the answer.
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:: stream/purchase Can We All Slow Down here ::
:: connect with Essence Martins here ::
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Stream: “Can We All Slow Down” – Essence Martins
A CONVERSATION WITH ESSENCE MARTINS
Atwood Magazine: Essence, for those who are just discovering you today through this writeup, what do you want them to know about you and your music?
Essence Martins: I’d say my music is for those who love the simple beauties of the world. It’s for those who are listeners, love to read, and those who think about the world around them. I was recently told that I’m soft-spoken, and I’d definitely say that I’m a soft singer too, but I have a lot to say if you want to listen! I love harmonies and subtle time signature changes. I like to tuck little things into my songs that often go unnoticed but can be felt, whether that’s in a sound or a lyric. I write a lot of thought-provoking stuff and love to blend it with organic instruments, lots of harmonies, catchy melodies, poetic lyrics, and some rhythm behind it too!
Who are some of your musical north stars, and what are you most excited about in the music you’re making today?
Essence Martins: I’ve never heard anyone use “North Star” that way! That’s beautiful! I grew up with three sisters (a twin and two older sisters), and we grew up listening to the Spice Girls, Destiny’s Child, TLC, Britney Spears, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, Norah Jones, S Club 7, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Simon & Garfunkel. The house was often filled with great music. But as I got older, I formed my own love for artists like Paramore, Phoebe Bridgers, Aurora, Arlo Parks, Willow, Clairo, Billie Marten, MARO, Madison Cunningham, Laura Marling, Olivia Dean, and Lizzy McAlpine. But I’d probably say all the artists I mentioned are north stars in some way.
You’ve called “Can We All Slow Down” a diary entry in song – honest, vulnerable, and born from feeling drained in the studio. What’s the story behind this song?
Essence Martins: I wrote this song after feeling really stressed from the pressure of constantly posting on social media as an artist. I never feel drained in the studio because it’s often a place where I can let go of that stress actually! There’s more pressure than ever in today’s climate to be seen and stand out from the crowd. And of course, that’s how you make it in the industry today, but I’ve always been someone who loves peace, and sometimes my natural design goes against the need to be so frequently perceived online. I also wrote this from the realisation of how prevalent social media is. It’s easy to lose sight of what’s real when we live in a digital world. So I was feeling a little suffocated from it all at the time of writing it and imagined I could live off the grid somewhere in a fairy cottage that’s peaceful and away from the stress of being perceived all the time!
“Smiling is an art form, I’ve got a master’s degree,” is such a striking opening line. What did that lyric unlock for you, and how does it speak to the pressure of maintaining an image?
Essence Martins: It just reminded me how often we put on a show in everyday life and how skilled we’ve become as a society at hiding. So I thought that really fooling someone into thinking everything is fine must be akin to acting. And this art form of acting and smiling often feels like putting on an Oscar-winning performance, and some of us would surely have degrees and doctorates if it were a course we could take.
This song feels like a plea for presence in a world that’s constantly watching, judging, and asking us to keep up. What does “slowing down” mean to you right now?
Essence Martins: I love music, and I’m so grateful for the life I get to live. I truly love being super busy, meeting new people, and playing shows, so slowing down to me really just means taking a moment to appreciate the wonderful things around us. It means being in the moment and taking time away from our phones, or worrying less about how we’re perceived. It’s easy to let beautiful things pass you by when you don’t take the time to step back and appreciate the full picture. This is easier said than done though.
You’ve spoken about longing for a time when life felt slower, when you noticed small things and moved through the world with more curiosity. Do you feel like this song is grieving childhood in some way, or reckoning with adulthood?
Essence Martins: Yes, part of it is. We spend most of our lives in adulthood but spend so much time talking about childhood memories. Those formative years are so important to us. I find myself filing through my memory library to find times when I didn’t feel the pressures of adulthood. I remember being more curious, unburdened, and free. But it’s inevitable that we have less time and more responsibility as we grow up, and I think we need to keep some childhood traits alive in adulthood.
What was it like writing this song with Jay Flew, especially while being so vulnerable with a producer you were working with for the first time?
Essence Martins: It was awesome! We wrote this during our first session together, and I remember coming to the session with all these thoughts and anxieties about posting, being so online, and how so many people feel this pressure to perform in so many aspects of life. So we had a little chat about it over some sounds, but most of it just fell out into this song, and I immediately felt very comfortable sharing my brain with him without the fear of being judged. He just understood.
How do you hope listeners feel when they hear “Can We All Slow Down,” and what have you taken away from creating it and putting it out into the world?
Essence Martins: Ironically, I hope listeners feel seen! Writing it helped me condense these feelings into words and into song. It’s helped me realise my own needs more, which I know other people will relate to.
In the spirit of paying it forward, who are you listening to these days that you would recommend to our readers?
Essence Martins: My top five on-repeat songs right now are “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart” by Alicia Keys, “The Age of Worry” (the Yebba version), “Freedom” by Jordan Rakei, “Hospital” by Madison Cunningham, and “Cannock Chase” by Labi Siffre.
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:: stream/purchase Can We All Slow Down here ::
:: connect with Essence Martins here ::
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Stream: “Can We All Slow Down” – Essence Martins
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© Gabi Du Plessis 🖼️ © Aniella Weinberger
© Gabi Du Plessis
🖼️ © Aniella Weinberger
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