Written seven years ago, ‘I Met A Girl’ is a smooth and nostalgic ode to someone special. For Soul, it’s also a conversation with his younger self.
“‘I Met a Girl’ is more than a love song. It is the beginning of a story that started years ago – with a young boy in cancer treatment, who found hope through songwriting,” explains Soul.
The song pairs Soul’s signature ‘island vibes’ with Austin Xavier’s silky vocals – creating a symphony of sweetness, which hooks the listener in from the very first note.
‘I Met A Girl’ marks an important moment in Soul’s journey. It is the first song from an upcoming project, built around music the artist wrote when he was younger – giving these unheard songs a second chance to be heard.
“As a child undergoing cancer treatment, songwriting became a way to escape hospital walls, process emotions and imagine a future beyond them. If I could sit beside that young boy today, I know exactly what he would say – ‘Relax, young fella… I’ve got you’.”
Growing up in South Auckland. Soul was heavily influenced by the harmony-rich R&B of the 1990s, but movies and musicals shaped him just as deeply. He loved the moments when characters stopped talking and started singing – the moments when emotion became too big for ordinary dialogue. That became the inspiration for ‘I Met a Girl’.
Soul imagined himself standing on a stage opposite the woman he was singing about, as though they were characters in a musical. The verses feel like a conversation. Then the chorus explodes into a declaration.
“I wanted it to feel like if I met the girl I’d been dreaming about, I’d want to stand on top of Auckland’s Sky Tower and tell the whole city: ‘I met a girl.’”
Soul has always been surrounded by the vibrancy of the Pasifika cultures that flood Manukau. Born into a family that exposed him to eclectic genres, he has made his mark in Aotearoa’s music scene by blending Pacific flavour with Latino heat – as witnessed on his
hugely successful EP ALL OF MY LOVE (2023). The EP has clocked up 1M streams on Spotify alone and contains the hits ‘All Of My Love’, ‘Fire’ and ‘Weekends’.
Now Soul is inviting listeners on a new journey. “It isn’t simply about looking backwards. It’s about what happens when old dreams finally meet the person you’ve become.”
