NAKED ENDS AND PASSION COMES ALIVE

 NAKED ENDS

WHERE PASSION AND TALENT COLLIDE

By RubySage

7 August 2026

I was happily engulfed in the comfort of music mixed with jovial enthusiasm, riffs and laughter at the regular open mic night  I used to host.  Full of excitement and anticipation as to what the evening would hold, with familiar faces and a few new musos taking to the stage, when I my attention was drawn to the direction of bar counter.  Sitting alone at the bar, nursing a glass of red wine was a lady whom I had not had the pleasure of meeting yet.  So I got myself my usual shot of tequilla, sat down next to her and that was the start of a beautiful friendship. 

She told me her name is Felicia and is a singer/songwriter and front lady to her band, Naked Ends.  We started talking…..and now, today… 2 years later we still have not stopped talking, while she still nurses her glass of red wine and I my tequilla. 
It wasn’t long before I came to call this beautiful earth angel my soul sister - a better than best friend  any girl could ever ask for.  

Listening to her sing…watching her dance as she absorbs the music, is a 'true life' story, in a manner of speaking.  What you see onstage is what you get offstage aswell…and so much more.  

I am thrilled and incredibly proud to announce that MY bestie, confidant and ‘ride or die’ girl, Felicia, will be on my stage once again as she performs at Ruby Fest this year.   
Keeping all this awesomeness to myself is just, straight up, criminal …it's time that I shared some of this magnificent muo’s magic with you! 

 And in lui of this, I decided to have a little Q&A with her.. If there is one 'muso of the moment' to keep an eye out for, its this soul sister of mine with the angelic voice.  Read on to learn more.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself… Who are you on and off the stage?
A: On stage I am the vocalist, the muse, the walking movie; because everything I do is cinematic and moody…Offstage I am a writer, novelist to be precise; and poet.

 
Q: Tell us about your music journey. When did you start writing songs/ making music, and why.
A: I have been a musician since I was old enough to talk. I started writing when I was six years old, just short verses of lullabies that turned into songs. I loved the way music was basically short stories but with sound, so as a movie writer I knew I wanted to create those kinds of stories. I honestly didn’t think I would go into music as a full-fledged carrier until I met my band Brian and Louie during covid, they were looking for a singer to collaborate on a few tracks, and it sort of stuck; we formed out band three years later. 

Q: How and when was NAKED ENDS formed? 

A: We met during covid, when I go stuck there visiting family. When I relocated back, to Johannesburg we made a schedule to meet up every two weeks on Easter and December to new year holidays. We are so well integrated with each other that each meet up has created a vault of music just waiting to be released. So all I do now is pick and they prep. It works seamlessly, thank God!
 
Q:  What genre would you classify, your music as? What is your vibe?
A: Cinematic Pop or Baroque Pop is how we define out sound; a blend of Indie Pop and RnB and old school Pop music that meld in a movie score-like blend birthing the pretty babies you hear.

Q:  Do you work full time as well as being a musician? Tell us how you maintain a balance and how do you stay motivated?
A: I do actually, I work at a panel beater; customer service, full time. It means my time is very slim, but I manage to fit my music in every space I have, which can be hectic, but I like challenges, they stimulate my writing skills.

Q: How do you feel the Internet/AI has impacted the music business?
A: I would say that the internet has made it more access for artists to stream and share their music, which is a gift because there is no red tape, or gate keeping, though it has created a vortex of mound that has created fatigue when it comes to what people want to hear or what they like these days, but its still better than waiting ten years to release music, or hoping that the airwaves have your kind of music taste. As for AI…well, I’m like a garden fairy, so the idea of it bites, human error made music is the best sound that can ever exist, AI can’t replace that.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from to write your songs?
A: God, life, and old lovers, of course. I find I’m the cliché that often eds up having a muse, be it God, or a lover, if someone engages my interest in a way that creates a story with a sound in my head, then I will muse them. But my most consistent muse has always been myself and my life, which is a story that can’t be made up, even if I tried.

Q: Which famous musicians do you admire?
A: Florance Welch and Lorde, and Lana Del Rey, they are so brave and unapologetic, especially in an industry that keeps woman silent or stagnant in, they push themselves to be better and reinvent themselves, when necessary, without losing their core sound, its aspirational, and paves the way for girls that sound like me.

Q: What is the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?
A: The most trouble I ever got into was on a dare; my sister dared me to flip of a passing car, I did, and for a while too, with lots of drivers, but one of them decided to turn around and slap the living daylight out of me, and my sister to boot. In front of my mother. It was a fine day to be 16.

Q: What is your absolute favorite sound that is entirely unrelated to music?
A: The sound of rain; its like being inside a movie, while being cuddled to death. I absolutely love it.

Q: If your instrument suddenly developed the ability to talk, what is the very first complaint it would make about you?
A: “I am not for biting, I’m for writing!”

Q: What is the most spectacularly useless real-world talent you possess that nobody would ever guess?
A: I can look cross my eyes sideways and inwards simultaneously

Q: What is a piece of advice another musician gave you that you completely ignored, only to realize years later that they were actually right?
A: Don’t scream, it doesn’t make you sound better

Q: Share one awkward fact or embarrassing moment
A: I walked around once with mud on my ass while wearing white pants; you know exactly what it looked like…

Q: Tell us about your own originals released.
A: There is the EP Mended Dreams, which was released a little bit after covid, its what we call the kitchen sink era. We were trying to see how we fit together, and the guys wanted to know my skills, so they gave me every genre they could think of at the time to see how I would fare. As it were, it’s what made them fall in love with me.

Q: Which one of your own songs /albums is your favorite, and why?
A: Love Me Then Die, its my favorite song from the Cruel Love EP. It was the first song in our kitchen sink writing era that revealed exactly what kind of sound fit me like a glove. I call it the sexy song, the beat is so sick, it’s still to this day my favorite song to perform live.

Q: If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
A: How we get paid in streams. The money should go directly to the artist, especially independent artists.

Q: Share some bragging rights / Aha moments
A: The moment I decided to let loose and dance on stage, it was risky, the guys thought I should focus on my voice, because its so powerful, but I really wanted to show what my music feels like, when I finally did it, attention it the music’s intricacies was paid in a way that made me giggle like a little girl.

Q: Any pearls of wisdom for new, upcoming artists?
A: Be exactly who you are as if it’s a façade, so that your won’t be afraid.

Q: What can we look forward to in the near future in terms of Upcoming shows/albums/ projects?
A: There are a few singles on the works, I don’t want to give dates just yet, it’s a surprise. But we are cooking, its going to be fun and light, paving the way for the dark and thoughtful, as per Naked Ends style.

Q:. Where can we find you and your music (band social and streaming platforms and links)
A: you can find us on Instagram as @nakedends, and Spotify as Naked Ends, for both our before and after kitchen sink era.

Q: How did you come up with the name NAKED ENDS?
A:  We are actually named after a line from one of our songs. After a long night of writing, and two days of trying to figure out what we wanted to call ourselves, during a late night writing and recording session of one of our songs, *Still Be Friends* - yet to be released- the line _"when naked ends we will still be friends"_ stood out as particularly bitchy or cunt, if you will, for my writing style, but after laughing at the diabolical nature of such a request, we all looked at each other and said out loud. _Naked Ends,_, and it was done.

Catch the full review here: https://musiciansdomain.com/activity/p/8298/