tan sholto shares the beautiful, atmospheric and emotive new EP christine.
Bringing together elements of Billie Marten, Daughter, Phoebe Bridgers with moments of 90s acoustic rock akin to Alanis Morissette, the Ep showcases the potential sholto posses with some radiant songwriting and a honest, heartfelt sincerity.
Across its five songs, the South-African singer-songwriter traces the evolving relationship between a single mother and her child, a story shaped by misunderstandings, quiet tenderness, unspoken fears, and the friction that naturally emerges as both parent and child navigate change. Rather than presenting a single moment in time, the EP unfolds like a series of emotional snapshots, each track capturing a different stage in that evolution.
Musically, the project is carried by some stunning musicality, from acoustic stripped to tracks to others which bring a gentle, ebbing and flowing more full band sound such as the stand out track ‘honey’ which grows around picked electric guitars, subtle drums and warming bass which bubble under the elegant, floating lead voclas.
At its core, Christine is a tribute: “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.”
The emotional honesty that runs through Christine reflects Sholto’s wider artistic identity. Her music often embraces stillness and restraint, offering listeners a quiet place to pause and reflect. With a style defined by grace, subtlety, and emotional depth, the past year has seen growing momentum around Sholto’s work — momentum that suggests even greater recognition may be on the horizon as 2026 unfolds.