Songfacts®:

• "Embers" is a collaboration between the California-born singer Sola (Megan Sola-Guinto) and the British DJ Boom Dice, known for his production work on Stomzy's Gang Signs And Prayer album. Sola, who moved to the UK in 2014, told Songfacts the story: "The song came about because I was seriously scared and angry at the US and UK governments' responses to the pandemic. The first verse came as a freestyle to the track that Boom Dice sent over about how I felt during lockdown, feeling like I had to basically pretend like things were normal and keep moving forward while the whole world felt like it was falling apart. It all came to a head for me when my grandma caught COVID-19 in the start of 2021 and passed away — another avoidable COVID death. I was just bursting with grief and anger, and so I decided to use it and channel it into the rest of the song."
• Explaining how she connected with Boom Dice on this song, Solo said: "Boom Dice sent over some tracks, and I loved all of them really so I wrote a little topline to all of the tracks, but this one just stuck out to me. It had so much energy and attitude that jumped out at me right away so I just freestyled over the track, and we decided we really liked that topline in particular so we chose this track to run with. We got Hamish Barnes on board to work on developing the topline with me, I recorded the vocals myself in my home studio in Manchester, and then sent them to Boom Dice, and the rest is history!"
• The music video finds Sola watching disturbing news footage and burning a newspaper on the beach. "After seeing such an amazing response to the track so far, Boom Dice and I decided I should make a little music video so that's exactly what I did," she said. "I made the video with just me and my boyfriend, and we only had a very short window to make the video, but I wanted to capture the different emotions and experiences I had during this pandemic spent indoors, while expressing it in a bit more of a lighthearted way. Since we all already know the severity of the situation we all have found ourselves in, I wanted to show my personal discontent, anger, upset at the whole situation and the governments who have failed to protect people throughout the pandemic, like I do in the lyrics, but in a way that was more accessible to people through touches of levity.
  
  I incorporated short clips of different shows and media personalities — like Hasan Piker, The Majority Report, and David Pakman — that I've been watching during the pandemic to inform me and get me through it, to add an even more personal touch to the video too. I also wanted to show a bit of the reality of how many lives were lived during lockdowns, just day-by-day on the couch watching the world come undone on our screens."