Deep dives into the world of the sophomore album by alayna Set Her Free
Tender Hearts Club:
Deep Cuts
SET HER FREE: THE IMMERSIVE ART GALLERY EXPERIENCE
Alayna is not just releasing an album — she is building a world.
With The Set Her Free Immersive Gallery Experience, she expanded her creative language beyond sound and into physical space, inviting audiences to experience her work through art, stillness, and presence.
In this Deep Cut, we spoke with Alayna to unpack the emotional architecture of the gallery, the symbolism woven throughout, and why immersive storytelling is central to her artistic evolution.
Creative Vision & Conceptual World
What was your vision behind the Set Her Free - Immersive Art Gallery Experience?
Art exists tangibly
:
“Softly captures the quiet recognition, from a woman’s perspective, that no single person can be everything for us
and the powerful realisation of the fullness we seek in love may already be present in the women who walk beside us.”
Artistry, Symbolism & Feminine Energy
There’s a quiet power in the way the women move - how did you find that balance between stillness and strength?
Laila: It was important for us to find the balance of connecting pivotal moments of Softly to the symbols and visual cues hinted across the other visuals and also creating a work that held its own space and emotional rhythm. Every video for Set Her Free carries a piece of Alayna’s evolution and Softly is where we found that evolution to hold for a moment on grace.
“They never fully occupy the frame for long because we wanted their presence to be symbolic of the women who hold us when we forget how to hold ourselves, or the women who uplift us.”
“They exist as both memory and mirror and their subtlety is intentional, powerful and without spectacle.”
What visual metaphors were most important to you when crafting this story?
Laila: Alayna’s performance truly sits at the centre of it all. The visuals don’t tell a linear story but instead bring to life a series of conceptual visual metaphors with Alayna as both the observer and the vessel. We didn’t want Alayna to act or portray a character but we wanted it to be about embodying her message and allowing her body, presence and voice to translate the emotion as the world around her showed up to support.
The sisterhood is shown sparingly in glimpses and gestures. A hand, a passing touch, a confident gaze. They never fully occupy the frame for long because we wanted their presence to be symbolic of the women who hold us when we forget how to hold ourselves, or the women who uplift us. They exist as both memory and mirror and their subtlety is intentional, powerful and without spectacle.
Nature too is not just a setting - it is a character. Like sisterhood, it offers a consistent presence: it does not rush or rescue, but it holds, it grounds and it runs free. It’s the silent witness to transformation, reminding us that feminine power exists in many forms or is an extension of ourselves.
Ripples & Spirals truly are the symbolic throughline of Set Her Free. They appear throughout the body of work - sometimes overtly and sometimes hidden in form or movement. They’ve taken different shape and portrayals across previous music videos but in Softly we wanted to carry this through the camera movement and how the viewer is the spiral as we view alayna while orbiting her, or the sisterhood creating this invisible thread of energy. Even the landscape carries these marks with spiral imprints on the sand or rocks so that we could symbolically suggest the regeneration, unity and the unending rhythm of womanhood.
Softly is ultimately less about what we see and more about what we feel. It’s a meditation on connection, love and the gentle power that comes when women remember and return to each other.
“Softly is ultimately less about what we see and more about what we feel.
It’s a meditation on connection, love and the gentle power that comes when women remember and return to each other.”
Connection & Emotion
How did you want the viewer to feel after watching Softly?
Laila: We wanted the viewer to leave with a sense of quiet recognition that love in its truest form isn’t always loud or all-consuming. The truth we hoped to capture is that connection doesn’t need to declare itself to be powerful and it can live in tenderness and presence.
What truth about love or connection do you hope people recognise in these visuals?
Laila: We wanted the visuals to hold the duality of being deeply personal yet universally resonant. We build that balance by keeping the camera close to Alayna in moments of introspection, then letting it breathe and expand outwards when we see more visual context in the wider shots as if the natural world itself were exhaling alongside Alayna.
How did you direct the emotional pacing, the “breathing” of the video, to mirror the song?
Laila: We wanted the video to feel like it was breathing with the song and so we kept the pace meditative without losing its energy. As the song progresses, the cuts move quicker to build on the intensity but we didn’t want it to lose the essence and synergy with Alayna and her performance and role in it.
“The truth we hoped to capture is that connection doesn’t need to declare itself to be powerful and it can live in tenderness and presence.”
Process, Collaboration & Spirit
What conversations between us shaped the emotional core of this video?
Laila: We had many conversations with Alayna and team to really ensure that we understood the meaning and power of the song and the settings that would be the canvas for its truth. Ultimately, there’s a feeling we heard in the music and production but also a beautiful message we interpreted lyrically. We coupled this feeling with the key symbols that Alayna felt would truly represent this and together created an introspective visual to carry the messaging.
What does this project reveal about your own creative language or values as directors?
Laila: It was one part to visualise and imagine how the finished product would look but it’s also important for us to go into any shoot day with a little room for flexibility. For this particular shoot, Mother Nature was the final collaborator on bringing Softly to life. The weather, tides, terrain, and access all contributed to the final product. It really taught us to lean in to what the external forces were saying and to let it be the guide for where to be and how to respectfully show up. In trusting the process we were able to pivot from initial plans and still leave with a beautiful visual to hold this story.
“Mother Nature was the final collaborator on bringing Softly to life. The weather, tides, terrain, and access all contributed to the final product.”
“It really taught us to lean in to what the external forces were saying and to let it be the guide for where to be and how to respectfully show up.”
Reflective / World-Building
Why did you feel called to tell this story?
Laila: In a world that so often centres romantic love, Softly felt like an opportunity to reframe what a love story can be. The love of one's self and sisterhood is often the ‘extra’ or supporting character but rarely the main story. The irony in that, is that it’s probably the most universal form of love there is. At least half the world could relate to Softly in some way, whether it’s a mother’s love, a sister’s love, a friend or mentor, etc. There’s always someone who’s offered that safeness and the kind of love that steadies us in our hardest moments, even if we don’t realise it in the moment.
What would you say this video teaches us?
Laila: I think Softly teaches us something about how women love, hold and heal and it’s not dramatic but it’s deeply transformative. In Softly we see that each woman in the video represents her own unique element and if you think deeper about that, we can liken it to a quality, a character trait or superpower. My hope is that Softly expands how people see love and connect to even their most quiet heroes but to also recognise ourselves in that role for someone else.
“The love of one's self and sisterhood is often the ‘extra’ or supporting character but rarely the main story.
The irony in that, is that it’s probably the most universal form of love there is.”
“My hope is that Softly expands how people see love and connect to even their most quiet heroes,
but to also recognise ourselves in that role for someone else. ”
Tender Hearts Club: Deep Cuts - A conversation with Laila Ben-Brahim from Westall Road.
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watch the official music video for softly - produced, directed
& filmed by westall road
Dive into the world of alayna’s upcoming album
Set Her Free
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Created by Westall Road
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alayna’s sophomore album set to release on February 13th, 2026
The journey to
set her free
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