I have a sister. And look, we’re close—we share clothes, we share secrets. But making music together? That’s a different level of exposed because your sister knows everything. She’s seen you cry over stupid shit, knows your patterns, and watched you make the same mistakes over and over. There’s nowhere to hide when you’re creating with someone who’s witnessed your entire journey and Sierissa gets this. Her debut single ‘Be Your Baby’ was written and performed with her younger sister Guenevere Soemakno, and you can hear that trust woven through every single moment of this track.
Okay so first of all, this song is sexy as hell. Not in the obvious way where someone’s trying too hard to be seductive. It’s sexy in the way confidence is sexy. The way patience is sexy. The production has this slow-burn groove that makes you want use those dance moves you and your sis used to hide from your mom. It’s dance-pop, sure, but there’s actual soul underneath. The kind that makes you dim the lights and pour another drink.
Sierissa is working at this intersection of soft and sharp that I’m fucking obsessed with. The Netherlands, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Southern California—she’s lived everywhere. That whole journey shows up in how this song moves. There’s East meeting West in the production, this blend of tradition and experimentation that feels completely her own. She started writing music at fourteen. Fourteen. A school project turned into the thing she couldn’t stop doing. Songwriting and poetry became her way to work through all the messy shit we don’t always have words for. She’s been challenging the patriarchy through music since she was a teenager which is pretty fucking cool.
The song opens with “Rain falls on land that died last summer / Guess it came just a little too late.” We’re talking about drought. About timing that’s completely fucked. You know that feeling when you finally get your shit together but the other person is already gone, when the rain shows up but everything’s already dead? Yeah. That’s where we are. “This drought’s been pulling the whole town under / Am I the only one who made a mistake?”
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“You know I never meant to push you away” is every apology you’ve ever rehearsed in the shower for three weeks before finally saying it. Then she admits “I can get over-excited, can’t help it / All this waiting’s got me faded.” Real talk? I felt that. Sometimes you come on too strong. Sometimes the waiting dulls everything. But then—and this is where it gets interesting—she adds “(I think I kinda like it).”
That parenthetical? Holy shit. She’s admitting she likes the anticipation. The buildup. The tension before anything actually happens. We don’t talk about that enough—how sometimes the wanting is as good as the having.
The chorus is where things get physical and I mean that in every sense. “Gotta wait for you baby drop by drop / Gotta drive to you baby stop by stop / Gotta take it step by step / To be your baby.” The repetition here does something to you. It mimics what she’s describing—the slow accumulation. The deliberate pace. Building it. Feeling every single moment as it comes.
Then “Gotta drink you up baby cup by cup / Gotta fill you up with all my love.” Okay pause. The imagery of drinking, of filling, of consuming and being consumed? That’s intimacy. That’s the kind of connection that takes time and intention. You can’t rush that shit.
The bridge is where she really lets it out. “I can’t fight this fight on my own babe / Make it right I’m feeling so lonely / Hold me tight and don’t you let go babe / Give me life when you say you love me.” She’s asking for what she needs. Directly. No games. Most of us would rather die than do that.
Then comes the part that makes me want to shake someone. “Ain’t no going back I’m addicted / I’m all good so why you conflicted? / Doing all this finish what we started.” She’s ALL IN. She’s admitted she’s addicted. She’s ready. She’s doing the work. And he’s over there being conflicted about it. That frustration? You can hear it. She’s ready to finish what they started and he needs to catch the fuck up.
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Sierissa cites Kali Uchis, PinkPantheress, and Clairo as influences and honestly you can hear it. That Kali Uchis sensuality in how the production moves. The PinkPantheress efficiency—nothing wasted, every line doing work. The Clairo emotional honesty that doesn’t hide behind metaphors. But Sierissa and Guenevere aren’t copying anyone. They took those influences and made something that sounds completely theirs.
‘Be Your Baby’ is the first track off her debut EP, ‘To Whom It May Concern,’ six songs of pop and dreamy R&B. She’s got a Master’s in Arts & Society and you can tell she’s put a lot of thought into she’s making. She talks about building a sanctuary for softness, for healing, for taking back what’s yours. Sounds intense, but when you listen, it just feels real.
Here’s what gets me about this song. Most dance-pop wants instant heat. Instant gratification. Sierissa is interested in the slow burn. The accumulation. Taking it drop by drop, stop by stop, step by step. There’s no expectation of instant gratification here. These girls aren’t snapping their fingers and getting what they want. They’re making music about patience. About the work it takes to actually be someone’s person.
And doing this with Guenevere? That sibling collaboration brings something you can’t fake. There’s a warmth here. A trust, and you can feel it in how the song breathes, in how the layers build on each other.
‘Be Your Baby’ feels like the start of something I want to follow. Sierissa and Guenevere made something here that’s intimate without being small, confident without being cocky, sexy without screaming about it. And I’m already hooked.
