Fourteen years after it was originally written and recorded, British-Trinidadian artist, producer and songwriter OD Hunte is finally releasing “They Don’t Lie” featuring British singer Ellis Mia.
The new single arrives on 2 October 2026 and is the second release from a forthcoming four-track OD Hunte EP, following the current single “Favorite Girl.”
But “They Don’t Lie” is anything but a new song.
A song brought back from 2012
“They Don’t Lie” was originally written in 2012 by OD Hunte and Jesse Appiah-Bediako, with Ellis Mia recording the vocal during the same period.
And then it sat there.
Like so many recordings that never quite find the right moment, the track remained unreleased for the next fourteen years.
In 2026, Hunte returned to the original sessions and decided it was finally time to bring the song out of the archives.
Rather than completely reinventing it, the aim was to preserve what worked about the original recording while bringing the production up to date.
The result keeps Ellis Mia’s original 2012 vocal performance at the centre of the record while introducing updated production, editing, mixing and mastering.
Retro soul with a modern finish
“They Don’t Lie” has a dreamy, soulful sound built around influences from 1960s soul and British retro-pop, with echoes of artists such as Amy Winehouse and Duffy.
There is something particularly fitting about releasing the track now.
The vocal was recorded in another era of Hunte’s career, while the finished 2026 production reflects where he is creatively today. That gives the record a character that would have been difficult to create deliberately from scratch.
It is simultaneously a new release and a musical time capsule.
OD Hunte featuring Ellis Mia
For Hunte, the release marks another chapter in a catalogue spanning more than two decades across R&B, soul, hip-hop, electronic music, pop and alternative production.
His previous production and songwriting work has included artists connected with names such as Emeli Sandé, Leona Lewis and Fleur East, alongside music used across television, streaming, gaming and other media.
More recently, Hunte has incorporated AI-assisted production techniques into his creative workflow, combining emerging technology with conventional songwriting, arranging, editing, mixing and production. He has used this approach most successfully with his AI-driven artist project Zayven Solaire, which has now generated more than 2 million streams, with the independent hit “We Said No Feelings” surpassing 1 million streams on Spotify alone, reaching 1,043,410 streams.
For “They Don’t Lie”, however, the origins of the recording go back long before the emergence of today’s generative AI music tools. Ellis Mia’s lead vocal is the original human performance recorded in 2012, with Hunte returning to the original material in 2026 to update the production, editing, mixing and mastering.
forthcoming four-track EP
“They Don’t Lie” follows “Favorite Girl” as the second single from the project, with the full four-track EP to follow.
The wider project revisits material from Hunte’s archives while bringing previously unreleased songs into a contemporary production environment.
Rather than treating the older recordings simply as catalogue material, Hunte has been approaching them as unfinished projects - retaining performances and ideas that still work while giving the songs the production treatment they never received when they were originally created.
“They Don’t Lie” is perhaps the clearest example of that idea so far.
A song written and recorded in 2012 will finally have its official release in 2026.
Listen to “They Don’t Lie”
OD Hunte ft. Ellis Mia - “They Don’t Lie” is released on 2 October 2026 through Southern Cuba Records and will be available on Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming platforms.
“They Don’t Lie” is the second single from the project, with the full four-track EP to follow.
Follow OD Hunte for forthcoming releases, behind-the-scenes material and updates on the new EP.