Toronto-based singer/songwriter Kai has explained the powerful meaning behind the lyrics she wrote for Never Be Like You, her hugely popular collaboration with Aussie producer Flume. She annotated the entire song for Genius.com, and by doing so, has revealed the innermost thoughts and feelings that inspired her lyrics.
Collaborations with Jack Ü, Adventure Club and Canadian producer Hunter Siegel have cemented Kai’s reputation for soaring vocals and captivating lyrics, very much on the trend of female vocalists carrying catchy club beats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KPnyf8vwXI
The song is about the Kai becoming distracted by another while in a relationship, but inevitably finding that distractions are fleeting, and not worth the pain of losing someone you love. This person may be captivating and new but they’ll ‘never be like you.’
“What would I do to take away this fear of being loved, allegiance to the pain. Now I’m fucked up and I’m missin ya. Never be like you.”
Kai: “I question things a lot and sometimes that leads me to self-sabotage, and to be in denial about the opportunity of happiness in front of my own eyes.”
“I would give anything to change this fickle minded heart that loves fake shiny things”
Kai: “Relationships are like everything in life, just because you’re deeply in love with a person it doesn’t stop you from being blinded momentarily by someone else. It’s trying to recognize that trait and fight that instinct that I’m getting at here.”
“I’m only human can’t you see I made, I made a mistake. Please just look me in my face and tell me everything’s okay cause I got it. He’ll never be like you”
To tie in with shows in London, Paris and Belgium over the next few days, today saw Flume jumping onto Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 Show to talk and demonstrate his ever evolving live performances, and his second, highly anticipated album, Skin.
Before getting stuck in, Annie quizzes Flume on his live performances, which he says involves a keyboard and APC40. Following on from a live rendition of Never Be Like You featuring Kai on vocals in studio, he also played a few cords to demonstrate how it sounds solo. Never Be Like You live is as you’d expect; impeccable, with Annie commenting that it sounds exactly like it does on the record. That’s only before we got another look at a track Flume has only thus far played in his Laneway sets, currently untitled.
It’s dark, slow and brooding, with some really thick synths coming in to pick it up about halfway through. Kučka is back on vocals, with her and Flume thus far being a winning combination, and her voice getting deeply manipulated alongside some spacey vocal samples. It’s a seriously slow burner, maybe some of the darkest stuff we’ve heard from Flume – but it’s seriously sick stuff. Annie took some name suggestions from the audience as well, with “Synth”, “The Fly”, “Bamboo Chime”, and “Underhand Emotions” being some of the ones that got a mention, but not particularly tickling Flume’s fancy.
He and Annie spoke more about Skin’s direction, with Harley again coming back to the idea of it as headphone music rather than festival bangers – “I kind of started this project and decided that most of it would be headphone music stuff, so when I do see people going nuts at festivals it’s kind of crazy.” He also mentioned how his live show has changed, with a new deck and visuals for his upcoming shows. Finally, they finished with a cover of Canadian Alessia Cara’s Here, with beautiful stuff happening between Kučka and Kai over some swelling synths.
Check the stream out here
Doing tonnes of shows in the coming months over Europe and the U.S, as well as wowing audiences at Laneway last month, no doubt there’ll be plenty more to hear from Australia’s greatest electronic export. Keep it locked here to stay up to date.
Photo:BBC1