REVIEW & INTERVIEW: KIPANI “NEVER BE”
Surrounded by the immersive soundscape, Kipani’s voice floats in between the waves of melancholy undertone, letting the up and downs in nature take her to the unknown. “Never Be” describes a sense of overwhelmingness and loss in time and space after something drastic. It enters the state of feeling nothing and everything. A sense of hope evolves in the wind, although nothing could ever be the same.
“At the time I was dealing with a sudden loss, I put onto paper what that felt like for me: ‘hit me like a freight train,’” said Kipani, “It was the initial shock, then came the realization that all these things you once had and knew would cease to exist and ‘never be’ again.”
To capture that feeling, Kipani had the vision to bring forth the complex emotions and experience with synth strings and progressive chords aside from her usual choice of piano. “I knew I wanted layers of synth to drive home the intended feeling of being uplifted, hopeful, and melancholy all at the same time,” Kipani commented, “I felt like it evoked the right mood for this particular listening experience.”
Initially taken by Kipani’s mother in Hawaii, the image of “ocean” in the cover art adds another layer of meaning to “Never Be,” reflecting and completing the song itself. “To me, the ocean embodies the feeling I had while writing ‘Never Be’ in so many ways,” she said, “the vastness of it and the unknown is much like death itself. The tides are symbolic to me in relation to the rollercoaster of emotions we feel as human beings, especially during hard times. It is also a symbol of peace and calmness, which is how I felt after writing. I came to terms of how life will continue to be a mess sometimes, but in the end, it will be okay.”
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