Creating the album was an intense process, only made more difficult by taking on the role of producer for the first time. Then I’ll take time for myself and my spirit,” she says, when asked about her time spent since releasing 2014’s The Golden Echo. “Release a record, and purge all that energy. There’s a running theme in Kimbra’s life. “I want to use raw aggression to tell my stories.” She suggests it comes with a sense of confrontationalism, a new energy she’s tapping into. It’s a warning”, says Kimbra when asked about the tone. There’s something raw and real about the beat, something that feels raw and dangerous. She’d released the exciting new single “ Top of the World”, which suggested a new era for Kimbra as an artist. When I got the chance to get on the phone with Kimbra, it was months before she’d release her new album Primal Heart.
It was Kimbra’s world and, for just a few minutes at a time, you got to live in it. You knew that nothing could possibly be so amazing and serene, but you could easily buy into the fantasy. The videos portrayed the world as picture-perfect, the melodies we’re upbeat and positive, and Kimbra’s voice was sugary sweet. What REALLY got me hooked the fantasy she could create. To add depth, she’d use voice modulators to bend notes and blur the lines between her a capella loops and backing electronic beats. She’d be the first artist I’d see use a looping pedal to layer her own voice, effectively making herself a one-woman choir. I’d quickly fall down the rabbit hole, listening to Vows in its entirety, then digging through YouTube for live performance videos.Ī big part of Kimbra’s appeal, to me, was watching Kimbra work live. It was a melody that would easily get stuck in your head, and it immediately started sneaking into every Spotify playlist I put together. To be completely honest, I wouldn’t think of Kimbra again until a few years later when the all-girls acapella group at my university would perform “ Settle Down”. I’d be a part of the majority, considering her a one-hit-wonder and leaving her at that. And sure, and I didn’t think to look up any of her other music until years later. Sure, the first time I’d heard of her was her 2012 duet “ Somebody That I Used to Know” with Gotye (which later went on to win her a few Grammy awards). Kimbra is an artist I’ve always considered to be criminally underrated.
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