PREMIERE | Sound of Kalima, "Did It Again"

Sound of Kalima’s Pete & Sal; press photo courtesy of the artists.

Those attentive and privy to the world of arts and activism know that there is something special about the Pacific Northwest. A gravitational pull that inspires the youth to create and question the powers that be in a corner of the world consumed with rich earth, heavenly bodies of oceanic water, nourishing rains and the fires of physical/spiritual renewal. These are the places were styles became advanced and evolved, conventions become challenged and altered as the new wine proves to be a new eclectic variety — too wild for the old bottles. From acts of protest to re-fashioning popular constructs; the PNW provides a glimpse of facilitating new dialogues between the new progressives and an ever-changing world.

Focusing on Vancouver's Sound of Kalima we find a full immersion into a surreal stew of sense and sensibilities. Blending the hip punk dance with yacht pop smooth blues and rhythms; the duo of Pete & Sal command organic syntheses and fusions from a chemistry that has carried over from their collegiate days years back at University of British Columbia. The two take the kind of energy caught on a whim by way of demo reels and present us with a product of polished genre/style-spliced amalgamations with a shambolic spin and twist.

On the debut of “Did It Again”, Sound of Kalima take a deep dive into weird and wondrous illustrations of isolation, intrigue and introspection. Answering the question of what a new Television Personalities single would sound like in 2020 — Pete and Sal blast apart the no-wave conceits with rock skipping lyrics about brushes with the fuzz, communication breakdowns and lamentations that hazily recall the repeated altered states of confusions. The titular chorus refrain is the glue that brings together the should-I-stay-or-should-I-go aesthetics with passionate adult contemporary overtures that implode over a Gucci’d out hip hop back-beat rhythmic postlude. “Did It Again” is a delightfully and welcomed off-kilter take on our alliterative existence that desires dialogues that advance conversations, a better relationship with ourselves and others and breaking out of the antiquated systemic patriarchal authoritarian stronghold that has overstayed its use and relevance.

Pete and Sal introduced us to the song with the following:

The song questions authority figures and their hypocritical nature, while considering that they’re not entirely to blame. Absolute power corrupts absolutely — and that's an absolute.

Pete and Sal from Sound of Kalima described to us the making of “Did It Again”:

Pete:

Sal and I first came up with the initial bones of “Did It Again” during an impromptu jam February of last year.  Like most weekends, Sal woke up before me, waltzed into my room with his guitar and started fucking about. I dragged myself out of bed, luckily I keep my keys right next to my bed so I didn’t have far to go, hit play on a drum loop and loaded up some keys. Sal started singing a melody and lyric idea, I did it again, oh! I did it again, oooh! and the vibe was born. 

Sal:

“Did it Again” is a song which came out of a little acoustic guitar and piano that started somewhere else totally different lyrically. It started in some sad and sorry place. But we wrote the chorus which is still in the song.

A few months later, I picked up the guitar again to just write around the chorus we had and lyrics about mental health and authority figures started coming out. They are a little bit tongue in cheek. Its kinda jokey and then also serious.

I think the instrumental is more important in driving the feeling of the song than the lyrics because it's bouncy but still hard edged-ish. We liked the idea of using sampled hip hop drums with punkier guitars and melody to hopefully represent that we are hip hop producers in the end but with a bit of punk. All in all; kinda fun, kinda serious and kinda dumb.