PREMIERE | Nico Play, "Vivir Sin Ti"
A portrait of Nico Play’s Nic Perea; photographed by Jamie Langley.
The beauty at the heart of the popular art craft of musical poetics is an opportunity to express feelings that can hardly be exchanged through discourse on its own. The ability to mine through the most secured wells within the mind’s fortified walls, grand archives and labyrinthine catacombs in it and of itself is a daunting task. The skill to be able to wade into these tangled tributaries and excavate portraits of loss, create composite sketches of grief and sorrow only begins to approximate the empty spaces and voids that allude toward personal senses of bereavement. To take on concepts from first hand experiences of the almost incomprehensible is all part of the gifted ability to adapt and convey the many states of grappling with a loved one that is no longer there. It is the art of emulating that moment where time stands still. Where everything in one’s life is understood in terms of before and after the vanishing departure of someone for whom you cared and loved in ways that can barely be defined or directly transcribed. These difficult events and experiences can be harder to communicate, yet when channeled through the avenues of the sublime and sacred parts of the constitutions of our own personality sanctuary — these vignettes significantly cut us to the core with palettes of blistering and bold progressions and substance of unrelenting heart.
And just as Nico Play ushered in our summer with big brash power pop brushstrokes on their debut, the Richmond, Virginia pop phenom signals the forthcoming sea and leaf changes of fall with the grand unveiling of “Vivir Sin Ti”. Like the cool as ice deep hearted delivery of last July’s “Calling Your Bluff”, Nic Perea winds up the expressive and emotive dial to dire degrees of heart wrenching frequencies. Sung completely in Spanish, the guitar chords at their core recall the balladeers heard on Banda stations late night that sway with something of a radio romantica swoon that are carried dearly by the sky bird tear-streaked sadness of the synths. “Vivir Sin Ti” is a painful reminder of those that have imparted so much purpose and pride, influences that extend beyond the mortal conflicts and ceaseless conundrums. Nic broadcasts the meanings of life with and without someone, the deafening world shattering shrapnel of sudden silence in a tele novella paper back pulp that condenses the dramatic arc of a novel into a succinct pop track.
“Vivir Sin Ti” stands out a track fused from traditions and real life trajectories that stands alone as its own realized sense of styling. In many ways “Vivir” is a stunning and shining example of what can be classified in a category of its design as the Nico Play sound, sensibility and style. The Wes Parker video begins with the artist strumming the song's sentimental strings alongside choppy waters, the doorway of a barn to lounging about a sailboat, a rowboat to performing from a buoy. Nic and close friends are seen catching lobsters together, basking in the sunlit glow of camaraderie, kicking around a ball, hitting up a bodega to reflective moments aplenty. The motif of love and friendship factors in heavily throughout, juxtaposed with pensive moments that depict the artist in bed with their thoughts and feels, from Perea's visage seen reflected in a hazy mirror. Parker's visual illustrates life carrying on and forward, the specter of someone close's absence felt throughout all the activities from outdoor showers, games of dice, diving off of a pier, imbibing spirits with buds, building a bonfire, getting caught up in conversations to moments spent with thoughts, with heart and Nic's trusty acoustic. Parker's video represents the joy of good friends, family and company as the song itself grapples with a world experienced in the wake of breaking loss where it ends with Perea occupying an anchored float surrounded by expanses of water. "Vivir Sin Ti" is a passionate ode to life without and without those that make the biggest impacts on our lives, an examination of where we are in the face of circumstances that cannot be changed or reversed and the importance of support from trusted fellow peers and confidants. Nico Play sends us a message that life goes on, through hardships and tribulations that guide and direct our rafts toward new routes and destinations as those feelings and connective tissues linger on in the subliminal sections and nooks of our unconscious.
Front yard photo-ops of fancy with Nico Play; photographed by Becca Schwartz.
Nic Perea provided some candid meditations on the new track and visual:
"Vivir Sin Ti" is a love song. More specifically, it's about losing someone you love. Although at its core it’s a deeply personal (and frankly painful) song for me, I think there are also elements of acceptance and gratefulness. To me anyway, the song represents different stages of grief. The last of which — moving on — is the theme explored in the music video.
Nico Play’s new single “Vivir Sin Ti” is available now.