Premiere: Gus White peers through a ‘Kitchen Window’
The English folk upstart explores a past relationship with his first single of 2019.
We see what we want to see. Whether it’s pain like we’ve never known or a romantic embrace that goes on far too long, we’re only humans trying to get by and come to greater understanding of self, interconnectivity and the meaning of life. Harvesting such musical touch points as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, Wiltshire native and folk crooner Gus White plucks his heartstrings as a way to seek out the mechanics of a long-dying relationship. With his new song “Kitchen Window,” premiering today, he lets the flood gates collapse under each striking blow of his lyrics, the pieces then cast into the oncoming emotional crash. “You were looking up to me / But I looked above / I was searching for meaning / And you were searching for love,” he sings, waltzing in fragile strokes through the sepia haze.
His lover emerges as only a ghost who circles back and forth in his mind, retracing pivotal moments which he only now can see clearly outlined. “I thought that if I showed you / I could change you, that was wrong / And now I see your face / Through my kitchen window,” he finally admits to himself, a rite he must perform to feel free once again. Co-written with Matthew Melly and Kristin McFadden, who lends vocals and gliding violin to the song, alongside other musicians Ed Cross (clarinet) and Madeline Ashman (cello), “Kitchen Window” is poetic surgery to the human consciousness. White digs his metaphorical scalpel into exposing each swollen tendon, and in allowing himself to really feel his own faults, he achieves true enlightenment. He can’t change the past, but he’s at least more equipped for whatever may come next.
On the song, he writes to B-Sides & Badlands over email, “This is a song about seeing someone that I was once very close to and realizing that they were better off without me,” he says. “It’s about coming to terms with forgotten regrets and for a brief moment, getting a glimpse of the bigger picture. It is my resolution in finally being able to accept this person for who they are, instead of who I wanted them to be.”
Following his studies at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University in Belfast, a tenure which also brought a wealth of musical adventures, White began hammering out his first project. 2017’s debut, the True Really Do Come Dreams EP, witnessed an admirable and monstrous claim to London’s local folk scene. But now, more adept at melodies and focusing his sweet melancholic tenor in sharper, more decisive rays, he rides the crest of a glorious wave of newcomers who are testing boundaries while cultivating the genre’s heart. White’s contributions can not be understated.
“Kitchen Window” is the beginning of a long string of singles expected this year.
Listen below:
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