Boombox Blitz: Kiyomi climbs out of darkness with a ‘High Ladder’
The alt-pop newcomer analyzes her working musician’s lifestyle as she begins to near the edge of glory.
Welcome to Boombox Blitz, an artist spotlight series showcasing overlooked singers, songwriters and musicians who are quietly taking over the world.
If you’re like most daydreamers, who have come to quickly discard archaic traditions, you’ve got stars trapped in your eyes. The mystical orbs cut out splendid visions of grand expeditions and various artistic endeavors into your cornea, invoking a license to suit up and go after those now-faint mirages of beauty. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to let go of all self-doubt and slip into one’s role as a torchbearer. Alt-pop newcomer Kiyomi, whose roots are forever replenished in the soils of Melbourne, Australia, upholds her position as a shape-shifting innovator, as clearly evidenced with her new music video “High Ladder.”
It’s a sterling, lush and altogether mesmerizing art-decor piece of self expression. Multi-ethnic (of Japanese and Maltese heritage), the sprightly, and angsty, performer harvests influences that range from Sia to Bjork, crawling her way through such extraordinary touch points to come to fully realize her own musical currency. “I wanna climb so high / I’m chasing moonlight,” she observes of a working musician’s life, the hardship of navigating a tumultuous and uneven industry. The companion visual (directed by J. Casey Modderno with Charlie Le Mindu as the esteemed creative chief) bends reality with fantastical metaphors, elusive images of hands seeking to suffocate the visionary from uncovering her destiny. But she manages to untether her body from such omniscient forces in the knick of time. Muted tones and angelic lighting swallow her whole; it works as both as a symbolic footprint of her general aesthetic and a grave, glorious, gutting anthem, carved into her skin for the rest of her existence.
“I wrote ‘High Ladder’ when chasing the dream was like chasing moonlight. It was a time of many closed doors and this song started to open them,” she says. “The song turned into a transpacific collaboration bouncing between LA and Australia, developing layer by layer. ‘High Ladder’ comes from my head and my heart, and I hope it resonates with other dreamers.”
“High Ladder” is only the beginning of her tale, one that will assuredly bring undeniable opulence back to pop music.
Watch below:
Photo Credit: Cassandra Church
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