Brazilian-English songwriter Naima Bock captivated with last November’s “30 Degrees” and today repeats the trick with a magnificent new single called “Every Morning”. She gives us some background to its creation, saying:
“I wrote this song whilst travelling, it was initially a stupid song about having some horrible eye infection and the chorus line was ‘itchy itchy eyes’. Then someone told me the melody was nice so I (naturally) reached into the barrel of neurosis and scooped out a gewey bunch of regret and nostalgia which resulted in the lyrics of ‘Every morning’. Since then, the only thing I’ve learnt is that people are the same. I’ve tried to stop lying but the white one slips out occasionally, I’ve tried to stop this too. Leaving people is also difficult, this song points to a very specific period in my life which consisted of tearing away from friends that I loved. It is not a song about romance, it is a song about the ending of friendships and how that can be just as much, if not more, painful. Producer Joel Burton wrote the beautiful outro melody in which we wanted to convey a sense of being at sea, alone but content.”
“Every Morning” begins with a call-and-response between Bock and a gang of harmonisers, and it sounds as if the harmonies are the sun’s rays penetrating the songwriter’s hidden truths. As the song stumbles on, Bock starts to unravel the truth about her having left behind friends and telling lies. As she reveals these truths, the song starts to shift more into focus, all the vocals conjoining in a glorious spectrum. “Every Morning” then floats onwards, buoyed by the levity of this admission, Bock somehow managing to imbue her words with equal parts relief and regret. As the song floats away on a whistled outro and electric piano chords, we can envision – exactly as she says – the songwriter at sea, alone, turning this lesson over and over in her mind.
Listen to the song below or on streaming platforms.
“Every Morning” is out on Sub Pop. With a debut album promised some time this year, make sure to keep track of Naima Bock on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
