Naima Bock has previewed her upcoming record Below a Massive Dark Land with a new track, ‘Gentle’. Following earlier cuts ‘Kaley’ and ‘Further Away’, the song arrives with an accompanying video directed by Ellie Wintour and Sophie Lincoln. Watch and listen below.
“I’ve lived with this song for a couple of years,” Bock explained in a statement. “It’s a kind of copy and paste of different sections of my life, each verse is a different version of myself or situation I was in. None of them link in reality, but they fit together in this song, which leaves me with a sense of union and satisfaction. I would like to allow for the listener to take the lyrics in whatever way is relevant to them. I can say it’s my favourite song to play and one of my favourite songs that I’ve written. It means a lot to me.”
Ellie Wintour and Sophie Lincoln commented: “Our jumping off point for the video began with the lyrics ‘You want me to be gentle, fragile, you want me to stay young. I pray that I stay gentle, fragile, I pray that I stay.’ We developed Naima a character playing on femininity as facade, but also her sense of easygoing style. In using two-dimensional substitutes for three-dimensional objects – mixing worlds of the real and make-believe – we tried to play on the song’s themes of expectation, assigned roles, and conformity.”
Below a Massive Dark Land, the follow-up to 2022’s Giant Palm is set for release on September 27 via Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Naima Bock.
