Kingsley Flood
Kingsley Flood prepares to release their album Another Other October 14 & were kind enough to present us with the world premiere for “A Ways Away”. Frontman Naseem Khuri draws upon his own Palestinian American heritage where illustrations of identity and being caught between different worlds & ideologies is met with a triumphant sound. Featuring production from Paul Kolderie, Khuri dishes out statements of the statements on how the world functions with a shrugged smiled of a world that might be screwed—but still far from being totally devoid of hope & happiness.
“A Ways Away” brings about a kind of old timey saloon piano that leads all the action alongside Naseem’s sardonic delivery. “Everyone’s up & arms, how can you be so calm,” along with many lyrics like it depict series of paradoxes that are hinged around the dive bar sing-a-long of “we’ll all be back tomorrow” that makes a sly comment on the circular reasoning that passes in society as progress. Kingsley Flood illustrates the kind of complacency that occurs in the face of injustices or unsettling observation as being something as common as an old traditional bar room brawl & bawl song that is the perfect single to swing a pint (or two, or three, or four) to while having a good sob in your beer.
Naseem Khuri shared with us some thoughts on the inspirations & stories behind the song, “A Ways Away” with the following exclusive insights:
I wrote this song with that famous scene from ‘Heat’ in mind: De Niro the thief and Pacino the cop finally meet in the bar. They both conclude that meeting effectively with “That’s just what we do” and I took that idea and applied it to the issues I’m talking about: privilege, race, etc. There are so many systems in place that keep perpetuating the same trends and allow us to excuse ourselves from making change by simply saying “that’s just what we do.”
And, I just really wanted a song with timpani in it. It’s one of those rare songs I wrote when i had been drinking. Basically, I stumbled over to a piano and played that part, which, not surprisingly given my condition, was only three chords. So this is our society is screwed! drinking song. Dedicated to Tom Waits of course. Raise your glass and stumble into shit.
Kingsley Flood’s Another Other will be available October 14.
