Nemo Hinders Sasaki
Stockholm-based artist waterbaby's new song "Aiforce Blue" is situated in the emotional hinterland between a crush and something more. Thick layers of autotune do little to disguise the sweetness of her voice as she sings about first kisses and taking big risks. The overriding emotion is not excitement, but vulnerability. "Do you remember?" she asks her crush over the preppy beat, caught somewhere between synth pop and R&B, "Because I do."
Unrequited feelings stay that way as waterbaby arrives at "Airforce Blue"'s simple, but effective, chorus. “I still miss you” she sings over and over. By the time the track sleepily winds down to a halt all you hear is her voice repeating the same refrain. It stands in contrast to the bruised yet defiant energy that precedes it, neatly encompassing how feelings can stay the same even if time and surroundings change.
Marcus White, who who co-wrote "Airforce Blue" and directed the firework-filled video premiering below, explains more. "I wanted to capture the feeling of time passing and life going on even when you don’t want it to. 12 o clock at New Year’s is for me the time where you can’t deny if you’re missing something or someone in your life so it felt like the perfect moment to capture the essence of the song," he tells The FADER.
"Me and waterbaby have since we wrote the song envisioned it as bright bursts of blue lights on a dark sky so being in the woods while taking advantage of Stockholm’s collective New Year’s fireworks as background made perfect sense."