Kate Koenig ponders faith, love and other big topics in her latest single and video Young With Ancient Stories — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Plaintive, introspective, and sung from the point of view of the mythological creature Bʌfdɔg (Buff Dog), who’s existed as every person and at every time, Young with Ancient Stories is Bʌfdɔg’s soul-baring confession of spiritual disconnection and isolation. “Bʌfdɔg is singing both as a creature spiritually exhausted from experiencing a sun’s age of lifetimes and as a lost and lonely kid who feels cut off from the world,” explains Koenig.
Young With Ancient Stories is the second single and closing track from Koenig’s sophomore album Etemenanki, released in January. Every song on Etemenanki is sung either by Bʌfdɔg or from the perspective of individuals Bʌfdɔg has embodied. However, this song holds a particularly personal connection for the unique and inventive singer/songwriter. “Out of all of the songs on the album, the narration of this one comes the closest to coming from my own voice,” remarks Koenig. Just as Young With Ancient Stories features a stirring solo vocal and acoustic guitar performance by the Brooklyn artist, the video also was a solo endeavour. “I hauled all of my A/V equipment an hour and a half outside of N.Y.C. and spent an afternoon setting up and shooting.”
Koenig chose an ancient filming location very fitting for the song and album’s spiritual themes — Sleepy Hollow’s Church of the Magdalene, founded in 1894. “The church’s rustic vibe, given off by its vaulted ceiling with exposed beams and the russet mahogany wood surrounding the white marble and gold-adorned altar, made it the perfect setting for my songs, some of which reference antiquity,” recalls Koenig. However, it’s not a visual representation of her own beliefs. “While the video is set in a (liberal) Catholic church and features Catholic imagery, I identify as spiritual agnostic and have no ties to the Catholic Church.”
Themes of spirituality, infatuation, questioning and longing thread throughout Etemenanki, the follow up to Koenig’s 2019 debut album Haircuts for Barbers. “Many songs on the album blur the lines between romantic obsession and a longing for a spiritual connection with the inconceivable.” Watch Young With Ancient Stories above, listen to Etemenanki below, and learn more about Kate Koenig on her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
