Naomi Kavka makes a powerful emotional connection on her urgent, wiry new single Landline — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
A preview of the B.C. singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s upcoming album Then & Now, Landline is really more of a musical party line, with indie-pop, noise-rock, shoegaze, art-rock and even vintage new wave influences getting their wires crossed in a knotty tangle of crackling, throbbing energy. The drums insistently tap out a chugging eighth-note pulse that ebbs and flows in and out of phase. Umpteen guitars chime and ring and crunch and howl and growl like an old modem on its last legs. And at the center of the bittersweetly swirly sonic cyclone stands Kavka, darkly and dreamily crooning about obsessively hoarding change for a long-distance call that she simultaneously dreads but is determined to make.
“I started writing this song in 2010,” Kavka recalls. “I was living in Victoria, and got rid of my cell phone for a landline. I was young and didn’t know any better so I was in a long-distance relationship and often fought with my partner over the phone. I’d save coins to make calls from the payphone at the conservatory, and always felt awful when I’d be asked for change as I walked downtown, knowing I’d be saving them to likely get in an inane fight with my partner. I finished it in 2022, combining another unfinished song I had written after that relationship had ended, rounding out the chorus and changing it from a plodding folk song to a driven indie-rock anthem.”
Based in Smithers, B.C., Kavka is a classically trained cellist, vocalist, and guitar player who brings a myriad of influences to her songs, forming a daring sound that is musically polished, lyrically visceral, and emotionally raw. Her songs come from the unique perspective of a queer woman, a child of a refugee, a resident of the precipice of the wilderness of Canada.
Kavka’s band — Geoff McFarlane (Handsome Eli), Ian Olmstead (Alex Cuba), Jake Jenne (Aerialists) and Jordy Walker — deftly support her as they perform deeply intimate, political, and cathartic songs. Brought together by soundscapes and camaraderie, they blend their backgrounds of jazz, classical music, folk traditions and rock to communicate complex emotional landscapes. Due in June, Then And Now is a collection of eight songs produced by Walker. Ranging from driving indie jams, melancholic ballads, snarky anthems, and art-rock improvisations, Then And Now demonstrates Kavka’s fearlessness and range as a performer and songwriter.
Check out Landline above, hear more from Naomi Kavka below, and connect with her on her website, Facebook and Instagram.
