Singled Out: Sound Of Kalima's Destroy U

Keavin Wiggins | 12-20-2020

Sound Of Kalima recently released their new single "Destroy U", which has been dubbed their "Bond Song". To celebrate we have asked JD Lennox to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

Have you ever taken drugs and had a party in your head? What if that party was filled with people that represent the worst things about you? What if you got so tired of it that you promised yourself that you will destroy those people, that party and yourself to turn into something new? That's what DESTROY U is about.

Okay that was deep. If you read that and then listened to the song you'll have a bit of a question mark in your head...it's not a sad song, it's not a heavy song. It's kind of fun and weird and vibey. Let's provide some context around the creation of the song and maybe it'll all make sense.

DESTROY U started off as a guitar based instrumental track with a simple vocal melody. The mission statement behind the instrumental was "let's make something catchy, punchy and vibey". The guitars are catchy, the drums are punchy and the James Bond string section is a vibe. It took about 2 months to really wrap our heads around the instrumental because it was just guitars playing every part of the music and there wasn't much else, the hard part of it was where could we take it that would make it sound complete. Slowly but surely we worked through it. First we added the drums and they were loud and punchy, then we added in an analogue gliding synth and finally, we added a string section. This is kind of how we work and we don't mean for our sound to come out from the left-field with an amalgamation of different influences, it's just how we hear things in our heads.

The lyrics tie the song together with meaning. We describe a person who is losing themselves within themselves. We had to start the song off with "ain't got no light in your eyes, ain't got no soul on your drying lips" to state that the essence of this person is being sucked out of them by their own twisted view of themselves. The creeping addiction of a negative mindset is literally and metaphorically tied together with the talk about drugs in the song.

In the end, we really didn't want the song to be negative with no positive resolution but our positive resolution is meant to punch you in the face so hard that you've been destroyed and by the sheer force of your willpower, you can be reborn to be who you really want to be.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the group here