Singled Out: Leo Sawikin's Born Too Late

Keavin Wiggins | 02-05-2021

photo credit: Griffin Lotz courtesy Leo Sawikin

Leo Sawikin just released a new song and video called "Born Too Late" and to celebrate we have asked him to tell us about the inspiration behind the track. Here is the story:

"Born Too Late" is about the feeling a lot of people around my age have, that we're just sort of waiting around for the end of the world at this point. Sometimes it feels like there's no point in building a life because the ground that we walk on could be underwater by the time we've built something. Growing up in the '90s and early 2000s, the world seemed very rosy and filled with endless possibilities. There was just an unspoken assumption that the world would always be stable, that my world was indestructible. Growing up like that, there's so much pressure to leave some sort of legacy behind; we grow up learning about all the great people who have existed throughout history, and we're bombarded with the idea that life is about reaching a goal. That mentality is so deeply internalized for some of us, and it is tough to see the world coming apart at the seams when you've grown up thinking you have a purpose to fulfill. It makes you feel small. I guess I'm saying I wish I had been born early enough to create a legacy, or after it was more evident that the world was in dire straits so my mind wasn't tainted with hope. I think it would be easier to just take it one day at a time and be thankful for individual experiences and the journey of life itself, not being attached to a specific vision of what a meaningful life should look like. Musically, I was going for something very stimulating and energizing. A lot of my other songs are very cerebral and more about complexity and colors. This time, I wanted a song that, at its core, would get people's hearts racing, because a lot of people crave music that is more stimulant-like over music that is more entheogenic, for lack of better words. For the rhythm section, I referenced TALK TALK, Garbage, and Marvin Gaye -- I was going for an upper mid-tempo soul/disco-grunge feel. I wanted to do this while staying true to my more cerebral style. I thought it would be interesting to have a bridge that was more harmonically complex, which generates more cerebral/entheogenic emotions, and use that to build into a third chorus that is 100% visceral and stimulant-like, which causes an exciting catharsis and ecstatic feeling!

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