Back in 2022, we wrote about Jambu Tree, a bilingual EP by Indonesian-Canadian artist Dwi Riana which spanned everything from folk and hip hop to traditional music and explored an immigrant’s experience in Canada. “Single ‘WTFAI’ is a perfect introduction,” we described, “a love-hate ode to their new home which does for Toronto what The Weakerthans’ ‘One Great City!’ did for Winnipeg.” But alongside lamenting the frosty climate, the EP also explored how Riana found their queerness in Canada, and served as a way to communicate the personal truths they were experiencing which might otherwise have been too difficult to say properly.
New single ‘World War X’ is no less evocative, though this time turns from the personal in favour of more narrative storytelling form. An exchange between lovers which begins as a seemingly innocuous conversation but ratchets up with every sentence, soon precipitating into an argument which draws the relationship’s tensions out into the open. Julie Meunier joins the track to really capture the sense of two personalities in a room, and the chemistry between the voices serves to underline the building mood of the sound.
“I wrote the second half of the song with Julie in mind,” Riana explains. “She has a voice that really catches your attention and keeps you listening. As soon as I heard Julie sing her part, I knew that she was an integral part of the story. Whenever I play this song on my own, it feels lonely, and almost blasphemous to sing her parts.”