You never quite know what you are going to get from Kabir Kumar’s Sun Kin. It might be polished pop about doom scrolling or ambient soundscapes evoking the subaquatic world of beaked whales. Toss in frequent collaborations with everyone from Miserable chillers to Pacing and the result is a veritable grab bag of musical styles and influences from which its always a mystery as to what might emerge next.
Take latest track ‘Just Double Checking’. A song about anxiety and intimacy Kumar co-wrote with his partner which draws as much from Brazilian popular music artists like Triste Janero and Milton Nascimento as it does from Elliot Smith. But the fact that such experimentation feels like the song’s natural state is not only a testament to the Sun Kin project, but moreover the sincerity with which the song was written.
“My partner Nicole and I have both been anxious to the point of dissociating since we were kids,” Kumar explains. “We wrote this song together about how our constant worrying and worrying about worrying doesn’t usually help.” The track’s laidback richness feels like such a sentiment committed to music, with the dual vocals’ chemistry adding real tenderness and allowing the track to take on the gentle self-deprecation so unique to close relationships. “We’re never more present than when we’re performing to each other,” as Kumar continues. “Thinking about how the other person feels, being in the moment.”
Like when I’m singing to you
I know what’s in my hands
I’ve got a cat in my lap
The sun is streaming down
Like when I’m singing to you
The center of gravity in my room
I’m giving in like the tide to the moon