One of our favourite antipodean artists here at the southern outpost of Backseat Mafia is the prodigious YAGKI, the nome de plume for Sarah Yagki, and she has just released the exquisite single ‘Just Like A Ghost’ – an ethereal dreamy track that highlights her gorgeous silken vocals and gift for anthemic gems.
Threaded through with a yearning melancholia – essential ingredients for any good pop song – ‘Like A Ghost’ has a mesmerising ambience borne on a fasting moving instrumental stream. Vital and pulse quickening beats deliver a quintessential piece of pop mastery.
And behind the day-glo brilliance there lies darker themes of empowerment and resilience through an autobiographical lense. YAGKI says of the track:
‘Just A Ghost’ reflects my journey of running away from home at 16 to escape a difficult upbringing in housing commission and foster care. It also delves into the guilt of leaving my family behind in severe hardship and highlights the generational trauma that traps families in these environments.
Indeed, the track typifies YAGKI’s perfect pop marriage of intelligence and dance.
The track comes with a video directed/filmed by Max Pasalic (BESTIES), starring YAGKI herself along with her younger sister Ella Yagki and short VHS cuts of the artist herself as a kid. Drawing set inspiration from the television series The Vampire Diaries, the various scenes capture the profound feelings of isolation that accompany feelings of being haunted by your own past. It’s a dynamic performance piece that bleeds raw emotion.
‘Just A Ghost’ is out now and available to stream and download via all the usual sites.
And YAGKI is not just about recording brilliance – check out our Jess Hutton’s review of YAGKI live here.
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