Kaeda Daze is the nome de plume of Kendra Fewster, a former member of WA folk/pop band ‘The Hunting Birds’, and her new solo work is sublime. Showcasing Fewster’s velvet soft expressive vocals, her debut solo track ‘Running From Something’ is a warm enveloping track that seems to magically float like clouds: billowing, soft and filled with a deep yearning and melancholia. Fewsters says of the track:
This first release is extremely important to me. The day I began to write the song is so completely vivid in my mind. It’s funny how certain moments can stick with you. In the moment you’re so channelled toward the living and creating aspect that you don’t realise it was going to be a seminal moment for your silly little life journey.
Like much of creative output these days, the impact of debilitating lockdowns in Melbourne helped form the basis of the song and became in a sense a paean for resilience during the darkest of times. Fewster was kept afloat during these dark days by having her sister in the next room:
We’d both been struggling with our mental health and she was my safe space during that time. Some days I’d sit there and feel so inept, feeling I was failing her and myself when I watched her struggle. Some days we were the only reason one another laughed or even spoke at all and I won’t forget how important her presence was for my sanity.
This positivity seeps through every pore of the song: a an element of strength and fortitude that mesmerises and enchants:
Cause there is nothing I wouldn’t do
to chase the dark away with you
We’ve been running from something
If it caught we’d jump in
‘Cause there is nothing I wouldn’t do
to chase the dark away with you
The instrumentation is sparse and low-fi, creating a liquid, percussive base for the floating vocals – recalling for me the strength, drama and dynamism of Kate Bush:
Kaeda Daze’s ‘Running From Something’ is out now and available to download and stream here.
Feature Photograph: Tanya Volt
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