Music can be a gateway into emotions in a vividly sympathetic and empathetic way. There’s just something about the way that beauty in sound meshes with words to create a truly connective experience. Music is a wonderful way to share the wide range of emotions that exist in the world, both good and bad. It can share what it’s like to love, hate, be hurt, be nostalgic, and be lost. It can even touch on deeply personal experiences. REDSIX does this in their latest track ‘Yorkie,’ which details the loss of a loved one. It’s very specific. Very personal. And it does a great job at putting you into the eyes of the voice of the track, evoking connectivity.
‘Yorkie’ by REDSIX is just such a dynamic and well-crafted song. There are just so many musical elements that give this piece its dynamics. There are the time changes and key changes, and the musicianship refuses to fall into monotony. It pulls in tons of influence from both punk and hardcore scenes, which really adds to its power. Its sound can really throw the listener back into the nostalgia of growing up punk in the early 2000s. There’s so much emotion in the belted vocals, the drums create a diverse soundscape with their ever-shifting beats, and the guitar works with a wide range of tones and different sound filters which seem to change and weave their way into the rest of the music. The bass has such a distinct slap to it. It’s just a well-crafted song altogether, and it begs to be played on repeat.
Lyrically, ‘Yorkie’ is about the intense emotions that come from the death of a loved one. This is shown through the jumps between lighter and loving lyrics and darker lyrics that allude to this loss. These jumps happen pretty quickly and can even be heard within the first portion of the track. “Her hands in mine / I calm my mind / She tells me to breathe / She’s all the evidence I need / We never find time to say what we mean / Pale blue eyes, losing light.” The first and last lines of this section display the quick contrasts really added to the lyrics’ emotional hit. It may also be just about a vicious breakup but the “light fading” poetically makes it seem like it’s much darker than that.
REDSIX is a Jakarta-based Indonesian rock band that works with an eclectic source of rock and punk influences. It is made up of vocalist Denny, guitarist Kevin, guitarist Wicak, drummer Risma, and bassist Ipang. Their last track before ‘Yorkie’ was ‘Vessel,’ which came out over a year before Yorkie did at the end of June 2021. They’ve taken this time to rebrand and figure out how to move forward based on feedback and critiques. This led them to a heavier and more rock-based sound in Yorkie. They’re looking to grow and move forward while focusing on the positive and deciding what critiques can help them make the best music they can. It’s definitely going to be exciting to see where this evolution in sound takes them.
Written by Sage Plapp
