ILUKA‘s new single ‘Willing To Break’, released earlier this month, is a little more sombre than the retro-tinged pop she’s released over the last couple of years.
Opening with sparse piano chords and understated guitar before leading to its powerful crescendo, the singer-songwriter reflects mournfully on the state of the world – and makes a quiet plea for change.
“Though I wrote this song a year ago in LA, perhaps rather eerily, it has become reflective of the time we find ourselves in. The year that 2020 has been. Like all of you guys, for me, this year has been a lot of reflecting and turning inwards,” ILUKA explains.
“It’s been confronting and messy and lonely at times but I feel like this is all necessary for growth, for change. Humility is key right now (especially for us, white folk) and I’m learning to find a strength in that humility. I hope this song can bring you something. A feeling, or maybe just a flicker of hope in these uncertain times.”
ILUKA, who grew up in the Blue Mountains, recorded ‘Willing To Break’ with Grammy-nominated producer Justin Stanley at Stella Sounds in Los Angeles. Having spent the past year in LA and Nashville collaborating with an array of artists, the artist’s creative goal – making pop music with soul and purpose, telling universal tales of hope, love, struggle, sacrifice – feels fully realised with her latest single.
Today, we’re premiering the video for ‘Willing To Break’. Directed by Kate Cornish (Made In Katana), the black-and-white clip sees footage of the songwriter performing the track at a piano interspersed with imagery around self-reflection – turning within to understand the world around us.
“The visuals in ‘Willing To Break’ touch on the stages of self-reflection, leading to the discovery of one’s unconscious biases. Once making such revelations, it’s important that we take action,” says Cornish.
ILUKA adds, “Challenging what you’ve grown up believing is true. What you’ve been told is true. Shattering allusions. Learning to sit in that discomfort. Perhaps even that pain.
“To be willing to grow and evolve no matter how difficult it may be. That is what being ‘Willing To Break’ is about for me. And I think we’re at a moment in time where this is more necessary now than ever.”
