SEKI – Play It Cool
“It start on very positive note, with a guitar riff and rhythm while you wait for the first verse. Love the small electronic parts that layers the rest of the sound. Vocals are really good, nicely edited with a delay parts, but the part I like the most is chorus line, it makes you wanna sing along.”
-Nagamag.com
Taking influences from Tears for Fears, The 1975 and The Strokes, the Bangkok-based musician SEKI creates a shoegaze-inflected indie pop sound, rich with layered harmonies and instantly-memorable melodies. SEKI’s music is dominated by new wave synth sounds, falsetto vocals, lushly-layered harmonies and instantaneous pop melodies.
“Play It Cool” is a song that was inspired by a really awkward experience that SEKI had, while trying to chat with an attractive woman in a park. As you might be able to imagine, it didn’t go as planned! He walked away from the exchange, face red and completely embarrassed.
However, it wasn’t all for nothing. He ended up writing the song about that moment, though he still felt second-hand embarrassment during the writing process, just thinking about that experience.
“It's really about trying to capture the awkwardness I’ve had over time just trying to act ‘normal’ in front of people,” says SEKI. “I think we’ve all probably been guilty at times of pretending to be cooler than we actually are, so I’m hoping people will relate to that in this track.”
Reviewed by Nagamag on September 16, 2022