Daily Dose: Marika Hackman, “i’m not where you are”

Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.

“I want the power in my music to come from lyrics and melody rather than trickery of the brain,” Marika Hackman told Paste back in 2015, just before the release of her full-length debut We Slept At Last.

Fast forward four years and one more album, and the singer-songwriter continues to live up to this promise on her latest single “i’m not where you are,” all about “breaking up with people, or self-sabotaging relationships,” as Hackman explains in a statement. Between her sultry, languorous delivery and synths that are at once toe-tapping and melancholic, the English artist once again crafts a powerful melody with lyrics that reveal a fraught emotional underbelly.

Hackman adds that “i’m not where you are” meditates on “[t]hat feeling of not trusting one’s emotions because you can’t seem to get to the same place as the other person. On the surface, it seems like an arrogant ‘everybody falls in love with me’ kind of song but it’s actually incredibly lonely, introspective and self-deprecating.”

The songwriting process for this track proved particularly cathartic for Hackman and gave her the creative space to hone her voice. She co-produced “i’m not where you are” with David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma). This latest single is available via Sub Pop and AMF Records, and is off the artist’s untitled forthcoming I’m Not Your Man follow-up. Currently, there is no release date for the new record.

Listen to “i’m not where you are” below and, further down, check out audio from Hackman’s 2014 Daytrotter Session.