Kristiane's "Wish I Could Be Your Girl" Is a Quiet Quarantine Anthem
Growing up in Los Angeles, emerging singer-songwriter Kristiane spent her impressionable years in the audience of local jazz clubs, listening to her grandmother sing. A cabaret performer until her late seventies, she cites her grandmother as the first person who made Kristiane infatuated with the idea of being a singer.
Now in her early 20s, Kristiane is forging her own career in music. With her second single "Wish I Could Be Your Girl," she channels a mix of Mazzy Star, Velvet Underground and Mitski. On its surface, "Wish I Could Be Your Girl" feels like a teenage fantasy, but ultimately, its intent is much more weighted. Written late at night on the floor of her bedroom, the track began as a journal entry with the lines: "should I call / don't wanna bother / am I the deadbeat father never on the way."
Self-admittedly, 2020 has not been an easy year for the songwriter. Though Kristiane says she is pretty used to "emotional distance from other people," due to her introversion, the physical distance of quarantine has been much less bearable. But with Kristiane's latest single "Wish I Could Be Your Girl," she proves there has been some merit to this time alone and the self-reflection that comes with it. With fuzzy guitars and dreamy synth pads by producer and writing partner Jesse Munsat pairing perfectly with Kristiane's melancholy vocals, "Wish I Could Be Your Girl" is a brilliant single that shows a girl on the verge of womanhood, trying to figure out how to accept herself when she would rather be anyone else.
As she puts it, "this song is not about me literally wanting to be somebody's 'girl,' but rather wanting to fit the archetype of the kind of partner that's easy to be with." While many coming-of-age songs by greener artists tend to be rambling or vague, Kristiane already appears to know how to tell her own story succinctly with her second single, "Wish I Could Be Your Girl." A lyrically driven songwriter, Kristiane often begins by jotting down a few lines in a notebook and molding the ideas into a plot as she continues.
For the young singer, her recent single is just the beginning of the career in music she has hoped to have since the late nights she spent in L.A. cabarets. With her quarantine-written debut EP on the way, Kristiane promises more songs a la "Wish I Could Be Your Girl" for early 2021, filled with nostalgia and self-awareness. "Quarantine pushed me to write music without fear or hesitation," she notes, "I'm really proud of the EP I have coming up."
