Ears Wide Open: KALI

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KALI (Photo by Sophia Ziskin)

Sixteen-year-old Kali Flanagan starting played music at age 4, gave her first concert at 8 and formed her first band at 13. The multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, keys, drums and violin) is now releasing music under the mononym KALI — and turning more than a few heads with her first single “Back to the Start.”

KALI captures the breezy propulsiveness of artists such as the Cardigans, Tahiti 80 and Rilo Kiley in the track, with the singer’s sunny vocals balanced against sandpaper riffs. The ode to a relationship rebound was produced by Miro Mackie (whose credits include St. Vincent, Cold War Kids, the Neighbourhood, HEALTH and Run River North, among others) and features Run River North’s Daniel Chae on bass (and a smidgen of strings) and Nate Lotz (Halsey) on drums.

Zealand Yancy and Sophia Ziskin co-direct the video for the song, which depicts the simple pleasure of cruising around town with her friends.

||| Stream: “Back to the Start”

||| Also: Watch the video for “Back to the Start”