(December 7, 2022) French Canadian artist Flo Kwassi said that her three track EP, Monsters, was both confessional and therapeutic. The project allowed Kwassi, the daughter of a French-Canadian mother and Ivorian father, to confront some of her personal monsters. The EP, as well as the title track and accompanying video featured in this First Listen, became the vehicle for Kwassi to begin the process of conquering her fears, acknowledging her addictions and eventually conquer them.
The single “Monsters” is a compelling fusion of techno, pop, and R&B, along with jazz influenced piano. Kwassi adds layers to the arrangement with verse and eventually the song takes on a pounding urgency that serves as a contrast to Kwassi’s angelic vocals and pristine phrasing. That contrast highlights the song’s central theme of deciding whether it is better or healthier to run from our personal monsters or to confront them.
(December 7, 2022) French Canadian artist Flo Kwassi said that her three track EP, Monsters, was both confessional and therapeutic. The project allowed Kwassi, the daughter of a French-Canadian mother and Ivorian father, to confront some of her personal monsters. The EP, as well as the title track and accompanying video featured in this First Listen, became the vehicle for Kwassi to begin the process of conquering her fears, acknowledging her addictions and eventually conquer them.
The single “Monsters” is a compelling fusion of techno, pop, and R&B, along with jazz influenced piano. Kwassi adds layers to the arrangement with verse and eventually the song takes on a pounding urgency that serves as a contrast to Kwassi’s angelic vocals and pristine phrasing. That contrast highlights the song’s central theme of deciding whether it is better or healthier to run from our personal monsters or to confront them.
Kwassi falls firmly in the latter camp. Sometimes, the only way to overcome a painful memory or, in this case, a dysfunctional relationship is to confront it. Or as Kwassi said when explaining her inspiration: “I wanna be the rain, I also wanna be a glimpse of sun through a broken shell, because I'm a beautiful disaster in every way. And he was like an old letter that was forgotten and then found in the back of a mailbox. Bringing all kinds of memories melodies, melancholy, and ironic revelations. That is my breakthrough and that inspires me every day, and as I’m healing, I am also terrified to never be in the rain again.”
Check out Flo Kwassi’s song “Monsters” and the accompanying video here.
By Howard Dukes