On August 25 Tim Qualls released his eagerly-awaited, new track, Grave, the second release from his debut album Feel. With Grave, the Alt-Pop artist showcases his growth as a songwriter and performer by providing his listeners with a unique blend of ironic playfulness on the surface and a deeper level of meaning below the surface.
As Quall explains, the song “was meant for listeners to enjoy and have some fun with while realizing that the track is also riddled with deeper meanings and metaphors.”
This is obvious when listeners realize that a song entitled Grave is set to an upbeat, light-hearted, and playful mix of “ethereal synth elements” and a catchy bass line. Lyrically, the song describes a super-serious, dark, or grave situation, but the instrumental track has an entirely different tone.
On one level, the lyrics seem to be describing a toxic relationship, but Quell insists that listeners need to let the song “sink in” so they can access another, deeper level of meaning.
“Without letting the lyrics sink in, one would think this track is about cheating or lying in a relationship. By letting the lyrics sink in, listeners will find that the song is more about insecurity and vulnerability than it is about toxicity.”
By playing appearance and reality or surface and depth against each other, Quell seems to be suggesting that what often appears to be toxic on the surface of relationships is, in reality, something deeper and even potentially freeing: the exposure of release of our fears and insecurities to another human being.
Grave captures this co-presence of radically disparate elements at such moments. Indeed Quills insists that “some of the best songs come from the dissonance created when a song’s lyrics and tone steer the listener in polarizing directions.”
That is, the situation feels “grave” and terrifying to the person trapped in throngs of these kinds of experiences, but it does not have to be.
As the song’s jovial instrumental track suggests, we can also step back, realize that everyone struggles with having imperfections exposed, and embrace, and perhaps even enjoy, this process by taking a more playful–and less Grave– approach to the matter.
As such, the overall effect of the song is to capture the redemptive potential inside of what often appears as ugly or toxic moments in relationships, and to, therefore, serve “as a reminder that everyone has some type of skeleton in the closet, and sometimes leaning into the fear of exposing those secrets will set you free.”
Inspired by artists such as Ray Charles, Jamie Cullum, and John Mayer, Qualls is known for his soulful renderings of heartfelt themes. His first single from Forever highlighted the journey of finding one’s meaning and clinging tightly to it.
With Grave, Quells continues to explore and celebrate the depth and complexity of human experience in a soulful, affirmative, and with this new track, even joyful manner. In doing so, he challenges his listeners to embrace and to say “yes” to the full range and depth of the human experience.
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