South East London-based singer Linfa Kear, who has been unmarried for a long time, draws parallels between quitting her work at Hotel Chocolat and terminating a relationship on her upcoming debut single Warm, which was out on November 22.
Linfa Kear mixes the confessional pop songwriting she discovered as a teenager (Taylor Swift, Carole King) with the sorrow of the music she listened to as a child in the car with her parents in Maidstone (Radiohead, Joy Division). Although Linfa has been featured on compilation albums including Sad Machine Records’ Sad Machine Vol.1 and The Cavendish Arms’ The Cav 200, Warm is the streaming service’s first official release from the artist.
Warm muses on the fragility of letting go of somewhere you feel comfortable. Having returned a key, Linfa waits patiently for the world to collapse around her, describing how “my legs were loose the whole time as I waited for the ground to catch me, hold me” on her return home. The final, heartbreaking step is to politely request that the other person not keep her seat warm, since she will not be returning.
Linfa comments on Warm, “Warm marks a massive overreaction to me leaving my part-time job after University and likening it to ending a relationship.”At the time, I was feeling vulnerable and worried about leaving somewhere I felt safe. Writing it was cathartic and enabled me to understand why I was feeling everything so intensely.” The song began as a voice note late one night in 2020 and was recorded at Hackney Road Studios with best buddy and producer Joe Futak (Tapir!, lilo, nudista) in a single live take. Eventually, when Theo Williams and Kit Dellow-Jones had a break from lockdown, they went to Joe’s bedroom and recorded some production flourishes to complement the softness of the voice and the piano. Linfa and Joe are currently working on her debut EP, which is scheduled for release in 2024.
Listen to “Warm” on Spotify:
