Singer/songwriter Kailee Spark hails from the Big Island of Hawaii, Hilo to be exact, and her music sounds like walking barefoot across the cool moss of a warm rainforest. Her debut album Savor This, produced by local folkster Bub Pratt, comes out June 4th. Fans can look forward to the kind of signature acoustic and piano ballads that have landed gigs throughout the islands, like the historic Hilo Palace Theater, where she played this year. Her exquisitely spare musings and reflections on life and love are lyrically relatable but delivered with a breathy, ethereal voice that feels otherworldly. The effect is captivating, drawing the listener in, allowing them to inhabit each song as if it were their own.
“Passageways” is a plaintive meandering through plucked and strummed guitar, subtle brush drumming, and breezy chimes. The second single off of Savor This takes a decidedly different path than “So Much Fun,” her prior offering. Released via the local Kukuau Studio Label, “Passageways” is a story told by a wandering lover who has returned home. They have experienced and enjoyed much but still search for something legendarily elusive: love. “I’ve seen god from Norway / I’ve hiked the Himalayan Mountain Range / I’ve done a lot / but now I want to dive deep down your eyes,” she sings. Spark deftly explores themes of pain, release, connection, and escape; this is clearly familiar territory. The track crescendos into a chorus of hushed “ahhhs” and rising drums, a repeated line making its case to the injured subject of her heart’s desire.
Spark wanders the wet, lush tropical rainforest, a vision in a simple white dress, perhaps one of those beings that weary, lost travelers say have led them out of the deep woods. Director Bub Pratt & Chris Roberts shot her on the ancient Na Ala Hele Trail and Ha’ena Beach, and it’s the perfect setting for a song about a wandering soul. She journeys further into the undergrowth, coming upon a stream. Spark begins to cover herself in the black volcanic mud – a ritual or an unraveling; maybe it’s up to us to decide. Finally, she strides into the ocean, walking deeper and deeper, until she’s completely submerged, cleansed, going a little further than she meant to – kind of like someone truly in love.”
