Queen Kong - An Interpretation by Kiki Sivitanides
Just before we released SkyQuaker's Queen Kong, we sent Kiki a demo version of the track and the finished artwork and asked her to give her honest initial opinion of the works. We had been so internally focused, her words were extremely vital during the release stages to assess how the message was being interpreted.
Kiki’s work is inspired by sociology, mental health, and theories such as phenomenology and the placement of an object in a certain environment. We strongly recommend you research and check out her website to learn more about her work!
Without further interruption, here are Kiki’s words…
SkyQuaker - Queen Kong
Points Of Interest While Listening To Queen Kong
➔ Music you cannot resist but nod your head to
➔ Adventure taking music
➔ Takes you through a hole journey
➔ Smooth transitions within the songs
➔ Rocky jazzy vibes
➔ Want to see where the song goes
➔ An Un-skippable track
➔ Intense guitar
➔ All instruments make you want to listen more
SkyQuaker is a creative team of composers, musicians, art design directors, cinematographers and photographers who compose original works for public entertainment and consumption. Their work is produced, distributed and promoted by Aurora Eclipse Productions Ltd.
So SkyQuaker is releasing a single called Queen Kong. This song provides even more power to the voiced concerns of Vladimir Bukovsky on human rights. The track begins with a muffled recording of the activist. He says “My good friend was Wei JingSheng, and he spent in jail, 18 years”. The way Vladimir talks about this, you can almost hear the pain through his deep voice, sounding tired and defeated, coming from a place of suffering. The way he pauses and continues, showing the struggle to speak about the matter. You can hear his emotions in those few seconds. Following that, a sudden strum from a heavy guitar starts and then some drums come in getting louder and louder until all instruments are in full swing. It is like a hit of music coming to you slowly and then all at once. The rock n’ roll is in full motion and you hear the first lyrics being sung.
“Queen Kong - got a mind of her own
Queen Kong - Gotta claim on her throne
King Kong’s - Done his bit and he’s gone
Queen Kong - you’re Queen Bitch all along”
What I love about this track is that it will take you on a journey and then take an unexpected turned that creates a whole adventure. It creates a battle between Queen and King Kong. Instantly you get drawn to the song due to its catchy chorus. While a male voice is used as the lead you slowly hear female voices creeping up and harmonising. It’s almost hypnotising to hear this combination of strong contrast between the two voices. The husky voice of the male in comparison to the females’ honey-toned vocals. The song is already building a difference between Queen and King Kong.
Aimed at Hong Kong this mesmerising tune brings a sense of hope and change to the country. Rephrasing it, it tells that communism has had its time, now it’s time for a new democracy to get put into place. Encouraging people to share their voices for the purpose of uniting as one, sending out a loud message for modernisation.
“I hear a choir sing hope of Hong Kong
Your Majesties all sing one note
All voices one adult one vote”
There’s a part where it all slows down. Light saxophone in the background building up tension, a steady a snare and that gloomy voice again. “You see a friend dead and you think ‘that could be me?’”, a humming is bought into sound and together with the saxophone start increasing steadily. The instrument and the recorded conversation played back to back keeps the flow building. With the conversation fading into the background, the saxophone takes over with the humming which advances into a soft “Queen Kong”.
The outro is a very strong piece of this track. You need to listen to this in your own time as part of the song. Another recording of Vladimir talking, his discussing communism and the people around it. Among that one specific sentence is emphasised most. I hope this song brings a voice to you as it did to me.
“These people are sleepwalking, they don’t want to know, they just don’t want to know.”
On Richard Yaxley’s artwork, Kiki writes....
It looks like a breakthrough in a hellish environment, which is something HK is undergoing today. The album cover is just as strong as the song is, in terms of sending a message. As soon as you see it you think there’s a lot happening but in reality, it is more of an organised mess. If you think of it, an organised mess does sound a lot like politics.
As a whole, it strongly represents the hectic nature of the track and the explosion of sound that emerges within it while still conveying the same message as the song. The reasoning behind this being an organised mess is due to the fact that the layout of the imagery suggests the Golden Spiral. This draws you in, and the more you look at this, the more you can see.
When first glancing upon it, one’s eye falls straight to the gorilla wearing her crown, raising her hand as if she demands power. The next thing you stumble upon is a Temple with different various flags arising from behind, this gives a sense of unity between the different countries. Following the spiral, what looks like government forces in gas masks are wondering while in the same area some people are kneeled and protecting themselves with umbrellas. This obviously alludes to the umbrella movement which emerged in 2014, that unfortunately is still active today due to government issues still being carried through.
Later in the cover, to the left, a mob of people is seen and over it a message being projected onto a wall, possibly portraying a Lennon Wall. A quote by Vladimir Bukovsky, a pro-democracy human rights campaigner. While this can be read in different ways, what I read is, power does not come from violence but from people uniting as one, finding a middle ground and uniting between them. There are plenty of hints that subtly raise unity and hope. A cover with indeed some power.
Kiki Sivitanides
Website: https://kikisivi.wixsite.com/artist
Instagram: @contemporarythreshold
