Dropping an album at this time is a gift and a gamble. If you’re following Keiko Necesario on social media, you can see that she’s been busy promoting and virtually performing since the start of the year. Even quarantine can’t stop her from putting the finishing touches on her upcoming album, “Ready, Let Go”. To mark the next step toward her new sound, Keiko drops her second single, “Dangerous”.
“Dangerous” unfolds with wistful electronic beats, while still exhibiting Keiko’s popular folk sound and the raw elegance of her voice. The song details the common dilemma of whether or not you should tell somebody how you feel, but with this unease comes the chance to analyze our innermost feelings. “I wrote ‘Dangerous’ out of a concept; that the idea of loving someone you feel like you weren’t supposed to fall for can be treacherous,” Keiko said about the track. “It’s like getting stuck in the middle of a decision because doing something about it might mess things up, yet not doing anything about it might mess you up. It’s a frustrating place to be in so I had to write about it in a manner that would describe exactly what that’s like. Even from the line on the verse 2, ‘Though I’m damned if I don’t and damned if I do’, it already says a lot about what the song is trying to express. It feels like no matter what decision you make, you’re sure there’s just no way to win.”
The song was written in different timelines, but Keiko came up with “Dangerous” back in 2018 at her former management’s house. She continued, “I remember the chords and the melody were born with a different first line and concept as well but as I went back and forth with the writing process, a different story hit me. There was a time when one of my artist friends, Quest, was doing a studio lockdown for his album and he invited me and another friend to just be there with him. I decided to finish some of my songs for the upcoming album so I did. It was in 2019 when I knew that the song was done. The demo and the majority of the arrangement for “Dangerous” were recorded and conceptualized in London at the Dairy Studio. I’m amazed I got to record here because apparently, one of my favorite bands and one of my influences, Florence + the Machine, recorded there and the piano that we used for this song was the same piano that the lead used for their songs.”
With “Ready, Let Go” slated for release in September, “Dangerous” sees the singer-songwriter breaching genre barriers, giving us another taste of things to come. Speaking about her new musical style, Keiko said, “I think it was my growth that led (still leads) me to change. As an artist, it’s an important process to go through—reinventing based on who you are at the exact moment of a season in your life. That’s how you get to still be authentic while you are changing. It was back in 2017 when this realization hit me. I was writing songs for my ESCAPE EP at the time, and I could hear the new sound in my head which I eventually called electro-folk. Folk is always going to be a huge part of who I am and that’s something I don’t wanna lose in the middle of my progress.”
Keiko started writing music at an early age, and this new album just shows how much she has grown as a singer-songwriter. “Music, to me, is like a twin sister; I’d say I grew up with it as it was just naturally there with me all the time,” she shares. “I’ve been singing my whole life and I was in 3rd grade when I could really remember the first full song I’ve written and it was just non-stop ever since; funny how they were all about romantic love back then coming from a kid who had absolutely no clue about what it really was at the time. But all is well as I’ve come to know more and more about music through the years, and the love grew more and more, too.”
“Dangerous” is the latest single off “Ready, Let Go”, her upcoming album with Warner Music Philippines that will be distributed digitally in September 2020. Follow Keiko Necesario and Warner Music Philippines on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates and virtual performances.
ADVT.
