We’ve all found ourselves on the outside looking in on a relationship we’re involved in, and sometimes there’s nothing we can do but skim along the surface. We know that if we break through, we may drown; and if we don’t, we’ll never create the type of balance needed for a relationship to work. néomí, the project of Surinamese/Dutch folk-pop singer-songwriter Neomi Speelman, channels that sentiment in her enchanting and atmospheric new single “skipping stone,” offering a lower-case presentation for an issue with capital-letter repercussions.
The gorgeous but haunting track will be included on the artist’s forthcoming sophomore EP after, set for release April 14 via [PIAS], and finds néomí’s voice fluttering along the edges of heartbreak with a raw sense of vulnerability and innocent hope.
“I remember myself writing this with my dear friend Jesse Koch, while I had just fallen in love with someone,” she says. “That someone was going through a difficult time, and in those moments of our relationship I felt like a skipping stone: Picked up and thrown over the water, as if I was nothing to him. When I was younger my Dad and I would go down to the river in France to find those flat stones and he would try to teach me how to skip them over the water. I always got frustrated doing it and it’s the image that came to my mind when writing this song.”
néomí adds: “I felt so insecure, not about me or my lover individually but the love we had. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t allow me to let me in. It felt unfair because I was letting him in, and he just threw me away, like I was his skipping stone to sink somewhere in the lake.”
Glide along with néomí below.