With pulsating drums like a beating heart, Nicole Kiki Jaffe’s new single moves you on a compelling journey that touches the soul. Entitled “Stay”, it highlights warm inviting vocals, deep drums and soaring guitar. The track is a narration of trying to fix what’s been broken to see if it can heal, to see if love has the strength to endure damage.
“'Stay' is not a love song," Jaffe reveals. "It’s a song about love. Can love coexist with trauma and eventually overcome it? This song is my attempt to find out. It’s my plea to someone I once loved, someone who hurt me in ways that are hard to talk about. I revisit all the little moments like vignettes to try and understand what happened. When a bone breaks, the site of the fracture heals and eventually becomes the strongest part. I wanted to see if we could heal and if the broken part could become stronger. And so I asked him to stay. To stay instead of running away. To stay so I could understand. To stay so I could take back what was taken from me. To stay so I could forgive him. To stay so that I might love again and without reservation."
Jaffe grew up with a childhood pursuing the arts. When she was three her parents put her in ballet to help her with her coordination and she adored being on stage. She later performed in musical theatre in school and found something magical in telling a story through song. In high school choir she was taught the importance of vocals technique. In college a friend suggested she try songwriting and after an intense relationship ended fast, she began writing a series of deeply personal songs and just couldn’t stop. It was from then on she learned to turn her pain into inspiration and that out of something terrible can come beauty. Her songs helped her heal. She aims to share her stunningly emotive music to touch people and allow them to feel things they don’t let themselves feel.
Jaffe explains, “I write to move people’s hearts, so that they too can unburden themselves of whatever is holding them back. I write so they know they’re not alone. I write so they too can heal.”
