Track By Track: Kiffie – Living Past Midnight

Kiffie is a Norwich-based electronic musician and producer who creates music that is inspired by personal events and the wider world around him.

His Living Past Midnight album is an eclectic mix of electronica, hip-hop, folk, and baroque pop with a dystopian beat. Kiffie has done a breakdown of the album – which he sums up as “exploring one possible nightmare future scenario” – as part of our Track By Track feature.

Resilience

Picture yourself, a lone survivor, trudging across a desolate wasteland with only your internal monologue to keep you company. You start to hum a tune and an unholy choir of many of your internal voices start to sing along.  Welcome to the sound of delusion in the apocalypse! You’ll hear this ‘choir’ at intervals throughout the album.

The Lucky Ones

Inspired by an overheard comment, “I wouldn’t want to survive a nuclear war.” Perhaps the lucky ones really are the ones that were vapourised in the first moments. Not just the radioactive fallout but the fallout from the ensuing collapse of civilisations as we know them.

Push it Back!

Holding our leaders to account for their political decisions that lead to conflict.  Another theme of this album is the relentless tick of the doomsday clock, and we all know what happens at midnight.

How Many More?

A song about the victims of war and our failure to act.  A reminder that in any war the greatest toll is on those who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The unarmed civilians.  The song pulls numbers from nowhere and the point is that any amount of collateral damage is too much. The refrain “how many more” and the repetition of the final chorus highlights the repeated cycles of death, hatred and the creation of more bodies to fight. Inspired by The Man in Black by Johnny Cash and Universal Soldier by Donovan.

Pretend it Ain’t Happening

A song about not standing up for what is right, about not speaking out. Inspired by the many ways that otherwise good people stand by and don’t get involved.  A sort of natural extension of “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.” 

How to Survive

The only instrumental on the album, it represents a break in the flow of the album and a moment for people to pause and reflect, get a cup of tea and contemplate. There is no advice on how to survive on this song.

Tick of the Clock

Is that pesky doomsday clock still ticking in the background? With scattered organic clapping and the return of the unholy choir the aim of this song is to simply ask why we give up on diplomacy so easily when the logical next step is certain disaster.  It could be argued that war is the failure of everyone by everyone.  We need to find common ground and talk, even to sworn enemies.

Last Cry of the Victims

The opposite side of the coin from the album opener.  A dark alternative. Describing how our body, our blood and our humanity is destroyed in any nuclear catastrophe.  

Like Shadows

In this song the unholy choir that has appeared in places through the album come to the forefront. Given words by what we have witnessed.  A very dark song with a message of hope. Inspired by the shadows seen at Hiroshima and the memory of those that we lost.

The Coming Storm (Extended Mix)

An electro-disco track giving advice in the style of 1950s government public information films of what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Hide behind walls, close the windows, hope the wind doesn’t blow.  Wear sunscreen.

Living Past Midnight can be downloaded on Bandcamp and is streaming everywhere, including Apple Music and Spotify. For further listening options and to learn more about Kiffie and the album, check out his Twitter, Threads, and Instagram socials.