Pina Palau — Patti’s Words

Pina Palau’s new single, Patti’s Words, rolls along like a sparkling, crystal-clear stream down the side of a mountain on a muted, misty morning. It’s pensive, it feels light, and the longer you listen to it, the more hypnotic it becomes. By the end, when it finally unravels into something orchestral and sweeping; that’s when you realise that you’ve been getting drenched all along. 

The song was inspired by Patti Smith’s autobiography Just Kids. Inspired, meaning that: shortly after Pina finished the book, she stuffed her backpack full of clothes, grabbed her guitar case and flew out to New York. Although, the city she was looking for, with all its grit and decadent glamour, was nowhere to be found, the trip turned out to be nourishing in other very profound ways. First of all, it birthed this song! It also exposed the beauty hidden in the pursuit of the irrational and, with that, the notion that life, like the creative act, is often guided by a hidden internal logic that only reveals itself in hindsight. In that light, Patti’s Words isn’t so much a song about chasing “ghosts” or following in the footsteps of your idols, but a document of an artist coming into own: understanding their purpose and the hidden nuances of their craft. In other words, it’s a song about gracefully accepting “the call.”

Patti’s Words is the second single from singer-songwriter Pina Palau. It was taken from her upcoming debut album titled Illusion, set to drop in 2022. The record was produced together with Mario Hänni (Mnevis and ex-Drummer of Sophie Hunger and Pablo Nouvelle) and is best described as a labyrinthine journey through various shades and inflections of indie folk.