KIAN has returned with his first new single in two years, a breezy indie-pop tune titled ‘Fit In Here’.
Building on the groovy, blissed-out sounds of the Castlemaine songster’s earlier works, ‘Fit In Here’ shines with jaunty, off-kilter percussion, gently strummed acoustics and grounded vocal harmonies. The spacious soundscape contrasts much more intimate themes, as KIAN sings wistfully about missing “the girl I used to know” – a metaphor for his own pursuit of a sense of belonging.
The song arrives today (April 27) alongside a lowkey video following a day-in-the-life style narrative. Have a look at it below:
In a press release, KIAN explained that ‘Fit In Here’ was actually the second song he’d ever written, following his four-time Platinum hit ‘Waiting’ in 2018. He held off on releasing it, however, because “after things started moving so fast and momentum built for me unexpectedly, I didn’t feel ready yet”.
“Funnily enough, this actually gave the song a new meaning for me,” he continued. “In the beginning, I made a character – a scenario reflecting my feelings during adolescence, struggling to know who I was and how to be accepted by my peers – but the new meaning came from a completely different place. To be honest, after ‘Waiting’ performed beyond my wildest expectations, I felt an enormous amount of pressure.”
KIAN went on to say that while felt “very lucky” for ‘Waiting’ to have been as successful as it was, he was quickly consumed by anxiety – which brought “huge amounts of self-doubt and fear” for the future of his career. “Soon enough, I realised I had to go back to my foundation,” he said. “I had to give myself time to figure stuff out and allow myself to catch up to where my career was headed.”
That reflective period, KIAN noted, is partially why there has been a relatively large gap between releases. He decided to use ‘Fit In Here’ as somewhat of a comeback single because it took on “a new meaning” in that time. The lyric “the girl I used to know”, according to KIAN, now represented his creativity, as well as his “passion for music and the internal struggle to get it back”.
“With this new perspective, the song really struck a note with me,” he said. “I felt like it was the perfect opportunity to pay homage to the beginning, but also tell the story of where I was at the last couple years. I think it paints the perfect picture moving forward and helps me to leave nothing unresolved within myself.”
An early version of ‘Fit In Here’ was recorded with Jerome Farah, with whom KIAN linked up in his hometown of Castlemaine. When the stems for that track were eventually lost and the singer was unable to reconnect with Farah, KIAN linked up with LA producer Willie Tafa to remake the track from scratch.
He said the process was “a cool experience, because obviously my sound has changed, and my voice has changed since I first made the song”.
KIAN’s last release was the standalone single ‘Sunbeam’, which landed in November 2020. It followed that May’s ‘Every Hour’, which itself was the follow-up to his breakout EP ‘Bliss’. 2021 then saw the release of ‘Sunbeam’ remixes by Harvey Sutherland and Leven Kali.