Kwolek Delivers A Two-In-One Storytelling Experience In ‘Ronnie Stole This Riff / Kim Is Desperate’

Rising musician out of Boulder, Colorado, Kwolek has released his latest single, a fusion of ’90s indie rock with a shoegaze appeal. The track, ‘Ronnie Stole This Riff / Kim Is Desperate’, dives headfirst into delivering a song that explores two sounds and two stories that intertwine perfectly. 

It’s a unique listening experience that has us enter into his world and understand his experimental approach to making an eclectic sound that makes him stand out against the Colorado indie scene. The song has a timeless sound with the live recording of drums, fuzzy guitar riffs, and additional effects such as guitar pedals that effortlessly shift in time signature and heaviness from narrative to narrative. 

The story of Ronnie and Kim, despite being two different experiences, has core themes of escapism and individualism. Ronnie is a story about a musician figuring out his place in crafting his own tune, a desire to make his own world, and battling the experience of realising his sound is not entirely new but a repetition or, more so, a variation of what has come before. “Ronnie stole this riff / from another band who stole this riff”, showcasing that Ronnie is another musician wanting to break it but finds himself in the same place in a pool of other bands with a familiar style. Resulting in an unfortunate case of accidentally becoming a chameleon instead of being an odd one out of the crowd. 

Meanwhile, Kim’s story follows a girl who listens to music as a form of escapism and individualism. She is the odd one out; Kim is a curious case catching the eyes of others as she lives vicariously through what’s playing in her headphones. She is riddled with feeling miserable, unsatisfied, and trapped in a “hellscape” of a town. “Kim is desperate” rings out as a call for attention to how she lives freely being herself (individualism), which is too big for where she lives, and the itch that comes with waiting for the moment to break free. 

Kwolek does an excellent job in the song production and the lyrics to capture two different perspectives on how music creates escapism and is escapism, and how it can empower those to break out of their current scene or environment. It doesn’t look the same for everyone, but it has a role to play - it’s incredible storywriting with a banging track underneath. 

Tyra Baker

@got_tyra

Image: ‘Ronnie Stole This Riff / Kim Is Desperate’ Single Cover