bitbird’s Taska Black has been making waves for a minute now. He’s recently landed on TSIS for his “All I Know” collab with Sem and his melancholic debut MINDS EP. Now he’s shared a beautiful new track “Backwards Love” featuring the alluring vocals of TRACE. We’ve been fans of both artists for some time now so it’s great to see these two work together on an impressive new collaboration.
“I’ve never worked with a voice like TRACE’s before and it inspired me to do things I wouldn’t have done, like opting for very reverb-heavy dreams or mellow, stripped down verses where it’s just her and the guitar.” – Taska Black
“When I was in the studio, I remember wanting to write something about someone not deserving my love. I wrote this with a fellow writer, Solly, and we kind of were tossing words back and forth about the feelings I was going through and when we came up with the phrase ‘Backwards Love’, it kind of just jumped out that we could flip the words ironically around and it still make incredible sense. It’s about feeling off about someone, when you want to feel on. It’s about getting what you give, and if you don’t give it right, you can’t and won’t get it right.
There’s a sense of proclaiming self-worth in “Backwards Love” that is super important for me to share with both men and women. I hope that the message of the song itself is an anthem people can start believing in.” – TRACE
TRACE’s soft vocals are given a pitched effect from Taska in the best way in several moments while the minimal production compliments her verses. Things kick into gear on the hook where Taska’s sound design kicks it up a notch with skittering percussion and layers of melodic synths and slick guitar instrumentation all coming together effortlessly.