Tender and turbulent, Abi Ocia’s soul-stirring “30 Underwater” is an achingly intimate, beautifully raw reckoning with time filled with inner upheaval and existential introspection.
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Stream: “30 Underwater” – Abi Ocea
I’m swimming in the pain of this season, how the tide is fading out on me..
Nothing is more final in this world than time itself.
Time is one of those few things we truly can’t get back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever – and our time is all too limited from the start. The older we get, the more painfully aware we become of the years gone by – and what do we have to show for it? Never enough. British singer/songwriter Abi Ocia’s soul-stirring new single “30 Underwater” is a bittersweet reflection of time’s passage; an achingly intimate and beautifully raw reckoning filled with inner upheaval and existential introspection, arriving at the end of a chapter in the artist’s life.
Nearly 30 underwater screaming
Time’s got a hold of my dreaming
And I’m faking this to run from my feelings
How the stars are fading out on me
Where can I go?
Who can I run to?
I feel my heart sees this weakness in me
Where can I hide till this is over?
I see my days slipping out of my reach
And how can I not know this yet
I can’t live in my regret
‘Cause time will take me in the end
Released March 30, 2023 via VERO Music, “30 Underwater” is Abi Ocia’s quarter-life crisis manifest in breathtaking balladry. Arriving on the precipice of proper, true adulthood (when exactly do we shed the “young” from “young adulthood,” anyway?), Ocia’s first song of the year sees the West London-based singer/songwriter dwelling in her own innermost depths while trying to come to terms with the path her life has taken thus far. We feel the weight of days passed and unfulfilled dreams come to life in a song that is at once softly tender and viscerally turbulent:
Nearly 30 underwater breathing
Taking time to sit with my demons
And I’m swimming in the pain of this season
How the tide is fading out on me
Where can I go?
Who can I run to?
I feel my heart sees this weakness in me
Where can I hide till this is over?
I see my days slipping out of my reach
“‘30 Underwater’ is an accurate summary of all I’m currently feeling below the surface,” Abi Ocia tells Atwood Magazine. “An awareness of the passing of time has been a heavy theme in my life at the moment. It’s brought up many questions, particularly as I move towards the end of my 20s – where am I going in life? Should I be further along than I am? Am I running out of time to achieve certain things? What have I lost? The list goes on. It’s been a very painful season.”
And how can I not know this yet
I can’t live in my regret
‘Cause time will take me in the end
And how can I not know this yet
I can’t live in my regret
‘Cause time will take me in the end
Nearly 30 underwater screaming
Time’s got a hold of my dreaming
And I’m faking this to run from my feelings
How the stars are fading out on me
A heartrending moment of unabridged and exposed self-reflection, “30 Underwater” gives voice to so many insecurities familiar to us all.
No matter where we are in our lives, there’s always more to be done: Another dream to be pursued, another adventure in the wait, another experience not yet experienced. “Nearly 30 underwater screaming, time’s got a hold of my dreaming,” Ocia laments at her song’s end. “And I’m faking this to run from my feelings, how the stars are fading out on me.”
Nothing is more final in this world than time itself, and in “30 Underwater,” we face that fact head-on. Stream Abi Ocia’s new single wherever you get your music, and let your heart get swept up in the powerful, moving currents of this evocative song.
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Stream: “30 Underwater” – Abi Ocea
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© Elena Cremona
© Elena Cremona
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