A hauntingly beautiful gust of warm indie folk wonder, Companion’s debut single “How Could I Have Known” is as breathtaking as it is bittersweet: A soft and stirring reckoning with love and life’s fleeting nature.
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Stream: “How Could I Have Known” – Companion
The sudden wind that brings you will be the wind that takes you…
A hauntingly beautiful gust of warm indie folk wonder, Companion’s debut single “How Could I Have Known” is as breathtaking as it is bittersweet: A soft and stirring reckoning with how magical it is to love someone, and to know you may one day have to let them go. Love truly gives us the best of times, but on the other side of it all, we know we may one day have to face the worst of times as well.
When we first met
I was struck, I was new
You felt what did not exist
You fed me, and I grew
So how could I have known?
The sudden wind that brings you
Will be the wind that takes you
The same fate that brought you
Will be the fate that takes you
How could I have known?
Independently released November 18, 2021, “How Could I Have Known” i a tranquil and gutting introduction to Fort Collins, Colorado’s Companion. The duo of identical twin sisters Sophia and Jo Babb come to life in their debut single full of sweet harmonies and intoxicating, filmic indie folk guitar and drums work. Like a sleeping giant, there’s a grandeur to this unassuming song; a grace that shines an invisible, but palpable light out into the universe.
Perhaps it comes from the deep sentiments resting at the core of this special song. How do we balance that knowledge that, as The Flaming Lips once told us 20 years ago in their song “Do You Realize??,” “everyone you know someday will die“? Companion don’t try to find answers, but rather focus their attention on being in the present and embracing the little moments that matter. There’s a poetry to the pair’s words; a cryptic vulnerability that lets us in, without spilling all their secrets. This helps make “How Could I Have Known” adaptable: It fits like a puzzle piece into our own stories and our own lives, bringing meaning wherever we may need it most. Companion call it a meditation “on the permanence of impermanence.”
The wildfire
in my old field of vision
You caught me in
a time of change
The season is ending
So it’d be fitting
For us to blame
The sudden wind that brings you
Will be the wind that takes you
The same fate that brought you
Will be the fate that takes you
How could I have known?
“I started writing ‘How Could I Have Known’ at the beginning of my first autumn in northern Colorado,” Sophia Babb tells Atwood Magazine. “I quickly learned that fall is a fleeting, beautifully short time in the mountains. It takes just a few blustery days for all the yellow aspen leaves to give way to bare trees, snowfall, and early sunsets. At the time, I was engaged to my now husband. He was dealing with some concerning medical issues, and I developed an over-awareness of how quickly I could never see him again.”
“Having lost family members without warning in the past, I became anxiously aware that just as soon as he came into my life, he could leave it, too. Though this thought, at its core, is a very scary one, when I looked beyond the fear of losing something I held so dearly, I could see the incredible gift it is to have something to hold dear in the first place. I showed Jo the beginnings of the song, and we finished it together in an afternoon.”
We are temporary, yes; but can we still find beauty in the fleeting? Companion acknowledge our limitations while reveling in life’s beauty throughout their debut single, inviting us to join them in a dreamy, reflective reverie. Between their stunning vocal harmonies and their lush, atmospheric instrumentation, “How Could I Have Known” proves an enchanting best foot forward: The Babb sisters have us transfixed, and we cannot wait to hear where they go next.
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Stream: “How Could I Have Known” – Companion
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