Berlin-based songwriter Queen Quail opens up about memory, healing, and emotional endurance as she unpacks the smoldering intensity of “Southside,” a hypnotic centerpiece of her debut EP ‘Narcissus’ that traces the slow, nonlinear work of sitting with discomfort and letting it transform.

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Stream: “Southside” – Queen Quail

Thought I left you on the south side, but you’re West of the borderline / And I wanna be on time, but I’m late to my own life…

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“Southside” doesn’t warm the room – it heats it.

From the first hushed moments, Queen Quail’s music radiates a smoldering intensity that feels almost physical, Kirstin Edwards’ voice close and consuming, the guitars coiled tight beneath her like something waiting to break loose. It’s heavy, hypnotic, and deeply seductive – a slow-burning enchantment that grows from intimate reflection into a hard-hitting fever dream, aching and relentless in its pull.

“Southside” feels so vivid and visceral that the first listen is immediately disarming – every breath, every swell, every surge landing with lifelike force. That intensity is what makes it such a standout on Queen Quail’s recently released debut EP, Narcissus. The music takes its time, letting its weight settle before breaking open, transforming inward reflection into something towering and immersive. The heaviness here isn’t oppressive; it’s seductive, drawing you deeper the longer you sit with it.

Queen Quail is the project of Berlin-based songwriter Kirstin Edwards, who moved from Milwaukee to Berlin in her early twenties and began writing songs that trace the strange, disorienting expansion that comes with leaving one life behind and growing into another. Her music lives in that charged in-between space – intimate but expansive, gentle on the surface yet unafraid of weight. Across Narcissus, Edwards explores memory, self-doubt, healing, and the slow work of becoming, and “Southside” marks one of the EP’s emotional anchors.

She wrote the song while still in the thick of processing a formative experience. “I wrote this song while feeling overwhelmed by the realization that a particular experience in my life is now a part of my personal history,” Edwards explains. “I was still processing this experience when I wrote the song and felt pretty frustrated that, despite trying to get over it, I still have a lot of healing to do.” That tension – between wanting closure and realizing it hasn’t arrived yet – pulses through every layer of the track.

On the south side
met you in a coal mine
In my mind’s eye
I thought you were the kind type
In the water turned me into fodder
Turned me outside
and left me in the cold night

The lyrics feel like fragments pulled from memory, looping and circling rather than resolving. Edwards has described “Southside” as being about the way experiences can continue to haunt us even after we’ve tried to process and move past them – and for her, the song became a lesson in patience. “I think about me realising that some things, especially healing, just take time,” she says. “And that sometimes you just have to sit with uncomfortable feelings and let them move through you. That process can’t always be rushed.”

That idea is mirrored beautifully in the song’s structure. The central guitar riff repeats almost obsessively, creating the sensation of a thought you can’t shake. “The main guitar riff in ‘Southside’ is intentionally repetitive, almost like a memory looping,” Edwards shares. When she brought the song into the studio with producer David Thornton, they focused on finding a way to let that tension expand rather than stagnate. “That’s where the big explosion at the end came from, this moment where everything that was simmering finally breaks open.”

Thought I left you on the south side
But you’re West of the borderline
And I wanna be on time
But I’m late to my own life
Thought I left you at the low tide
But you’re way above the waterline

When that eruption arrives, it feels earned – not like a release from frustration, but a pivot toward resilience.

“I think that resulted in the song ending in a moment of resilience rather than frustration at feeling stuck,” she reflects. That shift mirrors the larger journey of Narcissus itself. Making the EP pushed Edwards toward collaboration and community, and the end of “Southside” carries that same sense of forward motion. “It starts in introspection and ends in something expansive, almost forward-looking, and that arc feels really true to what the whole project did for me.”

Within the narrative of Narcissus, “Southside” occupies a crucial emotional space. Edwards connects it directly to the myth that gives the EP its name: “‘Southside’ feels like the emotional equivalent of [Narcissus],” she says. “It’s a moment where I was overwhelmed by self-doubt, replaying things, questioning everything, and basically caught looking at my own reflection a little too closely.” It’s a portrait of feeling stuck – not out of vanity, but confusion and longing – and that honesty makes the song hit with particular force.

Talk the big talk, never meant to know ya
Found the soft spot and then you let it harden up
In the glass times forgot how to talk I,
Met a boy there, he thought he was soldier

Ultimately, “Southside” offers something rare: A song that doesn’t rush healing or pretend resolution is immediate.

Edwards hopes listeners feel held by it. “I hope people feel held when they listen to it, like the songs give them a safe little container to feel some of the big, complicated, but really important emotions we all move through in life,” she says. Creating Narcissus helped her reconnect – with herself, her community, and her family – and gave her a foundation she didn’t know she was missing.

That grounding is audible in “Southside.” It’s smoldering and intense, heavy and heartfelt, but never hollow. The song doesn’t shy away from discomfort; it honors it, sits with it, and lets it bloom into something powerful. As a centerpiece of Narcissus, “Southside” is a stunning statement of patience and endurance – a reminder that sometimes the most cathartic music doesn’t soothe you right away. It stays with you, burns slow, and trusts that feeling, given time, will find its way forward.

In conversation, Edwards returns to those ideas with striking clarity. She speaks about “Southside” as a song shaped by time rather than answers; about writing through uncertainty, letting repetition hold meaning, and allowing discomfort to remain unresolved. In reflecting on Narcissus, she traces the slower emotional work behind the music, articulating how patience, memory, and self-doubt became creative forces rather than obstacles.

“Southside” leaves you steadier than it found you – not because the answers arrive, but because you learn how to sit with the feeling. Read our candid interview with Queen Quail below, and listen to Narcissus wherever you stream music.

Thought I left you on the south side
But you’re West of the borderline
And I wanna be on time
But I’m late to my own life
Thought I left you at the low tide
But you’re way above the waterline

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:: stream/purchase Narcissus here ::

:: connect with Queen Quail here ::

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Stream: “Southside” – Queen Quail

A CONVERSATION WITH QUEEN QUAIL

Queen Quail: I hope my music resonates and makes you feel a few things. The music is pretty intimate and is something like indie folk pop. I write a lot about my experiences living in Berlin after moving here from Milwaukee, WI when I was 22, and going through this crazy process of feeling my world totally open up and expand.

Queen Quail: I wrote this song while feeling overwhelmed by the realization that a particular experience in my life is now a part of my personal history. I was still processing this experience when I wrote the song and felt pretty frustrated that, despite trying to get over it, I still have a lot of healing to do. When I brought it into the studio, it became a lot bigger and louder than I expected, but I think that resulted in the song ending in a moment of resilience rather than frustration at feeling stuck.

Queen Quail: I think about me realising that some things, especially healing, just take time. And that sometimes you just have to sit with uncomfortable feelings and let them move through you. That process can’t always be rushed.

Queen Quail: The main guitar riff in “Southside” is intentionally repetitive, almost like a memory looping, so when I brought it into the studio, David and I spent a lot of time thinking about how to make the song open up by the end. That’s where the big explosion at the end came from, this moment where everything that was simmering finally breaks open.

I love that it mirrors what creating the EP did for me. Making Narcissus pushed me into community and collaboration in a way I hadn’t experienced before, and the ending of “Southside” feels like this little burst of hope born directly out of that process. It starts in introspection and ends in something expansive, almost forward-looking, and that arc feels really true to what the whole project did for me.

Queen Quail: I guess in the story of Narcissus, he gets stuck staring at his own reflection. “Southside” feels like the emotional equivalent of that for me. It’s a moment where I was overwhelmed by self-doubt, replaying things, questioning everything, and basically caught looking at my own reflection a little too closely. Within the EP, it marks that point in the narrative where you’re still tangled in old versions of yourself, not out of vanity, but out of confusion and longing. It’s one of the moments where I felt the most stuck, which is why it fits so naturally into the world of Narcissus.

Queen Quail: It’s had many chapters. I think in some way, it’s been about finding a way to integrate my life at home in Milwaukee with my life here in Berlin, finding a way to have the things and people and experiences I’ve had or met in Berlin make sense in Milwaukee and vice versa.

Queen Quail: I hope people feel held when they listen to it, like the songs give them a safe little container to feel some of the big, complicated, but really important emotions we all move through in life. I’ve taken so much away from making Narcissus and releasing it into the world. It helped me move on from a really challenging chapter, connect with my community, and reconnect with my family. Creatively and spiritually, it gave me a foundation I didn’t realize I was missing. Now I am in a place where I can contribute to the people and communities around me, and really show up. The EP was my way of finding that footing.

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:: stream/purchase Narcissus here ::

:: connect with Queen Quail here ::

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Stream: “Southside” – Queen Quail

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