Rising folk-rock star Leo Sawikin has just dropped his single A Whole World Waiting, and its accompanying music video.
Tapping into the anxieties of modern life, Sawikin’s philosophy is to sit with the uncomfortable and unwelcome sensations which may plague us every day, and learn to bring and breed our own compassion towards ourselves and each other.
“It’s just the pervading sense that things are getting more difficult in the world – and every attending emotion that goes along with it,” Leo adds. “It’s kind of like letting go of that and trying to figure out what you do after everything falls apart.”
There is beauty in the fragility of Leo’s songwriting. The notion that everything is on the verge of falling apart, but the art of balancing on a knife’s edge is something reflected in his full vocal, the lyricism which calls to mind bravery as much as melancholy. Carrying on despite it all is something which we have all become only too familiar with over the last year.
Written well before the pandemic, Leo’s writing is therefore the sign of an artist so in tune with the zeitgeist that his work becomes a mouthpiece for modern life itself. It’s a true talent and a feat of empathy, perception and songwriting which makes up this remarkable track.
A Whole World Waiting is out now, with Sawikin’s full album, Row Me Away coming in Autumn 2021.