GIMI channels his inner pop diva on his next single “Worth the Calories.” A playful, autotune filled pop banger about longing for something you know is bad for you.
GIMI is a Danish/Kosovo-Albanian artist, songwriter and producer. Heavily inspired by MTV/pop culture of the early 00s and Albanian traditional music, GIMI has created a special lyrical world filled with irony, humor – and at times with social political messages. He makes music in his own quirky pop universe both catchy and experimental at once.
He has Kosovo-Albanian parents, grew up in Padborg (small bordertown in South Denmark) and now lives in Copenhagen. Many different places feel like home to him, and the journeys he has been on both personally and musically has led him to his debut EP ‘POLARI’ – which will be released later this Fall.
The word ‘polari’ comes from the Italian word ‘parlare’ which means ‘to talk’. It is an old, secret code language that can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century, and queer people in England used it to communicate in secret: “The language had words and common expressions that you could use to communicate and to get a sense of whether the other person was queer. Sentences that would make no sense to other people. It was a really special phenomenon, Polari”, GIMI says. The language came from a time where being queer was illegal and you needed a way of communicating without people becoming suspicious. As a response to this part of queer history GIMI sings openly about his own experience and at the same time the EP defies the secrecy that has been surrounding queer communities throughout history. The second single taken from the EP is the playful sugary autotune filled pop banger ‘Worth the Calories’.
Speaking about the story behind it, GIMI explains: “I wanted to write a song about longing for something that you know is bad for you. I liked the idea of how food often is linked with both guilt and pleasure – and I wanted to use this metaphor to write about that someone, that you know you shouldn’t call, but you do it anyway”.
What made you write ‘Worth the Calories’?
I got the idea for the song while watching Netflix. At one point someone in the show said that the cake they were eating was “sooo worth the calories”. I immediately thought it had to be the title of a new track and wrote it down in my notes on the phone. And instead of cake, I wanted the song to be about a person. I think most of us have experienced longing for someone or something that you know is bad for you. And that’s what ‘Worth the Calories is all about’.
I liked the idea of how food often is linked with both guilt and pleasure – and I wanted to use this metaphor to write about that someone, that you know you shouldn’t call, but you do it anyway.
Is there anything special that you think should be noticed about the track?
In the middle 8 in ‘Worth the Calories’, we turned up for the autotune – which really allowed me to feel my Mariah Carey fantasy in the studio when recording the song. It’s my favorite part of the song.
How was the process like in the studio?
The process was so fun and the song almost wrote itself. It was one of those songs that was written with no judgment and came out really naturally. I had the best time in the studio with my friend and writer/producer Stefan Luth, who I wrote the song with and who made the song what it is.
More of GIMI here:
YASS Magazine 