Kevin Toqe’s “Shadows” radio edit has all the nuances of a professional production, together with the powerful emotion of an R&B/pop anthem, while also setting off on an experimental tangent in its structural songwriting scope.
A tranquil synth-pad soundscape filling in the mid- and background audio space opens up the scene for a subtle-yet-confident R&B vocal entrance of Kevin Toqe. From an ambient calmness, Toqe drives in a four-to-the-floor kick at around thirty seconds in, and continues building up the energy through additional instrumental and rhythmic layerings at about fifty seconds, dropping into a sparse bridge section at around 1:10 to 1:30, and then climaxing into a short hook after a minute-and-a-half into the song.
After the hook, Toqe once again drops out the beat completely, holding the pace with his continuous vocal outpouring over an ambient sparseness, and the song interplays between verses, bridges, and two more hooks that further express the climactic energy from its preceding sparse sections.
Toqe successfully weaves together production complexities into a simplistic vibe that any person could vibe to.
In terms of the song’s content, Kevin Toqe explains: “Shadows is a calling. It’s about being comfortable with obscurity and comfortable with being known. It’s learning to trust God’s protection in a world that can feel like a jungle of cynicism and fear. Living in His shadows is a place of protection and a place to thrive.”
About Kevin Toqe
With his unique and soulful blend of folk-R&B, Kevin weaves lyrics into a solid groove with depth and texture. He’s a singer, songwriter, and producer who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kevin, who is 50% Albanian and 100% Alopecian, now resides on the Central Coast of California with his spicy wife and two children.
Stream Kevin Toqe – “Shadows” (radio version, and music video of “Shadows At 25th Street”):
