There comes a point in a relationship when you realize that the other person is never quite going to grow into the person you wish they would, and that it may be a waste of both of your time to continue to try and wait it out. Songwriters Portair and VÉRITÉ both seem to have arrived at this realization around the same moment at the onset of the pandemic when they connected online—from different continents—to compare post-breakup notes and turn their feelings into a heartfelt single titled “Above the Salt.” “VÉRITÉ and I wrote this song over Zoom from New York to Berlin during lockdown,” Portair recalls. “It’s an ode to the endless cycle of avoiding the red flags when deep down we know better.”
The wistfulness of that conversation clearly comes through in the composition, which sees the pair trading off verses and duetting over a swelling, melancholic instrumental. “I love when, as an artist, writer, and producer, I get to step into someone else’s world,” VÉRITÉ adds. “This song came so naturally, dissecting the feeling of waiting for someone to change and realizing you’re waiting for a person who will never arrive.”
The single arrives ahead of Portair’s newly announced Learning How to Die EP, set for release on February 24 via Nettwerk Music Group. Check out the visualizer for the track below.
