Kim's Caravan

Album: Sometimes I Just Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This environmentally themed epic was inspired by a depressing trip to the seaside. Barnett told NME: "I had a bunch of songs I was trying to finish, and I was just having the worst time. So I took my friend's caravan down to the coast and had this terrible weekend of looking at the world. I saw a dead seal while I was walking on the beach, and that became part of this overwhelming feeling I sometimes get when I consider all the problems with the world."
  • "Kim" is the ex-girlfriend of Barnett's bass player, Andrew Sloane. The caravan actually belongs to Kim's mom, and is located on Phillip Island near Melbourne. This according to Sloane in an Uncut interview with Barnett.
  • According to the UN atlas, 44% of people live within 93 miles of the sea. Here are a few more (happier!) songs set by the seaside:

    "Down By The Seaside" by Led Zeppelin

    "Brighton Rock" by Queen

    "Seaside Rendezvous" by Queen

    "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside" by Mark Sheridan

    "With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock" by George Formby

    "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" by Squeeze.
  • The song's music video was directed by Bec Kingma and finds Barnett taking a bittersweet look at her past. "In conceptualizing a film clip for the track," Kingma explained, "I am keen to explore the adult attempt to return to that place of childish innocence."

    "If you have ever returned to a childhood holiday haunt in the offseason, it's likely you've discovered the sad realization that the place barely resembles your idyllic memories," he added. "As grown ups we all yearn for a time and place where our biggest concerns were the sand in our bathers and the mosquitos eating us alive."

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