We ran as the days grew short
And howls rang through the air
Our empty days are long gone
We built a home with our hearts bared
As Night Falls, the luminous new single from Kallai’s We Are Forever (out now through Little Cloud Records), lands like a deep breath in a chaotic era; a quiet hymn to endurance and the stubborn beauty of holding on. There’s an elemental grace at work: a recognition that love, in its truest form, is less about escape than about standing together when the air turns to frost. The song feels both intimate and universal, the sound of two people bracing against the cold while the world outside continues to burn.
The Portland-based quartet: David Gross on guitars and vocals, Daniel Henderson on drums, Cate Hukle on guitars, synths, and vocals, and Brian Wilcher on bass – plays with the instinctive chemistry of kindred spirits. Their interplay feels lived-in, not rehearsed; every note functions as an act of witness, a gesture of solidarity. The composition moves between chill and warmth, tracing the ache of solitude before finding its anchor in empathy and care. At times, the track recalls the celestial drift of Cocteau Twins, the raw intimacy of PJ Harvey, and the eerie sensuality of a Lynchian soundtrack; music that holds tension between beauty and unease.
Kallai’s influences ripple outward in deliberate, expanding circles. Doom, goth, and grunge inspirations are folded into electronic textures, string arrangements, and the steady grace of piano. This isn’t embellishment for its own sake; it’s a reflection of identity itself: layered, complex, and ignoring genre boundaries. Each sound feels chosen to serve the song’s emotional core, amplifying its quiet insistence on resilience. With As Night Falls, the band moves beyond the familiar scaffolding of shoegaze toward something more fluid and human, something that breathes.
The mesmerizing accompanying video for As Night Falls mirrors the song’s emotional topography. It follows a woman wandering through solitude and shifting landscapes: atriums, subways, half-lit corridors, searching for connection in a world that feels both alien and familiar. When she meets a companion, the tension softens. Together, they navigate the uncertain terrain, their bond transforming unease into renewal. The journey ends not in triumph but in recognition: a homecoming of the heart, a return with the flame rekindled and the spirit altered.
As Night Falls is a reminder that survival is a living act. It’s motion and memory, care and communion – and the willingness to keep breathing through frost and fear. It is, as the lyrics insist, forever.
Watch the video As Night Falls below:
We Are Forever was largely written in the weeks following last year’s U.S. elections, a time when Cate Hukle was “processing her feelings as a disabled, mixed-race, queer woman.” The record carries that perspective in every measure. It speaks to the cyclical nature of struggle: the way certain stories, particularly those of the marginalized, get buried yet continue to hum beneath the surface. Here, pain is acknowledged, not romanticized. Hope is fragile but present, refracted through layers of sound that feel both ancient and forward-looking.
Their commitment extends offstage. As co-founders of Dreamgaze PDX, a festival that has spotlighted acts like The Veldt and Tears Run Rings, Kallai have become cultural architects in their own right. The festival’s forthcoming partnership with Seattle’s Tremolo Festival expands their vision into a multi-city celebration of underground resilience.
Listen to As Night Falls below and order the single here.
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