“I made a fool of you…I didn’t know my words hurt.”, sings Kita Alexander. “I messed up bad, now I’m paying the price.” It’s not easy for many people to admit fault, let alone face it long enough to thoroughly articulate their wrongdoings, flaws and missteps. But with her new single, ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry’, Kita sets out to do exactly this; raw emotion and all. “The song is very truthful, and almost word-for-word, to be honest," she admits. "I really looked at myself. ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry’ is a reflection of turning inwards rather than pointing the finger at someone else. Because I've realised you can't control anyone or anything. You can only control your reactions and your emotions”

‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry’ is the follow-up to ‘Against The Water’, and the latest taste of new music to come from Kita since her second EP, ‘Hotel’ (2017). In typical form, the single highlights the Northern NSW-based artist’s sublime talent for articulating the complicated human experience of love, loss and everything in between. This time, it’s fuelled by a newfound curiosity of inquiry and reflection. “Writing this was a real experience for me,” she says of the single, produced by New Zealand’s Josh Fountain (BENEE, MAALA, Paige Foley, Matthew Young), also one of Australian/New Zealand pop’s fastest rising and most in-demand producers. “It was an easy song to write because it came from experience. But it was hard to look in the mirror and realise you messed up. I don’t know if everyone has that epiphany, but on this occasion, I saw my mistakes and flaws.”

As seen in ‘Against The Water’, Kita’s journey of maturity as a songwriter continues with ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry’, not only in lyric but also in sound. “Right now, I’m still in this state of letting the music take its course,” she says of her process with production, which is mostly driven by instinct. “I wanted to tone it back at the beginning of the song so it would be more of a punch towards the end,” she explains of the synth-laced track. “We played around with a lot of different sounds. It's not very typical of what I would normally do, but it really moves.” Early fans of Kita, familiar with the songs that put her on the map with the likes of Triple J, BBC Radio 1 and French compilation Kitsune, might be surprised at her direction in musical diversity, but Kita insists this is just her sharing the tapestry of music that makes up who she is as an artist.

“The music that inspires me ranges from modern pop to 80s and really old school sounds,” she says. “I still like touching back on the older sounds that I use. But I guess people might not realise how much I like trying out different things. It keeps me on my toes if I’m creating new sounds and stops me from putting myself in a box.” Kita is still writing from the same place, one full of emotion and experience. But like the subject matter she so often plays with, these days, she’s taking even bigger leaps of the heart. “This is probably also a cheeky, playful side of me that people haven’t seen. It’s just another example of what I can do and how different songs and sounds fit into my world.”