There are songs that feel written to impress, and there are songs written because they needed to exist. Kaleb Hikele’s “Slowly” is very clearly the latter — an intimate, intentional, and deeply human piece that functions both as a love song and as a personal timestamp in the artist’s life. It’s a song that draws no lines between craft and confession; the writing is emotional without overreaching, poetic without posturing, and honest in the way only someone who has lived inside the lyric for years can be.

“Slowly” serves as the opening doorway into Hikele’s fifth solo album and thirteenth independent release, Storytelling — a project nearly two decades in the making if we trace the arc back to his first sessions at Catherine North Studios as a teenager. Returning there in 2021 — in the stillness of a pandemic-suspended world — feels symbolic. The space, a converted church with natural resonance and reverberant warmth, becomes less of a studio and more of a sanctuary for self-examination. And crucially, Hikele recorded everything himself: guitar, drums, piano, vocals. The result is a performance that feels unfiltered, unforced — the sound of an artist speaking in his first language.

At its core, “Slowly” is a song about becoming. Written in 2016 while falling in love with Jess — who is now his partner, his co-narrator, his future — the song carries the sort of quiet certainty that only shows itself in hindsight. The refrain, “Slowly, moving one side to the other, I go,” reads like a journal entry, as though the songwriter is witnessing himself fall, recording the tremors as they unfold. It’s not grand or dramatic; it’s gentle, patient, and full of trust in the unknown. The emotional architecture mirrors nature — tidal, cyclical, steady, with swells and retreats that mimic breath or waves or embrace.

Musically, the song moves with organic warmth. The arrangement isn’t cluttered; it breathes. Hikele’s vocal delivery lands somewhere between folk storyteller, soul singer, and jazz-influenced phrasing — a lineage of artists who sing from the chest first and the throat second. The acoustic textures are weathered, comfortable, like worn wood or soft cotton. There is no urgency to impress; the song simply exists, and that is its beauty.

What makes “Slowly” especially effective is the space it leaves for the listener. It’s not a love song that tells you how to feel — it reminds you of the feelings you’ve already known: the timid beginning, the tentative hope, the quiet awe of recognizing the person who will change your life.

The upcoming Storytelling tour — thirteen dates across Ontario in folk clubs, breweries, and small sacred spaces — fits perfectly. This isn’t an album meant for stadiums; it’s meant for rooms where breath and silence count as instrumentation.

“Slowly” is the opening chapter of a larger narrative — but even on its own, it is complete. It is gentle. It is sure. It is someone saying, I remember how it felt when everything began.

“Slowly” is available now on all major streaming platforms

Listen to Kaleb Hikele and other similar artists on our Spotify Playlist ‘New Music Spotlight - Indie & Alternative’

“Slowly” - Kaleb Hikele

“From the Heart” - Sharon Ruchman

“Son of Sam I Am (Tommy's Version)” - Too Much Joy