With a graceful groove underscoring their reverberating melody, simple acoustic guitar strings adorn the first few bars of Sami Chohfi’s “It’s Just Me” with an elegant catharsis that is awfully hard to come by nowadays, but they’re only a sampling of what this debut single from the critically acclaimed Blue Helix singer is jam-packed with. “It’s Just Me” is driven by its passionately poetic verses, exquisitely surreal vocal execution, and most importantly of all, its hypnotic instrumental backdrop, and though it’s an intensely elaborate single by comparison to what the majority of new indie tracks we’ve heard out of the Pacific Northwest have contained, it’s anything but inaccessible to both casual rock fans and more serious audiophiles alike.
Sami Chohfi – It’s Just Me (Official Music Video)
This is my debut singer/songwriter acoustic music video. “It’s Just Me” is about being proud of who you are, and accepting that even though fitting in can be easy, being unique and yourself is extraordinary.
The guitars in this song are expressing just as much emotion as Chohfi is in his vocal, and that’s no small statement to make when we isolate the two components and appreciate just how grandiose both of them are in their own right. Chohfi sings like he’s got his whole life on the line, and there’s a deliberate pacing in his lyrics that lends to the tension that builds more and more as we get closer to the fever pitch within the track. “It’s Just Me” is a little deceptive in its titling in that its narrative is as defined by its prose as it is by the relationship between a singer and his guitar, and despite its unwaveringly blunt wording, it has a melodic core that makes it an appealing listen to pop, rock and even folk fans who are inspired by something with a more unfiltered edge than what most of the mainstream has had to offer lately.
In the stunningly well-shot music video for “It’s Just Me,” Sami Chohfi stars in a story about a time capsule and the boy who tossed it into the cold depths of Puget Sound so many years ago, and he gives a performance alongside two young actors that is made all the more riveting thanks to the handiwork of director Jon Meyer. The soundtrack remains the primary focus, but the imagery has an emotionality to it that, even on its own, makes the video a worthwhile watch for anyone feeling a bit more contemplative than they normally would. The bottom line? “It’s Just Me” has unique charms and an unfanciful ambitiousness that makes it all the easier for us to instantly fall in love with Sami Chohfi, regardless of our familiarity with his complete discography.
GOOGLE PLAY: play.google.com/music/preview/Tidy33vpujuydfvixn3xhjt55r4?play=1
Having given us plenty of reasons to believe in his sound while rocking out with Blue Helix, it should come as no surprise to those who follow the American underground closely that Sami Chohfi is firing on all cylinders and submitting some of his finest work yet in this latest release, and hopefully it will be followed with a full-length solo effort full of as much of the texture and raw tonality that we find in spades here. “It’s Just Me” is spiked with contemporary rock elements, but make no mistake about it – its meaning, and melodies, are as classic and relatable as those of the icons that paved the way for Blue Helix and its unparalleled lead singer.
Clay Burton