Single Review: Suffering

Riqi Harawira has made his calling an open book that has dealt with his personal experience of addiction and mental health challenges.

His latest single Suffering, is his most powerful statement yet, precisely and eloquently encapsulating aspects of the recovery journey.

The song itself is a classic churning guitar rock anthem with a powerful vocal that sets out the narrative: “Some days I look inside and there I find some things I might not like coz I can feel, can feel my fear. It’s coming here There’s a place that I have been that I have found my suffering.”

Although Harawira, reflects from the position of a recovering addict, his message is a timely one. We are all, in our own ways, addicted to something whether it be a substance, careers, money, status, sex, the unexamined thoughts and emotions that separate us from each other or anything that carries with it the underlying belief that our happiness is dependent upon something external to us.

There’s a soulful organ solo that precedes a poignant line – “but some days I’ll reach inside and I’ll survive on things I find there. I will not fear to see my fear that sometimes comes near” – which is a reminder that fear and it’s multiplicity of variations – sadness, anger, unhappiness, hatred etc – are not fixed states but often require our willingness to challenge and ‘shed light’, so to speak, on the underlying narratives and our emotional investment in them, in order to be free of them.

Suffering is ultimately a redemption song fashioned in the fires of one who has experienced it and found a way through it.