Bergen, Norway-based one to watch Bo Milli has released her new single ‘Good Kid’ – a powerful and personal examination of her responsibility in the fight against a climate catastrophe, whilst challenging the expectations (and the norm) of generations before her.

“I turn on the TV / I see people doing pretty much the same as me” – Bo Milli offers in the opening verse to ‘Good Kid’ – surmising a collective apathy toward the environmental crisis. The laid-back guitar strums and her delicate, curious vocals then open up to the track’s titular choral refrain “I’m a good kid / I’m not meant to change the world”.

“The lines in the chorus are essentially what I’m tempted to say to myself when I want to throw in the towel and see everything play out”, Bo Milli says. “It’s a logic that’s difficult to argue with, but nevertheless, I think it’s the wrong conclusion. It’s an attitude that disregards my responsibility, and it doesn’t feel good to live like that.”

Within the song’s lilting verses and its crushing indie-rock chorus, there’s an uncanny level of nuance and stoic consideration in Milli’s often self-critical assessment of the situation we face. Speaking more on the inspiration behind ‘Good Kid’, Bo Milli said:

“My parents’ reaction to my own civil disobedience has pretty much been: ‘you’re a good kid, you don’t have to change the world’. They grew up in a different reality. I think younger people implicitly live as if that world still exists — if I get some kind of education, I’ll land a steady job, at some point I’ll settle down, I’ll grow old and have a pension. But I think, if we interrogate these presumptions, this future doesn’t add up.

“When I imagine the year 2100, given I could technically still be alive by then, we’re looking at a 3-degree warmer world. In that world, it’s unlikely I’ll have a steady pension and my (future) grandkids definitely will be living in a much scarier world. And that seems very unfair.

“No matter what I do we’re probably fucked – so whatever I do (or don’t do) regarding the climate crisis doesn’t impact whether I’m a good kid. This is the kind of reassurance I think I look for on some level during the many bleak conversations I have about our future. The fact of the matter is, very powerful systems are pushing us towards the point of no return, possibly we’ve already passed that. This is a gut punch, but maybe it excuses me from responsibility…”