Danielle Balbuena, or 070 Shake, is 24-years old and suspects already that nothing lasts. At least nothing physical. “We’re so attached to this physical world, it makes us more susceptible to being hurt,” she says. “You can’t kill me because I’m more than my body.”
In the first two tracks of Shake’s latest release and second full-length, You Can’t Kill Me, “Web” and “Invited,” her story unfurls in rising harmonies akin to the opening of past collaborator Kanye West’s unparalleled My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. By the time we get to “History,” we’re awash in dance beats but the vibe is more dark-room than rave. The energy grounds with “Medicine,” Shake sharing the dim reality of a co-dependent relationship singing, “You were low and I was your medicine,” before “Skin and Bones” arrives with the warmth of loyalty. Deep feelings pervade. “I don’t want to overthink,” she says. “Feeling is the biggest ingredient of my music.”
You Can’t Kill Me moves on through seduction when Shake is joined by Christine and the Queens on “Body,” the spirit of love’s physical place in “Purple Walls,” and the inevitable relationship’s end in “Se Fue la Luz,” which translates to “the light is gone.” The record is a revealing look within the journey through love and loss, and what it’s like to travel on with a sense of the finite. Shake well captures this and understands it may signal vulnerability. “With each album, it’s like you’re being revealed more and more,” she says. “You Can’t Kill Me shows how dedicated I am to being free within music.”
070 Shake is on the air at WFUV, WCNR, Birmingham Mountain Radio, Radio Milwaukee, and more, and will hit the road later this summer on Kid Cudi’s To The Moon arena tour.
