Healing is often described as a return to stability, but ‘pollen’ understands it as something less orderly. It drifts, catches, irritates and lingers in the air, carrying traces of what came before into places that were supposed to feel new. On the focus single from A River Runs Through Me, Asheville artist i give my friends flowers turns that uneasy process into a warm, shifting piece of piano-led electronic songwriting.
The project belongs to producer and engineer Jacob Klein, whose recent years have been shaped by repeated upheaval. Caretaking, bereavement, the loss of friends, the death of a beloved dog, the collapse of a long relationship and the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene all sit behind this new body of work. Yet ‘pollen’ is more interested in the habits people develop when recovery feels too slow.
The song began with little more than voice and piano, preserving the directness of a private admission. From there, it expanded into a more unsettled electronic arrangement, with restless percussion and warmer textures creating the sensation of somebody trying to keep moving faster than their thoughts can follow. The influence of Sampha’s rhythmic detail is a useful point of reference, particularly in the way the beat appears to carry emotional tension rather than simply supply momentum.
Throughout, the music feels active, even inviting, while the lyrics examines distraction as a form of postponement. Parties, unfamiliar places and sudden changes can create the appearance of renewal, but they may only move pain into another room.
By the second verse, the focus begins to turn inward. The harder task is not leaving town or finding another temporary intensity; it is remaining still long enough to encounter what has been avoided. ‘pollen’ captures that change without presenting it as a dramatic breakthrough. The shift is tentative, suggesting that honesty often begins with the simple decision not to run again.
The material was developed across Asheville, Pittsburgh and the New River Gorge, including work completed in the room where his relationship with music first began. And that return doesn’t feel nostalgic so much as a way of locating continuity after several years in which homes, communities and relationships repeatedly changed shape.
‘pollen’ is quietly effective because it doesn’t make suffering the whole of his identity. Loss is present, but so is curiosity, craft and the continued decision to create. The song carries weariness without surrendering warmth, and its electronic movement prevents reflection from hardening into stillness.
As the opening doorway into A River Runs Through Me and the larger DOGSTAR sequence, it offers a persuasive statement of intent. Here, i give my friends flowers is learning how to let grief pass through without allowing it to take everything with it.