Courtesy Powfu
Powfu, aka Canadian singer/songwriter Isaiah Farber, was making music for several years before he broke through earlier this year with his hit “Deathbed (Coffee for Your Head).” So why was it this song — which is about what he imagines he’d say to his girlfriend if he were dying — that connected with people? He thinks it’s because it manages to be sad and happy at the same time.
“The main melody that goes through the whole song makes it really catchy and easy to sing along to,” Powfu tells ABC Audio. “Also, it’s…kinda like a happy vibe. But it’s also, when you listen to the lyrics, it’s a lot more deep, so it kinda hits every angle.”
One reason the song caught on was because it was used to soundtrack some six million videos on TikTok.
“I feel like TiKTok has a lot of sad songs that do good…I feel like people are just attracted to sadness,” he explains.
“So whenever people make, like, emotional videos or whatever, I feel like it’s a good backing track to it,” he adds. “And the first trend that happened with it was when Kobe Bryant died — people were using it for…making videos of him, like, going to heaven and stuff…and then it just went on from there.”
“And now people use it for whatever…which is pretty crazy,” he adds.
The song seems to be popular for TikToks featuring cute animals — like hamsters, dogs, tigers and cats. Powfu says one of his favorites is along those same lines.
“I think it was somewhere in Canada,” says Powfu, who’s Canadian himself.
There’s, like, a mama bear helping her baby cub get over a cement meridian…it was pretty funny. I like that one.”
By Andrea Dresdale
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