Wes Reeve Knows That Nobody — Including Herself — Knows Anything

Wes Reeve’s new single, “I Don’t Know Anything,” is a dazzling indie-pop ode to not-knowing.

“I don’t know anything / you don’t know anything either / and neither does he / and neither does she / so why do we pretend / that we know everything?” the Los Angeles artist sings in the track’s opening verse.

“‘I Don’t Know Anything’ is about coming to this realization that I know such a small fraction of all the information that exists in the world,” Reeve tells American Songwriter of the track, which premieres below. “I really don’t know much at all in the grand scheme of things. But it’s also the realization that it’s okay because nobody else does either.”

Reeve sounds wise and wistful as she sings of her ignorance. The track is twinkling and philosophical, centering Reeve’s weightless, gauzy vocals and calling to mind an ancient Socrates tale: “There’s a story,” Reeve says, “that a friend of Socrates went to the Oracle at Delphi and asked ‘Is anyone wiser than Socrates?’ to which the Oracle responded ‘No.’ It’s said Socrates was confused because he had always claimed that he didn’t know anything at all. To prove the Oracle wrong, he set out conversing with the wisest people in Athens. In the end, he found that none of the people he questioned knew anything, but they all thought they did, and therefore he was wiser than they were because he at least knew that he knew nothing.”

“Life is way too big and mysterious for any one of us to fully wrap our heads around,” Reeve continues. “Our instinct is often to examine and analyze it and try to figure everything out in order to feel safe in it, but sometimes it’s more liberating to just surrender to the fact that we can’t fully understand it at all. And what would life be if it were simple enough to explain in a way that made perfect sense? Probably pretty boring. In a way, this song is a celebration of our perpetual ignorance and the freedom and joy that comes with it.”

“I Don’t Know Anything” will appear on Reeve’s forthcoming debut album, Come To The Table, which is structured around the four seasons. It follows her latest singles “Lost Tales 1: The Knight,” “Wedding Song,” and “Who Are You (Interlude).”

According to the LA singer-songwriter’s website, she “lives in a world inside her head. Her songs are written through stream-of-consciousness. She loves fiction, film and pulls inspiration from Disney and Studio Ghibli. She spends a lot of time listening to The Wheel of Time while driving around LA.”

“I Don’t Know Anything” is out July 24. You can follow Reeve here.