Writing songs about personal demons doesn’t always necessarily exorcise them. Especially when you try and wrap a riddle inside a riddle. The opening track of Rob Wheeler’s 2018 debut album offered more questions than answers. “If Natasha Knows” is at face value a love song about a troubled relationship, the blame laid squarely at the feet of the eponymous heroine; set against the backdrop of a driving beat layered with indie guitars. Lyrically ambiguous with metaphor and meta.

But over the years through live and acoustic performances, Wheeler has shared more details about the song’s real meaning, the inspiration behind it and the question he is asked most - Who is Natasha? A question which has now become the title of a brand new arrangement of this enigmatic track.

“Addiction is an issue I’ve dealt with all my life. Firstly through family, then through friends and finally with myself. You can carry a lot of weight on your shoulders, then suddenly one day you are carrying too much and it all crumbles. This is when a certain type of person in a certain frame of mind seeks a crutch” admits Wheeler.

“Natasha isn’t a person, she never was. She is desperation, despair, euphoria; she is the crutch. Natasha is addiction. An embodiment of the self destruct button that we all carry in our pocket”.

“When I wrote the song I was at a very low point in my life; I had been through a tragic and difficult time and I was coping with it in all the wrong ways. Recording my album was, thankfully, a turning point and I started to unload the weight into my music”.

Reimagining a song is a common practice in 2022, but with this new version of “Natasha” you really do get the sense of a song and it’s writer in transition. The message is ultimately the same, yet if the original is of a man struggling with his demons; this softer, calmer and more atmospheric version is of a man who has learned to, at least, live with them.

The modern pop-rock production of the original is replaced by a lo-fi, cinematic soundscape, which creates an immersive listening experience, which almost (but not quite) promises to deliver the answer to the riddle it poses.

The chiming guitars and punchy bass line are replaced by melodic piano and softened brass. The deliberately coarse synths designed to make the listener uncomfortable are now gone and the track is built upon a foundation of rain and voices; the silence of loneliness has become the silence of company. This melancholy sentiment is completely fulfilled by the vocal delivery; a single voice carrying the weight of the entire song, as a person carries the weight of their own secrets.

“People ask me all the time; who is Natasha? Literally at every show I’ve ever done. I am fascinated by the mythology that has built up around the song. When I finished the new mix I just thought it was the perfect title”.

It seems that Natasha; who or whatever she may be, is a continual source of inspiration and mystery for both Wheeler and his fans.

Who Is Natasha? is out now on all platforms