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Los Angeles singer-songwriter Rob Tilden is releasing a new album as BOYO, Dance Alone, out on Danger Collective Records on Nov. 9.
After the release of a stand-alone single, “Take Me Away,” featuring Dent May, back in June, he unveiled his first track from his new record on Friday, “Hit or Miss.” The track is a hazy, mellow stroll masquerading as a soulful indie-pop tune, laced with wah-wah guitars and Tilden’s silky-smooth, modulated vocals. Evidently, Tilden’s charming, high-pitched pipes and melodic intuition can turn even the most unglamorous, boring side of life into something slinky and sincere.
Tilden says of the influences on his new track, “I wanted to toggle the lines between Amy Winehouse, Flight of the Concords and Connan Mockasin by interpolating older soul elements but taking my modern, sardonic take on life and putting that in the forefront. I wanted to take something so un-sexy, like staying inside and drawing (something I regularly do) and put it over a nasty beat, essentially.”
The 22-year-old Tilden started BOYO after his previous band, Bobby T. and the Slackers, dissolved. Tilden has been releasing albums, EPs and singles under the name BOYO since 2016. According to a press release, his new album was made in the midst of deep isolation. After touring for a year, he began to have seizures and after seeing multiple doctors, he was given no formal diagnosis, but was prescribed an anti-convulsive medication. The medication made him depressed, which caused him to stay in and allowed him to continually home-record his music.
Tilden spoke about the highs and lows that inspired his new record, Dance Alone. “Dance Alone is about polarity in life; when shit hits the fan, sometimes you just want to dance alone. It’s an album where heaviness and light-self-awareness coexist on the same plane.”
Watch the video for “Hit or Miss” below.