Maryland singer/songwriter K Nkanza—who performs under the title Spring Silver—is one of the most exciting indie musicians working at the moment. Their work embraces a spectrum of hardcore, power pop and emo; an awareness of what the apexes of those subgenres can create when mixed together. Nkanza’s 2022 single “I Saw Violence” floated under the radar, yet it was one of the most passionate, moving and visceral rock tracks of last spring. This time around, “Gold Star” is our look inwards at what Nkanza might just be cooking up next. Whether or not there’s a follow-up to their 2022 album I Could Get Used to This in the works or on the way, that will remain to be seen. For now, we’ve got this immaculate offering, on which Nkanza wrote, performed and mixed every element. It’s a distinctive, wondrous slice of rock music that owes as much to mid-2000s radio hits as it does doom and techno.
Nkanza says of “Gold Star”: “As you develop a song, you have to make certain eliminative decisions. You have to decide on the dynamics, the tempo, the key, and so on. While I don’t think it’s really possible to do away with this elimination (nor am I trying to), I like the idea of presenting multiple interpretations of the song and having them all exist in the final version.”
Listen to “Gold Star” below.