You’re driving down a cold, snow-lined winding highway in the middle of nowhere. Night’s coming. The burning orange light of the golden hour ripples across the horizon, punctuated with wispy clouds that cobweb across the faint light of the moon. You’re far from home. You turn up the stereo and a plaintive, soothing track comes on that reminds you of everything you’ve left behind – you feel at peace.
That’s the aura of “Rebandon,” a new track by That One Eyed Kid. “I love collaboration,” Josh Friedman, the man and musician behind the moniker, says. “I love how it has brought me my closest friends. I love that it has allowed me to be in the same room as world class vocalists, instrumentalists, producers, and engineers. I like the end result of actually making shit – but working with inspiring, talented artists is what I’m the most grateful to music for.”
The Boston-based singer-songwriter, producer, and performer, That One Eyed Kid is passionate about his strive to make music, and always has been. “My parents had my sister and I take piano lessons when we were kids,” he says. “Here I am, twenty-three years later, still making music.”
His progression as an artist has been drastic over the last few years, experimenting with harmonizing, melodies, and his narrative style. His first EP, Illuminate, he sees as nearly unrecognizable in comparison to his most recent work. “If you listen to anything off Illuminate, and then listened to ‘Rebandon,’ it feels like the two artists that made them wouldn’t even be friends,” he says. “They’re so different to me now.”
“Rebandon,” a cathartic and intimate single, begins with an eerie, slow synth melody and progresses into a deep, sultry and soulful vocal harmony, with powerful instrumentation concocted with electronic tones to flow with the lyrical structure. Friedman croons with a ghostly, doleful sound to his vocals, nearly humming – and then his tone grows stronger as the song progresses, showing the true nature of the singer’s vocal range. His deep, clarion voice is mesmerizing matched with the alluring backing track, and it turns into something ethereal.
Sonically, “Rebandon” echoes the most recent work of Bon Iver – but That One Eyed Kid spins it into his own explosion of art. It’s a slick, haunting track that echoes within you long after you’ve stopped listening.
Friedman came back from his tour last summer not feeling as hyped as he usually is. “I was completely zapped of energy,” he says. “It wasn’t quite depression but I had just spent so much energy on these shows and traveling and being ‘on,’ for six weeks. That’s the longest I’ve done something like that and it just left me really raw and empty.” That’s when he began working on “Rebandon.”
Of the lyrical interpretation of the song, Friedman prefers the listener be the judge. “I don’t really believe in explaining things too directly,” he says. “As a listener, I like to make my own meaning from lyrics.” Nevertheless, the track fits with That One Eyed Kid’s larger lyrical narrative: accepting insecurity, fessing up and owning flaws, and remembering to find the beauty in the ugliest parts of ourselves.
You can catch That One Eyed Kid playing at The Burren in Somerville on Saturday, July 13.