Gabe Fleck is a singer/songwriter from Portland, OR, who aptly describes his sound as “if MGMT stumbled into a night club, developed a gnarly falsetto and decided to make an album at said club.” His new single “Colder Shoulders” – released this week – presents a very infectious vein of pop with a nocturnal tilt in the verses, as well as a nice showing of falsetto in first bridge. At the center is a fantastic hook – “I have to waste my time with someone, might as well be you,” – that rides alongside a playful synth and perky percussion. It’s a very enjoyable listen, showing a nice balance of atmosphere and hook-driven contagiousness.
“The track’s inspiration comes from someone not meeting you halfway,” Fleck explains. “That feeling that you aren’t good enough to be in someone’s life the way you want to be in their’s can make you bitter. That feeling caused me to feel like I was wasting my time pursuing someone else’s time and, due to my lack of self worth, I chose to keep wasting time because what else was I to do? Although that was the initial kindling in the fire, the song spans just a relationship standpoint. It has come to represent how becoming addicted to something of external or material influence can cause us to treat the people we once held significant as just another external aspect.”
Photo by Kaylin Rodriquez
