“When I first wrote the lyrics, it felt more like I was channeling something rather than deliberately sitting down to write. I had to make sense of the words afterward,” says Vanessa Silberman of Lovecolor’s retro-leaning, synth-heavy “New York Baby.”
Silberman originally had the title “Closer To You,” but that changed once she brought it to Lovecolor’s other half, Ryan Carnes. “What was missing was a stronger hook in the chorus,” she says. “During one of our brainstorming studio sessions, he spontaneously said, ‘New York, baby.’ I sang it with the melody, and it just clicked.”
It’s just that sort of easy chemistry that brought these two multifaceted Los Angeles creatives together for Lovecolor. After disbanding her all-female alt-rock trio Diamonds Under Fire in 2014, Silberman was bent on becoming a DIY force to be reckoned with, playing more than 800 shows over five years before the pandemic slowed her down. She’s collaborated with the likes of Kimbra and Jello Biafra, been an assistant engineer at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 and worked on sessions for the Kills, Joan Jett and others.
Carnes, meanwhile, is best known for his onscreen work, most notably in Desperate Housewives, General Hospital, The Phantom and Clint Eastwoodʼs Letters From Iwo Jima. He first met Silberman in 2015 at a holiday party hosted by a mutual friend.
“We really clicked and spent the majority of the night talking about music, among many other things,” says Carnes.
A few years later, Silberman asked Carnes to sit in on drums for one of her shows at L.A.’s sorely missed Satellite club. “We had a great time, and from that point forward, Vanessa started sending me demos of her own material,” says Carnes.
By late 2022, the two had solidified their collaboration as Lovecolor. “New York Baby” is the latest single from their self-titled debut, available via Silberman’s A Diamond Heart Production on December 13.
“It started out as this bright, light, fun little pop ditty, but it turned into something more angular,” says Carnes. “There’s something that really turns me on about a fat, buzzy synth bass—it’s delicious. Alt-J is one of our favorite bands, and they often craft a bass sound that makes me feel like, ‘Fuck, yes. More please.’ It’s visceral.”
We’re proud to premiere Lovecolor’s “New York Baby.”
—Hobart Rowland
