Cold Hart & BONES Share Tender Acoustic Single 'Light Headed'

Long Island based artist Cold Hart shares his new single “Light Headed” featuring longtime friend and collaborator, BONES.

A tear-stained journal entry from his upcoming album Pretty In The Dark, “Light Headed” blends airy, atmospheric production with the delicate sounds of an acoustic guitar. The minimal backdrop allows the vulnerable quality of both artists' vocals to shine through as they weave a tender story of “the times when you're arguing and have forgotten that the end goal was always love.”

“BONES was the first person to put me on in this music world,” Cold Hart continues. “ “Light Headed” feels like a song we've always wanted to make, but it felt like now was the right time in our lives. It's the last song off my new album and the most emotional.”

An architect of one of the generation's most influential musical movements of the 2010s and beyond, Cold Hart co-founded the seminal GOTHBOICLIQUE collective and changed the definition of punk and emo forever. With Pretty In The Dark, Cold Hart continues to explore the endless possibilities of the GBC ethos of blending the familiar with the unfamiliar, the light with the dark, and the nostalgic with the future. 

Much has changed for Cold Hart since GBC's blog-era reign. While his 2021 album Every Day Is A Day was created in the midst of welcoming his newborn daughter and moving from his native Long Beach to Long Island with his wife, Pretty In The Dark is an exhale as he settles into that routine. He's now a father of two, and after moving deeper into Long Island and adjusting to the rhythm of adulthood, he's taking the nuances of life in stride. Inspired by a new outlook on darkness, Cold Hart reflects on how he came up with title's tongue-in-cheek play on words: “I like standing out in the dark woods and feeling how calm it is. That's how the album is; instead of the dark being scary, it's nice.”

Part of Pretty In The Dark's foray into Cold Hart's psyche comes from relinquishing some of his creative control, aided by legendary producer, engineer, and mixer Andrew Dawson (Kanye West, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Code Orange). Alongside longtime collaborator and fellow GBC member, YAWNS, Cold Hart struck the balance between his past, present, and future. “Working with Andrew and YAWNS together really pushed me to try out new things on this album,” he says. “I really wanted it to have a feeling of familiarity at the same time.”

Drawing inspiration from goth icons such as The Cure and Lebanon Hanover, on Pretty In The Dark Cold Hart pairs dark trap leanings of Atlanta producers like Metro Boomin, with a diet of 80's punk and 90's RnB consumed as a kid. His retroactive discovery of bands like Brand New and Saves the Day only further enhanced his vision. As delicate pianos and vast guitar-led abysses make way for the familiar comfort of rumbling bass and 808s, layered harmonies and soaring falsettos clear a path for his most vulnerable collection yet.

Photo by Ben Collins