“How far can we go?…”
So opens the debut single from Modem Romance, ‘Can You Dig It?’, which immediately feels less of an innocent question and more of a mission statement.
A fizzing fusion of Yacht Rock references (Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan and Christopher Cross all get a name check) over dueling saxophones and garage rock guitar underpinning the most polite, nerdy, white-guy rap. Is Modem Romance genre defying, or genre defining?
“We think of it as ‘Yacht Hop’”, says the project’s leader, Ryan Hamilton.
“We toyed with a bunch of weird hybrid ideas”, chimes lead lyric instigator, Steve Rosier. “Yacht Hop is the one we (ahem) landed on”.
“It’s Yacht Hop Nerd Rock!” laughs Hamilton. “Can you dig it?”
It could just as easily be labeled ‘Un-Hip-Hop’. Bold and brassy, Can You Dig It? sounds like a 70’s cop-buddy TV show (Starsky & Hutch immediately jumps to mind) set on Springsteen’s E Street reimagined for the modern day. With rhymes focusing on first world problems such as internet speed and the proficiency of one’s local barista, coupled with a penchant for vegan smoothies, cheese and wine – it’s certainly a different spin on ‘rap’.
With a sound seemingly brimming over with inspirations, where did Modem Romance spring from?
“A couple of years ago I quit the music industry to become a full-time Dad”, explains Hamilton. “I’d become disillusioned at the constant slog artists undertake to not even make minimum wage. All of the issues Kate Nash has talked about so brilliantly in the press recently highlights the landscape that artists have been suffering for years. I released my last track ‘Bad Breaks’ (2023) to document that – and then I was OUT! But when you’re an artist or a creative person, you HAVE to create. We can’t stifle that creative urge, we have to nurture it – or we lose an important part of ourselves”.
“I was Ryan’s manager for a decade and we’ve been friends several years longer,” adds Rosier. “We speak near enough every day, despite Ryan being in Texas and me in the UK. We’re constantly rolling around new ideas. We started a podcast together (We Found Your Demo) then one day Ryan said, ‘could you send me a phrase or idea for a song a week that we could collaborate on?’ Who says ‘no’ to a fun idea like THAT?”
The pair’s only previous songwriting collaboration stands as Hamilton’s biggest hit to date, ‘Do The Damage’ having garnered over 60K streams on Spotify alone.
“Modem Romance began as a bit of a joke”, claims Hamilton, “a cool experiment to get the creative juices flowing again. But as these songs came together, as different as they are to anything I’ve done before, we felt they were too much fun not to share with the world”.
“Set against the angsty state of the world right now,” says Rosier, “these tracks started oozing ‘fun’ which felt like a real breath of fresh air in suffocating times”.
Indeed, ‘fun’ would appear to be their modus operandi – the project being an inclusive melting pot that transcends borders and featuring talent from around the globe, including super saxy sounds from France, angelic backing vocals from the UK, all mixed & mastered by Argentinian maestro Roman Styx.
“Modem Romance is like our sandbox where we invite people over to mess around to see what we can build together. We’re excited!” says Hamilton, sounding genuinely excited.
It’s wholesome, it’s authentic, it’s a nerdy rocking kind of hip-hop you can enjoy with the whole family. Modem Romance, Can You Dig It?…
Can You Dig It? is released on all digital platforms on March 4
Pre-Save the track here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/modemromance/can-you-dig-it
Socials:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/1BZmwQpoN1/?mibextid=wwXIfr
