I knew I was about to witness a golden moment the minute I saw Maths Time Joy & Rich‘s names next to each other. What else can you expect when you bring together two alchemists? I’ve been loving Maths’ productions since his work with Flores (on After Hours in 2015 and Oceans in 2016) and don’t even get me started about Rich: in solo, with Thirdstory or with Refs, he never fails to make my heart melt.
So what’s the story here with Hoping You’d Call? Well, just something that probably many of us are too familiar with (and I’m quite sentimental so I’ve definitely been there myself): you meet someone, you hit it off and go on to think you have something special but you’re being ghosted or friend-zoned the very next day, wondering where it went wrong while your (already too little) self-esteem is taking a hit. “I wrote this song after going on a few dates with a guy and started getting feelings for him that were unrequited, Rich reveals. I started doing all the classic things people do when they start falling for someone – telling everybody about him, feeling weightless, and planning out every text obsessively. I was really let down when he said he just wanted to be friends.”
Unrequited love certainly feels beautifully poetic when it’s sung about with Rich’s mellow vocals and harmonies, perfectly layered on Maths’ engulfing synths that stretches around his words in all the right places. With the track grabbing you in the gut, all the way up to your soul, go ahead and add a layer of my own goosebumps on top of that heavenly combo!
Working remotely between London and New York, Maths Time Joy and Rich will be the gift that keeps on giving this year: just like their first collaboration Change unveiled last month, Hoping You’d Call will feature on a very special EP to be released this fall. “Sometimes you have to find the point where you connect musically and other times it just instantly makes sense, and it was that way with Rich”, Maths Time Joy shared. I’m ready for more of these two in my playlists!
Like Maths, follow Maths, stalk Maths.
Like Rich, follow Rich, stalk Rich.
