Cold War Kids have returned with “So Tied Up”, the latest single from their forthcoming album, LA Divine. The track features guest vocals by rising CoSigned electro-soul singer Bishop Briggs. Her voice spars beautifully with that of CWK frontman Nathan Willett, so much so that you’d imagine they spent hours in the studio practicing and getting in synch. As Willett tells Consequence of Sound, however, they did it all in just 120 minutes.
“Pulling this session together was something of a miracle,” Willett says. “We were between tours and I hadn’t actually met Bishop in person and the band hadn’t worked out any arrangement. We had like 2 hours. Luckily Bishop was so confident and her voice is perfection; the voice of a woman twice her age, so raw and sophisticated … I sorta laid in the cut and watched her explode. This is as fun as it gets — working so loose in a pinch, everybody flexible and down to mess around — and the greatest moments happen. By evening the strings capped off what is now one of my favorite CWK recordings.”
The magic of that short studio session is captured in the above video. The clip sees Willett and Bishop sitting at a piano performing an acoustic version retitled “So Tied Up (Los Feliz Blvd)”, with the strings coming in later. What’s perhaps most fascinating is watching the pair talk through the arrangement, each offering and taking advice. Bishop’s face in particular seems to be one of pure joy as she listens to the veteran musician explain his thoughts. Take a look above.
Here’s the studio version:
LA Divine is out April 7th on Capitol Records. Cold War Kids will support the release with a big summer tour alongside Young the Giant.
