Boston’s genre-defying six piece The Sunset Kings, featuring Alex Quilon (who plays w/ VQnC), have been touring with up-and-coming Haitian pop singer-songwriter Miu Haiti for over a year. According to Quilon, the release of “Come By,” the first official track recorded by the two groups together, doesn’t necessarily mean a collaboration is around the corner, but it also doesn’t not mean that.
“Nothing’s official yet, but Miu and I have been co-writing for the past year so another collaboration is definitely possible,” says Quilon. “With ‘Come By,’ we just wanted to pretty much get our equivalent of a photograph of the chemistry we were building by just being tourmates and going through so many shows and cities together.”
“Come By” features Miu’s powerful vocals and even more powerful presence, coupled with TSK’s eclecticism. Violin and sax mingle with hip-hop and traces of rocksteady as Quilon and Miu spin a rooftop love story that feels most familiar after a night of lonely socializing. Still in all, there is an exuberance to the instrumentation and the vocals that can’t be contained, which makes ‘Come By’ a real(ly enjoyable) headscratcher of a tune.
“We were going through so many transitions in 2019, sound-wise and in terms of our lineup and instrumentation, that it was the perfect timestamp,” says Quilon.
Directed by Quilon in collaboration with Alex Cole, the vid is done up in heart-pounding reds and twilight purples, and watching it makes it hard to decide whether to gaze wistfully out the window or kick up your heels and tear up the floor. But it’s true that the best tracks make you want to do both at once.
