Baltimore’s Pinkshift – Ashrita Kumar (vocals, they/them), Paul Vallejo (guitar, he/him), and Myron Houngbedji (drums, he/him) – have released a new single, the powerful “to me,” out today via Hopeless Records. Recorded with Will Yip (Turnstile, Mannequin Pussy, The Wonder Years, Circa Survive, Tigers Jaw). The track marks a remarkable progression in the band’s songwriting both sonically and lyrically. This song is the band’s first true “love song,” and Kumar notes, “Love is a powerful form of energy that is not just given or taken, but flows endlessly and connects us all. ‘To me’ speaks to the indestructibility of such an energy, and what it feels like to hold love close to your heart and with those around you. It is a realization that despite everything that is difficult, to be truly loved is to love ourselves.”   

Having an early reveal at live shows on the road for the last few months, “to me” is already winning over the hearts of Pinkshift fans. It marks the first new music Pinkshift has dropped since the release of their critically acclaimed debut album, 2022’s Love Me Forever. Across their discography, from “i’m gonna tell my therapist on you” (their first single to go viral) through their LP, Pinkshift creates sonic atmospheres that facilitate and provide a safe place for every vulnerable facet of human emotion, empathy, and identity. Their introspective lyrics, soaring riffs, and fierce drumming make your heart race faster and sing louder in an adrenaline inspired frenzy of true unity.

Yet – “to me” delivers a light and comforting sonic landscape, a departure from Pinkshift’s usual electrifying pace. A dynamic journey with brilliant peaks and grooving valleys, “to me” delivers the delicacy of innocent love through nostalgic melodies and carefully accented percussion, while maintaining Pinkshift’s signature impactful delivery and anthemic rock riffs. 

Although “to me” takes us into the sky, it also displays Pinkshift’s heaviest and lowest guitar tunings, and some of their most complex painting of percussion and rhythms. On this track, for the first time, they have brought on the sounds of tabla – a drum traditionally used in South Asian classical music – interwoven into Myron’s steady drums to allude to a bigger picture story of ancestry and grief that the band is looking forward to sharing later this year. 

With “to me,” Pinkshift invites listeners to engage in the intense love and truth that imbues their discography, and is core to their message as a band. They are excited to share this song as an introduction to what is coming next for them, unapologetically. In the face of the raucous and fueled Love Me Forever, and with the powerful range of “to me”, Pinkshift will describe the love toward where our rage is to be channeled next – and the world desperately needs to hear it.

Photo Courtesy: Leigh Ann Rodgers