Premiere: Glossies Summons a Fantasy Romance in "Kinda Wish You'd Call"

Los Angeles musician Glossies punches up his groovy, psych-leaning brand of jangle pop with airy melodies and breezy synths in “Kinda Wish You’d Call,” a dreamy lockdown dispatch.

•• •• •• ••

by guest writer Matt Wallock

Stream: “Kinda Wish You’d Call” – Glossies

Singer/songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Erich Tomkinson, AKA Glossies, dealt with isolation during last year’s lockdown the best way he knew how: By penning a song called “Kinda Wish You’d Call,” in which he conjures a fantasy romance from the confines of his own bedroom. Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the new single from the Los Angeles musician, out tomorrow via Born Losers Records.

“Kinda wish you’d call / maybe it’s not dark enough outside yet / Kinda wish you’d know / where to find me stuck behind these walls of mine,” Tomkinson sings in the first verse, adding, “I’ll summon you through this song to find you.”

In the chorus, he pines for the partner of his dreams: “I only want somebody to call my baby,” Tomkinson coos, “I only need a lady to call me her only a glass of water, and someone to tell me it’s alright from time to time.” Finally, in the last verse, our quarantined narrator returns to reality:

Kinda wish you’d call
maybe you’re just someone I just haven’t met
Kinda wish you’d know how to
track me down when I’m just stuck inside.

Musically, “Kinda Wish You’d Call” finds Tomkinson punching up his groovy, psych-leaning brand of jangle pop with airy melodies and breezy synths. The mood is searching but mellow, melancholy but soothing.

“The song started as just a few chords on a piano and eventually developed into the full layered synth version you hear in the final,” Tomkinson tells Atwood Magazine. “Like many musicians writing during that time, it was difficult not to write a song that was drenched in the theme of isolation. But rather than writing about friends or family and how much they’ve been missed, this song is about nobody,” he continues. “It’s about the unlikelihood of meeting anyone new and not having the ability to do anything about it. There is no muse or person behind the words but more so about how a simple imaginary love can otherwise be so complex and out of reach. The song is a literal summons for love passing through the walls of a bedroom where the writer otherwise can’t go.”

Glossies’ new single also comes with a music video directed by Louis Metric, which shows Tomkinson delivering a pared down solo performance in a dark yard, flanked by potted cactuses and illuminated by the glow of a fire. It’s a perfect visual for the song: Lonely, flickering, peaceful.

“Kinda Wish You’d Call” is Glossies’ first release of 2021, following 2020’s “All I Wanna Do” and “Show Them All You’re Worth.” It’s been a few years since Tomkinson released his previous full-length album – 2018’s Cactus What You Peach – so we wouldn’t be surprised if “Kinda Wish You’d Call” is the first glimpse of a larger project to come.

“Kinda Wish You’d Call” is out November 19 via Born Losers Records. You can pre-save it here, and watch the exclusive stream below via Atwood Magazine!

— —