HAHA (the new duo of Azure Ray’s Maria Taylor and Mike Bloom) invite us to dance the night away in “No Promises,” a cathartic, captivating, and carefree indie pop anthem full of midnight heat and raw passion.
Stream: “No Promises” – HAHA
It’s about diving into beauty, while also exploring our tendency towards self-destructive behaviors, and navigating the ripples that are sure to follow.
Our hearts start beating faster; we can feel the blood pumping, our hair raise on our necks. Unspoken questions and unresolved emotions hang heavy in the electric air, waiting for their moment to shine. The tension is palpable, the excitement at a fever pitch.
Listening to HAHA’s sophomore single, we feel a nostalgia for a night that may or may not have ever existed. The duo invite us to dance the night away in “No Promises,” a cathartic, captivating, and carefree indie pop anthem full of midnight heat and raw passion.
I didn’t notice
Another in your place
How could I know
Until the coming tide
We say we’re sorry
It’s a familiar refrain
A river running from the
Dead of night
Oh, cliffs that seem so steep
We know must be
Impossible promises to keep
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering HAHA’s enchanting new single “No Promises,” and this we do promise: You’ll be moving your head and tapping your toes before this song’s end. Out November 8, 2023 via Flower Moon Records, the second release from brand new duo HAHA – the project of Maria Taylor (Azure Ray) and Mike Bloom (Jenny Lewis, Julian Casablancas, Richard Edwards) – is an intoxicating, ’80s-inspired dance pop song with shiver-inducing vocals, hearty, heavy-hitting beats, and soul-stirring melodies that draw us in close and hold us tight.
At the core of this song is an intimate invitation to forget about tomorrow and live in the moment; to bask in a space of escape and indulgence – of mutual presence, mutual purpose, and mutual connection – however fleeting or temporary it might be:
If you wanna get lost tonight
Oh it’s all there is
If you wanna get lost tonight
No promises
“This one began as an instrumental I’d sent to Maria – very small and almost adorable sounding, like a John Hughes film or an imagined, edgeless incarnation of late-period Roxy Music. In some alternate reality it stayed that way, unabashed and without irony,” Mike Bloom tells Atwood Magazine. “Maybe Maria would have preferred that,” he laughs.
“Anyway, the thing kept growing, as they sometimes do and it became a matter of restraint in trying to keep the heart of those initial humble rumblings while not shying away from embracing whatever muscle might’ve been hiding inside of there. This, layered with some heavier themes of self-betrayal in the verses, and the opposing force of letting go in the choruses that Maria so brilliantly spearheaded, and the arrangement finished itself pretty quickly. The way Maria and I make songs is often this surprising fusion of elements that almost serve as foils for one another. I think those sweet little sparks are pretty well embodied in the DNA of this track.”
Dark tourist
The skeletons have faces
You seek the things that
Cities like to hide
Sometimes we show it
All of the inner places
Sometimes the gap between us seems so wide
Oceans that seem so deep
We know must be
Impossible promises to keep
Sometimes we show it, all of the inner places; sometimes the gap between us seems so wide…
For Maria Taylor, this song is a refreshing change of pace from her normal output – and another reason she’s loving this new vessel for artistic exploration and creative experimentation. She and Bloom introduced HAHA this past June with debut single “Only Get Better,” a beat-driven fever dream aching with urgency, hope, and desire.
“This song was the next idea after our first song, ‘Only Gets Better,'” Maria Taylor says of ‘No Promises.’ “We had only intended on writing one song together, just for the fun of it. But, it was so much fun and so inspiring, we knew we couldn’t stop there. This song really sealed the deal on the whole aesthetic of the project.”
“Naturally we just began drawing from songs of our childhood – the songs that made us want to start making music in the first place. I’ve always written melancholy, folkier songs. It was always my way of dealing with and understanding love and loss and everything in between. Writing these poppy, upbeat songs that tie together our past and our present has really been so much fun and I think (hope!) the listener will feel that.”
If you wanna get lost tonight
Oh it’s all there is
If you wanna get lost tonight
No promises
Our previous single made me want to take a long summer drive with the windows down, and this song makes me want to dance.
Lush, dreamy, and utterly irresistible, “No Promises” throws the doors of possibility wide open as Bloom and Taylor dive headfirst into beauty.
Tomorrow, all of this might be gone. The demands of life, and all the stress and tension of the everyday, might haunt us once again… But for now, we’re basking in bliss, and dancing the night away to “No Promises.” Together with drummer Pete Thomas, HAHA have us hooked – and we cannot wait to hear what else this dynamic new have in store for us.
Stream “No Promises” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and get lost in HAHA’s inspiring, anthemic indie pop seduction.
And words can seem so cheap
A mountainous heap
Of impossible promises to keep
If you wanna get lost tonight
Oh it’s all there is
If you wanna get lost tonight
No promises
And if you wanna get lost tonight
Oh it’s all there is
And if you wanna get lost tonight
No promises, oh promises
Oh promises
Oh, in a moment’s bliss..
— —
:: stream/purchase No Promises here ::
:: connect with HAHA here ::
Stream: “No Promises” – HAHA
— — — —
Connect to HAHA on
Facebook, Web, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© Yrene Ramirez
© Yrene Ramirez:: Stream HAHA ::
