Inspired by a bizarre apocalyptic dream, Brooklyn duo TOLEDO offer a warm, wintry meditation on the subconscious, redemption, and the afterlife with their dreamy single “Nothing Yet,” a tender, slow-burning song that finds meaning not in answers, but in the courage to stay with the question.

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Stream: “Nothing Yet” – TOLEDO

I look to the light and I see only sky, and that old lonely feeling comes on…

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There’s a hush to “Nothing Yet” that feels intentional, like TOLEDO are leaving the lights on low as winter settles in.

Warm, gentle, and quietly searching, the Brooklyn duo’s final single of 2025 drifts in like a dream you don’t want to wake from, steeped in questions about faith, loss, and whatever waits on the other side of knowing. It’s a song that doesn’t rush to answers, content instead to sit with uncertainty, beauty, and the ache of not quite seeing the sign you’re waiting for.

Released December 3, “Nothing Yet” arrives as a soft, reflective capstone to a busy year that saw TOLEDO release their Inertia EP, spend months on the road, and deepen their bond as collaborators and storytellers. Rather than closing the year with something declarative, the band chose restraint – a song that feels suspended between endings and beginnings, offering stillness where momentum once lived. It’s less a conclusion than a quiet pause, a moment to breathe before the next chapter takes shape.

Driving in your car with a busted lip
Two cracked knees and my left hand bit
I cant tell if this is it

In dreams I saw an old man cry
He was hanging on too hard to life
Took one step off a chair and died
I took his keys and I said goodbye

That sense of liminality is baked into the song’s origin. “Nothing Yet” began as what the band describe as a “bizarre apocalyptic dream – not a nightmare,” one that carried “an overall feeling of peace but also sadness.” The opening verse mirrors that dream word-for-word, while the rest of the song fills in the emotional gaps left behind once the dreaming stopped. An old man appears, first as a passing figure, “sort of an NPC,” but his presence lingers, growing heavier with each return – suggesting a deeper, more personal connection that remains unresolved. “Will these characters meet again somewhere else?” the band wonder, leaving the question deliberately unanswered.

I try to pretend I’ll see him again
But as sure as the hard day is long
I look to the light and I see only sky
And that old lonely feeling comes on

The song unfolds slowly, letting space do as much work as melody, its weight accumulating quietly rather than arriving all at once. Sonically, “Nothing Yet” leans into TOLEDO’s gift for atmosphere – lush, dreamy, and quietly cinematic, with a dusted, old-soul glow that feels both timeless and intimate. The song unfolds in hushed, romantic strokes, drawing from a lineage that nods toward Lord Huron’s mythic Americana, Hovvdy’s tender minimalism, and even a touch of Lana Del Rey’s faded grandeur, while still sounding unmistakably their own. As the band share, they were consciously reaching for an “old sound” in certain sections, letting warmth, space, and restraint guide the arrangement – with unexpected internal touchstones like Dolly Parton shaping the emotional palette. The result is a world that feels lived-in and suspended in time, where softness carries weight and every detail serves the song’s quiet sense of wonder.

Lyrically, “Nothing Yet” circles the unknowable with a tender kind of patience. Its closing questions – “Well, what will we find in that black velvet night? / When we loosen our light? / When we say our goodbyes?” – are, in the band’s words, “rudimentary questions about the afterlife,” sparked by moments of unexpected beauty, like looking down at Mexico from an airplane window and feeling the weight of existence press in all at once. It’s not about conclusions, but contemplation – about standing at the edge of meaning and admitting you don’t have the answers.

I was waiting on a drink that never came
The one that takes the bite away
The one that makes my spirit sing
And keeps me smiling like a sea of diamonds
No, it’s not for lack of trying
But the way I live it feels like dying
I’ve seen the walls shining

Even the song’s title reflects that posture of waiting. The phrase “Nothing Yet” is never sung outright, instead arriving almost by accident, born from an onstage hesitation: “This one is called… um… well nothing, yet.” The words stuck because they fit. Waiting on a sign of a higher power. Looking for clarity. Seeing only sky. Nothing yet.

For Atwood readers, TOLEDO need little introduction.

The Brooklyn-based duo of Dan Álvarez de Toledo and Jordan Dunn-Pilz have become a familiar, trusted presence on these pages — a three-time Editor’s Pick, artist-to-watch, and longtime favorite whose music has consistently balanced intimacy with scale, softness with ambition. Across releases like 2021’s Jockeys of Love – a “wondrous delicate daydream” that radiated hope through hushed, romantic indie folk — and their 2022 debut album How It Ends, which reckoned tenderly and unflinchingly with childhood trauma, family, and long-held emotional weight, TOLEDO have built a catalog rooted in tenderness, honesty, and earned vulnerability. Their 2025 EP Inertia distilled that journey into something lighter on its feet but no less meaningful – a sun-soaked, homegrown reverie about growing up, growing apart, and finding grace in the in-between, written from a place of ease, instinct, and renewed creative clarity. “Nothing Yet” arrives not from a band searching for footing, but from one comfortable enough to slow down – to end a full year not with a statement, but with a question.

As a year-end offering, “Nothing Yet” feels especially poignant. It doesn’t demand attention or resolution – it invites reflection. TOLEDO released the song, they say, “to hold folks over while we work our butts off on the next big batch of songs,” but it resonates as something more lasting than a placeholder. It’s a reminder that uncertainty doesn’t have to be empty, that waiting can be meaningful, and that sometimes the most honest thing you can say – at the end of a long year, or a long road – is simply this: Not yet.

TOLEDO recently sat down with Atwood Magazine to talk about the dream that sparked “Nothing Yet,” the questions it leaves unanswered, and what it’s meant to exhale after a year of constant motion. Read our interview below, and get lost in the beauty and wintry wonder of “Nothing Yet” – a song made for stillness, reflection, and the space between answers.

So I try to pretend I’ll see him again
But as sure at the hard day is long
I look to the light and I see only sky
And that old lonely feeling comes on
It’s holding me in its palm

Well, what will we find
In that black velvet night?
When we loosen our light?
When we say our goodbyes?

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:: read more about TOLEDO here ::

:: stream/purchase Nothing Yet here ::

:: connect with TOLEDO here ::

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Stream: “Nothing Yet” – TOLEDO

A CONVERSATION WITH TOLEDO

TOLEDO: First off, hello, we are TOLEDO. We’re in a minivan headed back to NYC to play two back-to-back shows at Nightclub 101. We are on a headline tour right now for no real reason other than the desire to play shows. Looking to 2026, we are excited to take some time off producing so we can write the next album!

TOLEDO: It is such a delicate balance, because we do of course learn a ton through working with other artists and experimenting with them. Yet at the same time, we want to keep our heads relatively clear both when we’re working with other artists and when we are working on TOLEDO. Which is to say: We don’t want to be thinking of TOLEDO while working on someone else’s music, and we aim to not think too deeply about the music of others while writing/recording for ourselves. All that being said, producing is our second love and we are beyond lucky to do this for a living right now. We have made so many close friends through collaborating on music.

TOLEDO: The concept for “Nothing Yet” came in a bizarre apocalyptic dream. Not a nightmare. The first verse just describes word-for-word what happened in this dream. There was an overall feeling of peace, but also sadness. We tried to have this feeling inform the rest of the lyrics, to fill in the blanks when the dreaming stopped.

TOLEDO: Prior to writing the rest of the song, he was just a tertiary character on the central character’s journey. Sort of an NPC. You stumble on an old man hanging and take his keys so you can continue on your journey. But in the context of the song, the singer keeps referencing back to the man, and it’s inferred there was a more personal relationship. Will these characters meet again somewhere else?

TOLEDO: During a Chicago show (opening for Grizzly Bear!!), we introduced the song by saying, “This one is called..um..well nothing, yet.” It stuck. It makes sense in the context of the song. Waiting on a sign of a higher power… see anything? Nothing yet.

TOLEDO: Rudimentary questions about the afterlife. Mentions of a black velvet night or a sea of diamonds are inspired by the view of Mexico from an airplane window. Moments of beauty like that can get you thinking.

TOLEDO: The subconscious, redemption, and the afterlife.

TOLEDO: I’m so happy to hear you mention Lord Huron and Lana! And Hovvdy obviously. There are certain hushed or romantic qualities inherent in the songs we make together, but we did strive to evoke an “old sound” in sections of the song. Dolly Parton was also discussed internally.

TOLEDO: We released this song to hold folks over while we work our butts off on the next big batch of songs. I hope it buys us enough time to do our best work. But also, I hope people resonate with the song, of course. We played the song a few times prior to the release, and it was very nice to see people connect to the imagery in the song early on.

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:: read more about TOLEDO here ::

:: stream/purchase Nothing Yet here ::

:: connect with TOLEDO here ::

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Stream: “Nothing Yet” – TOLEDO

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