“Cocaine & Rhinestones” follows first single “Sweet” on the Moonlit Strays’ forthcoming album Dreaming in the Pink Room to be released on August 26th
BROOKLYN | August 19, 2022: The newest single “Cocaine and Rhinestones” from alt-indie duo The Moonlit Strays is a collab with guest vocalist and songwriter Elks de Joule, promising listeners will be “grooving until the sunrise”. Cocaine & Rhinestones brings a fresh take to the life on the road ballad, telling the story of a wayfaring musician who finds release on the road and on the stage.
Written in collaboration with New York singer/songwriter Elks de Joule, the track marks the band’s first to feature a guest vocalist, offering a unique contrast to the vocals of front woman Chloe Gifkins. The two harmonize to tell the late night tale of an unnamed singer and his life of “dive bars and desert nights” flush with the crackle of vinyl records and cavernous, sweeping guitars. When the chorus kicks in the track washes the listener in neon lights and the whiskey soaked saloon keys of a vintage piano, with boots stomping left and right.
De Joule says of the track:
“This song grew from that feeling of always being on the road and living life from one day to the next, hour by hour, gig to gig. The character in the song is a musician who drives from town to town somewhere out in the desert and the only place he ever really feels at home is when he’s performing. There’s definitely something relatable about that notion for a lot of different kinds of people: that feeling of security and comfort you can only get when you are truly in the zone and fully in your element. I’d developed the melody and some initial lyrics and we grew the track from Chloe’s idea to include the phrase “piana bench” and the chorus and bridge stemmed from there. We had wanted to lean into the saloon style piano and Morricone guitar for this West Texas kind of feeling but with a sort of desert disco type of propulsion that Mike laid down.” – EdJ
ABOUT: The Moonlit Strays are lead vocalist and songwriter Chloe Gifkins and multi-instrumentalist and songwriter/producer Mike Abiuso.
All music was recorded, mixed, mastered and produced by Mike Abiuso in his Brooklyn based Behind the Curtains Media studio.
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