Cold Hart

Lurking in the dark corners of the internet rap underground toward the tail end of the blog era was GothBoiClique, which spawned out of popular image blogging site Tumblr. The tongue-in-cheek name, coined by Long Beach, California-born Filipino singer and producer Jerick “Jay” Quilisadio aka Cold Hart, ended up sticking. Alongside Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Horse Head, Cold Hart built the foundation of what would become one of the generation’s most influential musical movements of the 2010s and beyond, changing the definition of punk and emo. The GBC collective’s boisterous lineup of Lil Peep, Døves, Fish Narc, YAWNS, Mackned, Lil Tracy, and JPDreamthug took 2000’s rock into the modern Soundcloud age.

The evolution of the word “rockstar” has changed, and by all accounts, Cold Hart and his GBC associates helped usher in an alternative to the glitz, glamor, and debauchery into a definition that acknowledges their vulnerability. Nonetheless, while he would characterize his music as “rock and roll with hip-hop and melody,” he still wants to push back against the rockstar label.

“I experienced it a lot already, and just seeing what it has done to people mental health-wise, the lifestyle and passion instead of looking like a rockstar, to me, is more important,” he explains.

Much has changed for Cold Hart. Where 2021’s Every Day Is A Day was created in the midst of welcoming his newborn daughter and moving into Long Island with his wife, Pretty In The Dark is an exhale as he settles into that routine. He’s now a father of two, having moved deeper into Long Island and adjusting to the rhythm of adulthood.

Recorded in his garage’s cold, concrete walls, Cold Hart and fellow GBC architect Yawns worked to extract new stories and sounds for a new generation. “I really had to dig deep and think about myself because, at that point, you're the only person that you can get influence from.” While he fondly looks back at his old material as a time capsule of a distant past that shaped his rich future, Pretty In The Dark takes one step closer to the hazy post-punk world that Cold Hart has built around him.

As Cold Hart reflects on the record, “I like standing out in the dark woods and feeling how calm it is. That’s how the album is; instead of the dark being scary, it’s nice.”

Part of Pretty In The Dark’s foray into Cold Hart’s psyche comes from relinquishing some of his creative control, aided by legendary producer, engineer, and mixer Andrew Dawson (Kanye West, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Code Orange). With much of the record properly recorded and tweaked in the expanse of the Arizona desert to contrast the record’s iciness, Cold Hart struck the balance between his past, present, and future.

Songs like album opener “2017” and “Rap Show” are raucous jaunts that pay homage to his hip-hop roots tinged with his emo inclinations. Elsewhere, “Bottle Run Dry” and “Bold Riley” are tear-stained journal entries (the latter being an ode to sea shanties) that shine a light on the uncomfortable emotions Cold Hart and his GBC associates have always been willing to sit with. Delicate pianos and vast guitar-led abysses make way for the familiar comfort of rumbling bass and 808s. Coldy has fine-tuned his talk-singing, accented with an almost slack-jawed emo drawl that lingers on each lyric. His layered harmonies and soaring falsettos clear a path for his most vulnerable collection yet. Inspired by the long, tree-lined drives he’s become accustomed to with wife and children in tow, Pretty In The Dark adjusts to Cold Hart’s new familiar.

Taking inspiration from goth icons such as The Cure and Lebanon Hanover, dark trap leanings perfected by Atlanta producers such as Metro Boomin, 80’s punk and 90’s RnB, and the retroactive discovery of bands such as Brand New and Saves the Day, the young producer continues to explore the endless possibilities of the GothBoiClique ethos of blending the familiar with the unfamiliar, the light with the dark, the nostalgic with the future.

As Cold Hart adjusts his rearview mirror for the road that Pretty In The Dark clears for him, he succinctly closes with: “I just want to keep going in a way that's not where I'm stuck in the state of what you know me as.” Cold Hart has found his peace.