Getting To Know … Cigarettes After Sex

Greg Gonzalez of Cigarettes After Sex

Ahead of Neon Lights 2018, where Cigarettes After Sex will have its second show in Singapore after a sold-out performance at the Capitol Theatre in August last year, the American ambient pop band speaks to BAZAAR about the power of literal lyricism and music as a personal narrative.

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INTIMATE CONFESSIONS

At first listen, Cigarettes After Sex’s wave of nostalgic love songs seems to be built for slow emotion-filled nights, days when feelings can be so hopelessly intense. But laced with a tinge of hope, frontman Greg Gonzalez’s androgynous voice conveys the raw honesty of his words in the most beautiful ways:

I wanna fuck your love slow
Catch my heart, go swim
Feel your lips crush
Hold you here my loveliest friend
– “Crush”, 2018

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There is no mindless whingeing that usually pervade sad love songs. Instead, Cigarettes After Sex celebrates the tenderness of love, the vulnerability that comes with romance every step of the way, and the pure yearning of a crush or ex-lover.

“Every song that I want to put on the record is about love,” Gonzalez explains. “If I was heartbroken, I’ll just put it on the record and it’ll be about love the whole time. I feel like most albums don’t do that. They do love a bit and then it’ll go somewhere else … I just write about love the whole time, which is what I care about the most.”

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