New Music: Bright Light Bright Light x Kim David Smith – Next To You

A labour of love and a recap of fifteen years as an independent artist, the Duets EP features highlights of the Welsh musician’s career.

Following on from his collab with Ana Matronic – Cold Sweat, Hot Boys – Rod Thomas has teamed up with vocalist Kim David Smith on Next To You, which originally featured on Fun City, and saw Rod Thomas working with Mark Gatiss.

Tackling the song with Kim David Smith resulted in some changes to Next To You, though the arrangement holds close to the original. Now, the song has all the air of a doomed romance, bringing out a Pet Shop Boys meets Jean-Paul Belmondo feel, cinematic and noirish, and hinting at whisps of cigarette smoke, a quality that is equally hard to resist.

Says Thomas about the new take on the song, “Kim and I sing with each other all the time at Joe’s Pub, and that energy really shaped this version. His shows sit somewhere between Marlene Dietrich and Kylie Minogue, and I always felt this song suited his voice and theatrical delivery.”

“When he suggested rewriting the spoken word part in French, it added a playfulness that’s both funny and tragic – it suddenly became this beautifully melodramatic torch-song duet, and I loved that.”

You can hear Next To You on Spotify and YouTube. To tie in with the Duets EP, Bright Light Bright Light embark on a short UK tour this March, quickly followed by live dates in the US in April.

Follow Bright Light Bright Light on Instagram and Facebook for venue/ticket details, and news on the Duets EP, which is set for release on the 6th of March and can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp.