Reetoxa new released "Humbug," a song that combines the spirit of ’70s rock ‘n’ roll with a modern twist on the tests and difficulties of dating in the present day. You can tell this isn’t just another love song, it’s a thrillingly human snapshot of desire, rejection, and creative serendipity.
The story is like something out of the movies. After some disappointments with modern dating apps, Jason McKee had all but given up on love when he got a new crush, a talented, kind-hearted musician who, unfortunately, wasn’t interested in him in the same way. Yet in the studio, one small error, misplay of a minor pentatonic scale, produced a riff so inadvertently perfect, so perfectly accidental that it piqued Jason’s interest. In the 45 seconds as he sat on the couch after the crash, "Humbug" was born, and Jason was awestruck with what he had accomplished during what was supposed to be a six-hour solo session.
The magic didn’t stop there. The track’s guitarist, James Ryan, picked up Jason’s original riff and pushed it into the mind-blowing stratosphere, soaring up to and beyond the cosmic planes of Saturn and Mars before smashing it back to earth with astronomic impact. And the result is a live song, feral energy from the studio clashing with detailed, ambitious guitar work that dares the listener to engage it, not just to new extremes of attention but of studied listening, headphones, live, and in the moment.
"Humbug" has the humorous and melancholy flecks of image associating romantic awkwardness that laces and warps the grain of 70s-informed territory in a way that sounds honest. It’s that kind of song that doesn’t play as much as land, set hooks, and refuse to let go. Reetoxa has produced a song that is a confession, a tribute to everyone’s imperfections, and an example of unexpected magic created by emotions meeting creativity in the middle.