FEATURE: New Jersey Dark Pop Duo Giveth Delve Into Unrequited Love On Haunting New Single “Cold Cut”

Jessica Hottman and Ben Petty, the two friends behind New Jersey dark-pop duo Giveth, wasted little time between forming their group and releasing a full-length album. Coming together in 2020, the pair released their debut album Wasteland in 2021, a compelling 9-track introduction to the pair’s cinematic and dark sound.

With more music on the horizon, the pair have shared their second single of 2022 with “Cold Cut”.

Unsurprisingly so, the single is a cinematic and synth-driven release, with words such as haunting, grandiose, and futuristic being passed around. Pulsating synthesizers, live drums, and driving guitar tracks give the song a fulfilling sound, as if London Grammar had been unknowingly switched by their mysterious identical twin from another timeline. While the song’s sonic features find a somewhat larger-than-life aesthetic, the band keep things more relatable and intimate with their lyricism.

“‘Cold Cut’ is about the never ending saga of unrequited love, but not just in the romantic relationship sense”, Giveth share. “It’s also about feeling a lack of love from other sources – dreams left unachieved, youth disappearing, friendships fading. It’s really a song for that frozen purgatory I find myself in, where I want the past and the future all at once“.

To discover more about the band and their music, read the latest Q&A feature below, and listen to “Cold Cut” here:

How does “Cold Cut” compare to the tracks you wrote for “Wasteland”?

With Wasteland we really went for that wall of cinematic sound. A sound that carries lots of layers in it, and envelopes the listener into its chaos. ‘Cold Cut’ is more bottled, more pop, more biting and whisper-y …like something is about to explode or implode, and we get that payoff with the chorus. It’s more polished in its nature but still has that dark and theatrical quality to it that we really enjoy.

What are some of your consistent influences for your sound?

We are very much inspired by cinema score music and “world” music (for lack of a better term), because these genres transport the listener to another place, in a completely different way than genres like rock or pop. They create a visually captivating mini-world in the mind’s eye. It feels like our songs are little planets, and ‘Cold Cut’ is this icy, frozen blue planet. As far as artists we are influenced by, we are always trying to incorporate touches of Imogen Heap, Nine Inch Nails, Enya, Bjork, and the industrial stylings from groups like HEALTH. We are very influenced by dark and brooding music, so there will always be that melancholic undertone and angst to each of our tunes. In short, we are inspired to create a theatrical over-the-top display from a raw and regular human emotion.

In regards to the theme of “Cold Cut”, was there something prevalent in your mind at the time when you wrote it?

‘Cold Cut’ was written during the winter when I felt cooped up inside. I also battled a long bout of Covid and had these two weeks where my sole purpose in life was to complete this large 2000 piece ice cream puzzle. It was some strange kind of purgatory, like I was awaiting my life to take off again. It made me ponder other instances in my existence where I have been awaiting this forward momentum and feeling almost trapped or at a stand still. I suppose all of these elements (yes, even the cold and chilly ice cream puzzle) helped form the idea and creation of ‘Cold Cut.’

What’s next for Giveth?

We are releasing another single on October the 13th, an intentionally “spooky” day to unveil a bit of a stylistic experiment! *cue the mad scientist laughter* There is also a music video in the works, which will make its debut not long after. The video is somewhat of a short horror film, and we had a great deal of fun shooting it with our good and talented friends from @jampsonfilms (Instagram). Oh, and we have some live shows in the works, which is something we have been looking forward to from the inception of this project.