Kevin Bronson on January 30th, 2018

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Kyle Thomas — aka King Tuff — returned today with his first new song in more than three years — time he apparently has spent thinking hard. Or, as he says in describing the new single “The Other” and its Cameron Dutra-directed video: He’s been engaged “in the uphill climb of creativity.”

Tuffy’s last album, “Black Moon Spell,” came out in the fall of 2014. “The Other” is more tender than the most softhearted moment on that record, to be sure. “It’s a song about hitting rock bottom,” the songwriter says. “I didn’t even know what I wanted to do anymore, but I still had this urge — this feeling — this feeling—like there was this possibility of something else I could be doing … and then I just followed that possibility. To me, that’s what songwriting, and art in general, is about. You’re chasing something, there is something out there calling to you and you’re trying to get at it.

“‘The Other’ is basically where songs come from, it’s the hidden world, it’s the mystery. It’s the invisible hand that guides you whenever you make something. It’s the thing I had to rediscover—the sort of voice I had to follow—to bring me back to making music again in a way that felt true and good.”

||| Watch: The video for “The Other”