Kevin Bronson on July 6th, 2020

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Santa Barbara native Kyle Nicolaides made waves as the singer-shredder in Beware of Darkness, the power trio whose two albums came out in 2013 and ’16 and a project Nicolaides carried on as a solo effort through last fall. BoD went out with a bang last fall, releasing “Bloodlines” (with collaborators including Smashing Pumpkins’ Jeff Schroeder, the Killers’ Mark Stoermer and CRX’s Jon Safley). Nicolaides officially announced the demise of Beware of Darkness in March.

The two solo singles he has released in 2020 are about two of our favorite places, “LA” and “Sedona.” And they reveal a change in tenor from the heavy music in his past while retaining his propensity for capturing emotional lightning anytime he has a guitar in hand. On these singles, it’s an acoustic guitar.

On social media (full text here), Nicolaides writes that struggles with anxiety and depression have undermined his efforts to release new music. “[They] tell you you’re not worthy to be alive and you don’t deserve anything positive in this life,” he says. “It’s no wonder then, I never felt like I deserved to release music recently. It’s why I felt like nothing I wrote for years was good enough. It’s why I never felt like my art or I was worth promoting. …⁣⁣

“This is why releasing music this year has been the biggest victory for me,” he adds. “To fumble, work and love your way back to worthiness, even if it’s just a spark, then start beginning to find the joy, spirituality and magic in music again.”

That he had lost that spark might be hard to believe from a guy who had the moxie to “Howl” back in 2012, but it is his current, though evolving, state.

⁣⁣Like many who have visited the Arizona enclave, Nicolaides finds solace in “Sedona”: “The red rocks don’t care who I am / I get lost inside their mystery,” he sings.

And like many who call Los Angeles home, he has a conflicted relationship with the city, which makes “LA” one of those happy/sad romps whose motor-mouthed lyrics bristle with discomfiting truth. “LA, LA when will you give back to me? / I love you hate you, but I mostly hate you,” he sings in the chorus.

In announcing the single, Nicolaides said: This song is messy, funny, hides suffering in sarcasm, thoughtful, afraid, but feigns confidence, sad,⁣ upbeat,⁣ weird and somehow by the grace of God articulate,⁣ all sort of like⁣ me.” And, maybe, L.A., too.

||| Stream: “LA” and “Sedona”