Video: Cola Boyy, ‘Kid Born in Space’ (feat. MGMT)

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Cola Boyy (Photo by Ross Harris)

Cola Boyy — aka DIY disco/psych-pop hero Matthew Urango — today released his first single for MGMT’s new label, and it could not be a more personal way to introduce himself to a larger audience.

“Kid Born in Space” is an unflinching look at Urango’s difficult youth — he was born with spina bifida and scoliosis. “When I was a kid, I was convinced that no one could understand what I was going through and feeling,” he says. “I was embittered and angry. The song is me explaining to my younger self to let go of worries about people staring or not understanding. Everyone has their struggles, and problems that shape them.”

Hence his carefree lyric: “I’m a new man compared to the old me / Don’t believe it then just listen to this …”

The song features Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT, along with additional production by Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift).

The release, split with the French label Record Makers, was born of a relationship that started in 2018 when Cola Boyy opened for MGMT on tour. “This track is the culmination of a true friendship,” Cola Boyy says. “In 2018, MGMT invited me on their tour, during which we became very close. I spent time with Andrew in his studio at home in New York. When I played him ‘Kid Born in Space,’ he liked it straight away and everything happened naturally from there: James Richardson played guitars and keyboards, Patrick Wimberly engineered and refined the production, and then Andrew and I finished it up in L.A. I am really grateful to them.”

As for the video, it was directed by Leonie Violain and filmed in Paris at the venue La Boule Noire and the Hotel Bourbon. It’s rapturously … French.

||| Watch: The video for “Kid Born in Space”

||| Also: Check out his cover of Jeb Loy Nichols’ “To Be Rich Should Be a Crime”