Stream: Winnetka Bowling League, ‘FIIMY’

Kevin Bronson on February 4th, 2022

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Matthew Koma of Winnetka Bowling League and Demi Lovato (Photo by Piper Ferguson)

Singer-songwriter Matthew Koma continues to mine gold with his project Winnetka Bowling League, launched in 2018 with a playful edge and a modern take on power-pop.

WBL returns today with its fourth EP, “Pulp,” which slips into pure-pop territory and features a sure-to-be-attention-grabbing duet with Demi Lovato. The song titled (rendered in lowercase), “fiimy (fuck it i miss you),” a his-n-hers accounting of a chance meeting with an ex-lover that’s every bit as mushy as the scenario suggests. The collaboration was birthed after Lovato heard a clip Koma posted on TikTok and reached out to him.

Schmaltz? Yes. But do not the circumstances warrant it? The song, Koma says, “is about running into an ex for the first time since a break-up and the rush of mixed feelings that target you. There’s wondering if you even know that person anymore and there’s reckoning with your own ‘Did I fuck up a good thing?’ When Demi heard the lyrics, I think they reminded them of their own version of that experience … so it was really cool to hear them come with a verse framing how that story was told in their world. It takes dismissing a lot of pride to admit to yourself you miss someone.”

Pop singer Sasha Sloan is featured on another track on the EP, the previously released “barcelona,” and if that and the closing track “emotionalporn” drip with nostalgia, there’s a reason. Koma wrote the songs in his native New York City amid an attack of self-doubt.

“Being back in New York sort of sparked all these memories of being a kid recording terrible demos on ACID (the recording program, not the drug, unfortunately),” Koma says. “And that headspace got me thinking about things and people I haven’t thought about for a long time. Usually I’m arm-wrestling myself to write something about my current circumstance that’s relatable to more than my three friends who like quarantine as much as I do. But there was this shift in New York and I started writing about people and feelings I hadn’t visited in a while. Time grants you kinder eyes, and with songs like ‘barcelona’ and ‘fiimy’ I got to re-explore those relationships from a helicopter’s view and see it a little differently. ‘Pulp’ was about this really odd memory that came back to me one day when I walked by Port Authority and smelled hot pretzels. It made sense to call the EP “Pulp” because every song was born from some specific snapshot detail that wasn’t at all the main juice (LOL). I usually like my own music for two [to] three months after making it then I’m paralyzingly humiliated. I wrote this on 4/22/21 – use that information accordingly.”

||| Stream: “fiimy (fuck it, i miss you)”