For a college band from University of Connecticut, making it to the point where you can finally move to NYC is cause for celebration — and what better way to celebrate than with a new single dedicated to the whole experience. “High Line,” released today, October 21, is Kids That Fly doing just that. “High Line” is a song for the proud transplant: listen to it on your first couple Subway rides, blast it with windows open when you first drive over the Brooklyn Bridge. “You made it,” the song promises, “you’re really here.”
Kids That Fly is a pop band bridging on indie, composed of four friends from college: Nick Smeriglio on vocals and guitar, Blake Henry on guitar and synth, Braden Frandino on bass and Ryan Hendry on drums. The four started out just playing live shows in and around their school in Connecticut, but soon started commuting in and out of New York for gigs. Finally, the band’s front man, Smeriglio, moved into the city, prompting their optimistic new single.
The song evokes a more technical The 1975, a less sad Backseat Lovers. It’s pop with enticing guitar chords and a synth that fits right in.
For the older crowd, the synth keyboard conjures 80’s nostalgia, to neon-soaked teenage years. But for the younger generation, Kids That Fly’s newest feels nostalgic, too, for different reasons. Because it’s so much like The 1975, the synth-y beat and fast drums brought me back immediately to the yearning that defined being a teenage girl between 2013-2016. I remembered how I spent hours on my computer scrolling Pinterest and Tumblr, daydreaming about NYC, imagining my apartment, the parties I’d go to, the friends I’d make, even romanticizing my morning commute. It’s a universal phase for the American teen, the day dream about moving to the city, the bright days, the long nights. “High Line,” captures all that fantasy and its long-awaited fruition in one clean sweep.
Though the song calls out the High Line, a revamped New York Central Railroad track that was turned into an elevated park to overlook the westside of Manhattan, the “High Line” music video is filmed deep in the ground, in Subway stations and even on the train. Complete with vintage filter overlays the video sees the foursome walk into the station, set up their drums, guitars, mics and bass and play the single, while tourists watch from the MTA machines; you can almost hear them thinking: “Only in New York.” Listen to the song here, and see the video below.
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