Izra Fitch introduces herself in one fluid motion; a stellar pop track so polished and sleek it boldly declares she has arrived fully-formed as an artist. Her debut single, “The Hollywood Kids”, provides an instantaneous snapshot of Fitch also looking backwards. We’re able to see where she’s headed from the perspective of where she’s been through a glimpse of an idealized youth, a romanticized sense of Hollywood glamour, and the rose-coloured glasses of time.
The single paints a very shiny picture, and Fitch explains that she wrote “The Hollywood Kids” purely about nostalgia. The artist, previously known for her group efforts as a member of Good Dear Good, presents a honed solo-image. She cuts to the chase and goes deep.
While somethings are often remembered better than they were and, in the case of Hollywood, the glamour is a complete fabrication, but for Fitch, it sounds like it was the real deal. “The Hollywood Kids” instead comes off as a larger-the-life interpretation of growing up that’s still comfortingly familiar in a lot of ways.
“It’s about my childhood and teenage years and how I’ve become so in love/obsessed with parts of that time in my life. I think I look back on it as this coming-of-age film. That time of my life felt so movie-like to me as a kid who was obsessed with film and Hollywood and things bigger than my small hometown. The memories are so vibrant in my head that it feels like re-watching some sort of classic film when I revisit them,” explains Fitch.
“I had such an infatuation with my first real best friend, their house, that age, the movies we’d watch and all the childhood/teenage events we experienced together. When revisiting that house I feel immediate nostalgia, and this type of delusional longing to revisit that time of my life, as well as that incredible soulmate-y friendship I had.”
With beat-driven intimacy, Fitch cuts a swath to your soul to unearth a youth as you wish it could be remembered in the same way that Lorde celebrates late nights spent disenfranchised behind a dashboard. Working with producer Corey LeRue, Fitch lifts us above the mundane to a higher realm that our childhood homes could only dream of occupying. These are reflections on infinitesimal moments so universal that, in their brevity, it’s difficult to see them in any light other than carefree, and given the right coloured lens they downright sparkle.
“I think we all have wild stories, romances and memories, and have tendencies to feel like the stars of our own films,” says Fitch. “My hopes with this release is that people find their own nostalgia within it. ‘Let’s take it back again’ can sit with anyone’s longing to go back to a particular time in their life.”