Rising artist and tender pop creator, Zachary Knowles, shares his newest single, “dancing in the kitchen,” today via FADER Label. The new track is all about being lazy and wasting the day away with someone you love and adore spending time with. It marks the moment when you know you’re with the right person because it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it’s together.
Trips and pre-planned adventures just seem like extra effort to get to the same feeling of bliss that can be created at home, dancing in the kitchen.
Speaking on the new single, Knowles says, “Honestly I just wanted to write a really happy song with this one. Usually, my songs have sad undertones, so I felt like it was time to write one that was just happy and felt good all the way through. When I’m doing the dishes I always blare music and dance, so I wanted to share that feeling with others and give them something we could both dance to.”
The music video for “dancing in the kitchen” is just as cozy as the cotton socks that Zachary Knowles wears as he spins around on the hardwood floor and plays guitar on the kitchen counter. A soft smile sits between his cheeks and his eyes sparkle through the holes of the Connect Four board game that he’s playing with his lover, who must be holding the camera. He cooks up a bacon and egg breakfast, picks lemons from the tree in the yard, and hangs out in his comfy sweater as he sings, “Let’s put the stress to the side / You and I, we can have a good time.” No phones in sight; just Knowles’ warm energy and chill vibes.
The atmosphere in “dancing in the kitchen” feels like such a relief and a change of pace, compared to the last single from Knowles, “carpool,” which was all about yearning for his love to be next to him and the pain of distance that turns to a need for escape and daydreaming. The “carpool” music video opens with Knowles sitting in front of his car underneath a street light, looking lonely, as lyrics flash across the screen that hit extra hard, like “only so many songs I can sing by myself,” as the sorrow in his heart is written all over his face.
Knowles’ single, “johnny & june,” arrived in February, just before Valentine’s Day, along with a music video steeped in mystery, nostalgia and most importantly: love. The Texas-based singer, songwriter and performer calls back to one of the most famous love stories in music, that of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. The accompanying music video by TJ Hoover and Jonah George (Jeremy Zucker, Chelsea Cutler, Alexander23) takes the song to an innocent setting that many can trace first love moments back to: high school. The viewer never sees the face of this could-be June, and yet they see so deeply into the soulful eyes of this potential Johnny.
The selflessness of Zachary Knowles isn’t just in the music’s sweet lyrics of love, but also how it was made. Ashe, Alexander23, X Lovers, and more have been collaborators of his and they have all shared in a collective vision of expression to really serve listeners in the most impactful way possible. Spotify highlighted both recent singles “carpool’ and “johnny & june” on their New Music Friday playlist, where Knowles is a mainstay with his new releases. With 45 million global streams, nearly one million monthly listeners on Spotify and over 53k followers on Tiktok, it’s clear it’s working.
The fresh up-and-comer, who opened for Alec Benjamin on tour in 2019, has been turning heads in the pop and indie-R&B realms with two EPs, Feelings (2018) and Magnolia (2020), with songs such as “city”
and “slow summer” that show off his gifted, yet ever-improving songwriting skills that caught the attention of Ones to Watch, Uproxx, Earmilk, Happy Mag, and more.
The newest singles — “dancing in the kitchen,” “carpool,” “johnny & june” — are all out now via FADER Label are follow-ups to his powerful stand-alone single “super sad songs” and his Magnolia EP, offering proof that pop can be personal and that Knowles is one of its most intriguing and capable emerging song crafters to date.
