In the wake of a break-up, most of us can relate to compartmentalising the memories and emotions that once occupied our living reality. Whether because you need to move on, would rather forget that relationship or your healing process is still going on, we all have our own coping strategies and for singer, songwriter and pianist Eva Gertz, she put the tokens of heartbreak in a literal box.
The Massachusetts-based Bostonian wrote ‘Boyfriend Box’ when she was finally able to untangle her emotions from these keepsakes and open the box again, which became a surprising discovery, as the artist explains below.
“the thought alone of retrieving the box made me write the song and wonder, how could such a cruel box exist? And then it turned out it didn’t really…I had distributed the items into other places a couple years ago so it wasn’t like a graveyard.”
The song itself starts with an emotional grand piano and rich ballad-worthy voice, accentuated by a lilting pitch, but it doesn’t take long for the song to move into more contemporary territory thanks to the interjection of electronica beats. What this does, is intensify the depth of feeling expressed through Gertz’s questioning, introspective lyrics. You can certainly sense that relief in the eye’s of an older, wiser version of herself that Gertz hadn’t been so cruel after all, but it’s also the revelation that the past isn’t so scary and it can in fact be an inspirational source of creativity.
As a fun side note, ‘Boyfriend Box’ is also the second collaboration between songwriter Eva Gertz and electronic-pop producer Paramind following the post-relationship song ‘Still Friends’. We hope to hear more from this kismet pairing soon.
Check out ‘Boyfriend Box’ and more well-crafted gems in our Shades of Pop playlist.
Where to find Eva Gertz:
UNRECORDED 