JOIN THE(COMFORT) CLUB WE’RE ALL HERE TO FEEL A LITTLE LESS LONELY
While Ryan Beatty replaces all of the memorabilia in his apartment that remind him of his ex-lover, Colin Tracey basks in their shared Ikea furnishings. He allows the sadness to move over him in waves, like the water in the showers that he misses.
Missed. He’s fine now, with the help of the therapeutic process of writing his new single “Two Kids in a Trenchcoat”.
By Lauren Nieves
Better known under the artist name Comfort Club, Tracey has been releasing music since 2019, but he never expected much to come out of it — other than feeling a little less lonely in the world. Five years later, music first, people following, Comfort Club has become a club after all.
“I need[ed] a name and the word comfort fit me really well, and I was like, ‘Slap something on the end of that’. Loneliness, which is kind of where the word club comes from, is always something I've been running from,” explained Tracey on how he came to create Comfort Club. “That goes hand in hand with abandonment which, as I've gotten older, I've sort of learned to like like where that all comes from. You're escaping loneliness by togetherness.
“Two Kids in a Trenchcoat” sets the table for his debut LP, a breakup album (“I would say feeling your feelings is so in right now,” he says, giving everyone permission to take the full listening journey) that pulls inspiration from the likes of John Mayer and joan’s superglue(d). The song features blissed-out instrumentals and a drum beat that glides in as Tracey comes to understand what he’s truly feeling.
“The hope is that there this is someone who like just got their heart ripped out of their chest and they go I know the perfect album to listen to right now and two kids in a trench coat is just part of that,” said Tracey.
By Lauren Nieves
Looking back on it, Tracey knows the relationship wasn’t perfect, the scales weren’t balanced, but he doesn’t blame anyone. It’s hard to understand how “forever” could end so abruptly, but his superpower lies in his song writing, and he was able to write a knockout line that felt like the sucker punch he was dealt.
“It’s literally the embodiment of abandonment issues to say, ‘And you say you'll stay forever, even when you know you won’t’,” he says of a line of his song. “I don't even blame people for saying that they'd stay forever if they know they won't, but that's just got to be crazy knowing that you're going to drop that bomb eventually.”
Comfort Club carries his new (non-Ikea) couch, morning ice plunges and New Year’s resolution to do a better job remembering people's names, into 2024. Send him show recommendations with “cocaine involved and not me doing it”. If his 2024 shakes out like it should, he won’t have any time to watch them anyway.
By Natalie Minguez