Indonesian-Singaporean artist Bernard Dinata, known as lullaboy, makes his return in 2023 with another single, titled “van gogh”. Not one to shy away from his emotions either, lullaboy pens down his frustrations in a sonic tale of love, unrequited – a tale as old as time, in “van gogh”.
lullaboy’s latest pop ballad gives a nod to the iconic song Starry Night in the intro, before proceeding to paint a picture of an attempt at wooing a disinterested love interest. Together with producer Nacho Larraza, who produced half of lullaboy’s first album, “van gogh’’ depicts the story of someone pining over unrequited love. lullaboy chooses to believe that “love is what drove Van Gogh mad, just like it does to all of us. If he was a musician instead of a painter, this is a song he could have written”, he says.
With heart-breaking revelations in his lyrics, juxtaposed against a summery guitar-driven RnB arrangement of the song, lullaboy manages to capture the feeling of delusion, romanticized and packaged perfectly into a pop song. As for the living inspiration for the track, lullaboy sings this song as one final attempt to win over the girl who brought color into his life.
“The girl in the song is the inspiration for my art, my muse, and it’s about trying our best to win her over even though the love might be unrequited”, he confesses and ultimately admits that finishing the song was no easy feat, with it being two years in the making.
“This song was the toughest to create. It went through over ten revisions over two years before we finally felt fully proud of it. I am so attached to this song now”, he adds.
lullaboy hopes that listeners understand that it’s okay to want love and to want to be loved. Even if it can sometimes be a losing game, saying that “We can all be suckers for love and that’s okay. Sometimes we just have to vibe and enjoy the ride, but if you meet someone who brings color to your life, fight for them, and don’t let them go”, he states.
You can click here to listen lullaboy’s ‘van gogh’. The MV for “van gogh” will be dropping on 24 Feb 2023.