Eric Grubbs
The Powers Of Two Acclaimed Dallas Pop Musicians Combine On A New Project Called Cool Set Whose Lead Single Hits All The Right Summertime Notes.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
Cool Set — “Summer Retro”
RIYL: enjoying the best parts of summer.
What else you should know: We still have a few weeks of summer left, so let’s break down this head-bopping debut single from the new Dallas electro-pop duo, Cool Set.
Although the band may be fresh to the local scene, its members are no strangers. Tex Sirisawat and Jose Sandoval have each played in various area projects of note over the years, and their powers have combined here to make for an alluring, modern sound.
Sirisawat has made enjoyable pop tunes around the region for a long time now. In the last decade, while he drummed and played keyboards for Noonday Morningstar (later known as Red Like Heat), he also performed with an emo-pop group called Duette (later called Heart & Hero), whose 2011 debut I Made You This Mixtape is a hidden gem that thankfully is still up on Bandcamp. Sandoval’s story, meanwhile, is quite similar. After starting off in bands around North Texas in 2012, he’s long been working stages local and beyond as a solo act named Sandovall, having racked up well over two million Spotify streams for his efforts in the process.
Their debut single as a combined entity — released earlier this month on August 4 — makes for quite an introduction to their new venture, and its accompanying video, shot in sunny southern California, accents well the song’s tone and lyrics. With producer Casey Di Iorio (Bowling For Soup, Snoop Dogg, The Polyphonic Spree) helming this project behind the mixing board, Sirisawat and Sandoval trade off on lead vocals in this tale of a past love over multiple layers of keyboards and programmed beats.
In all, Cool Set has a very now sound, albeit one steeped in classic, approachable melodies. According to all parties involved, Cool Set worked on this track for a good year before releasing it — and it really sounds like it, too. There are complex sonic dynamics at play here, all in a three-minute tune.
Summers here in North Texas are a mixed blessing, as we all know. The heat and the humidity are never really welcomed in this region, even by lifers. But there’s still an endearing joy to the season — and you’ll hear that in this tune.
The humidity won’t leave us North Texans for a few more months, but “Summer Retro” arrives right on time to soundtrack the enjoyable aspects of the season that still remain.