One can feel the sun practically radiating off of “more than you know,” the new song by Queens-based indie pop-rock band HOAX. The group – composed of Michael Raj and Frantz Cesar – shared its new single on March 6, and it’s a lovely celebration of that unseen, undeniable magic that follows after falling in love. With a style that bridges 60’s pop with 70’s Motown and modern alternative R&B, HOAX has made the soundtrack to every perfect first date and every 50th wedding anniversary dinner. “more than you know” invokes early-Beatles and late 90s songwriting sensibilities, a thoroughly delightful ode to love.
“‘more than you know’ is about all the unspoken characteristics of love and the indescribable nuances that are nearly impossible to articulate about why you care about someone,” says HOAX frontman Mike Raj. “I grew up to parents who had a traditional Indian arranged marriage, and I always thought that was a strange way for love to form, but they’ve had an incredibly strong relationship that boasts 25+ years, and I feel like this song is almost an examination of how love grows differently for every person. In love, it’s all a give-and-take. There are moments to lead and moments to follow; times to speak and times to listen; things that are unclear and some things that are absolutely certain.”
“There is always more that lies beneath the surface, and a good chance that we will not be able to explain just what that is. You will love someone, and it might be more than they could ever know,” he adds. Mike also shares that, along with his parents’ traditional marriage, the modern dating app scene also inspired this new piece of music.
“Somewhere in an Internet rabbit hole when I was learning how to code algorithms for this album,” Mike tells HollywoodLife, “I made the strange connection that modern dating apps and traditional arranged marriages are not all so different.
“In a traditional arranged marriage, the parents of the bride and groom are usually matching their kids up with other people whom they think would be a good match based on a variety of different factors – the same way modern dating apps use an algorithm to make a match,” he says. “It seems crazy to model lyrics after a connection between something as old-fashioned as arranged marriages and modern dating romances, but that idea of ‘old’ and ‘new’ also influenced the sound of ‘more than you know’ too. It’s got a vintage feel with a modern spirit — something we try to capture across all our music as a band.”
If you’ve swiped right on HOAX, they will be releasing their debut album, b? (part i) in August.