Classically trained ballerina turned indie pop bad ass, Bonner Black has released another dreamy bop! The Nasa inspired tune was written by Black and co-producer Izaac Burkhart, and is just the most recent in a string of epic, lyrically driven releases from the independent artist.
Stream “Midnight Blue” below
How was “Midnight Blue” written?
“All my dreams are technicolor” popped into my head while I was standing in front of the microwave one night at 8pm. My friend had just started making *special* gummy bears at the start of the pandemic, so that might have had something to do with it. I grabbed my guitar and wrote verse 1 and verse 2 to a completely different chorus. I sent the song to my producers, Izaac Burkhart and Taylor Bray, and they liked the verses, but didn’t love the chorus, so Izaac and I wrote the “Midnight Blue” chorus on my back porch a few nights later. We scribbled out the bridge over lunch in the studio right before we recorded the vocals.
The first verse takes place at a “party in the backyard.” Is this a true story?
Yes, but a romanticized version of a true story. The original chorus lyrics I had before we wrote the final one were “in my deepest thoughts I can have what I want,” so I was looking back on real scenarios and creating alternate outcomes. “Sipping on a 40” was actually a 40 of White Claw and I would like to publicly apologize for dishonoring my family name by that. “Champagne seats” was just tan pleather in a 2004 Toyota Avalon.
You’ve been in Nashville for almost 10 years. What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you?
My last single, “Light Me Up”, was featured in People.com and half the article was about my past life as a ballerina. I had even told my manager, Kelsey Wise, I wasn’t sure we should even talk about my ballet stuff, but she thought it was an interesting angle. It turns out, Tracy Lawerence (#1 country artist who sang “Paint Me A Birmingham” and “Stars Over Texas”), was looking for a ballerina to star in his new music video. His manager, Lindsey Ray, googled “Nashville Ballerina” and I was the first thing that came up. After 9 years, I got to choreograph and dance again AND THEN the music video played on Times Square. So, in a funny way...my childhood dream of being a professional ballerina in New York City came true. I cried.
If you could follow in any artist’s footsteps, who would it be?
Miley Cyrus, because she’s so true to herself and has no filter. I just love her energy and I’ve been a fan through thick and thin, since the first Hannah Montana episode. I cuss a lot on the internet and make a lot of inappropriate jokes, but I’ve found that if you are just yourself, you allow other people to feel comfortable being themselves too.
How would you describe your music and what makes it different?
Driven, hooky, singer-songwriter, indie, pop boppity bops. If my genre was an animal, it would have the head of a cobra, the body of a swan, and the feet of a gazelle. I think some of my “signature” rhyme schemes and phrasing comes from listening to a lot of rap and hip hop. Megan Thee Stallion is my binge listen right now.
What’s your favorite line in “Midnight Blue” to sing?
“I wanna stay in a world where I don’t always lose.” Izaac actually wrote that line and it’s so melodramatic, but that line sums up the song for me. “Midnight Blue” is being pulled out of the most beautiful “what could have been” and just wanting to stay in it so bad. NOW GO LISTEN TO IT.
