Song You Need to Know: Drax Project feat. Six60, ‘Catching Feelings’

New Zealand’s Drax Project are enjoying burgeoning global success thanks to a unique musical blend. All of the band’s members attended music school, where they studied jazz. You can hear that influence in their use of saxophone, subtle melodies and delicate vocal interplay, which can bring to mind vintage street corner doo wop and pre-rock and roll crooner confections. Yet, they’re a modern boy band through and through, mixing pop, R&B and hip-hop in a way that places them in a tradition of acts from Boyz II Men to the Backstreet Boys to One Direction. That sound has made them superstars in their native NZ, and caught the attention of artists like Lorde, Ed Sheeran and Camila Cabello, all of whom have asked Drax Project to open recent concert dates.

Drax Project just released their self-titled debut, featuring the hit “Woke Up Late,” with Hailee Steinfeld  The album’s newest single “Catching Feelings,” a team-up with fellow New Zealanders Six60, is a charming tune with a crisp beat, bright melody, big sax solo and lyrics about realizing that it’s time to tell someone how you feel before its too late – tenderly punctuated with a somber piano outro. “I caught a glimpse of what I failed to see/And that’s all I need,” singer and sax player Shaan Singh intones. The results make a classic sense of innocence seem like its being discovered for the first time. Feelings: caught.