Singled Out: TOCCA's Into Midnight

New York metro-based artist TOCCA recently released a new single called "Into Midnight" and to celebrate we asked the project's mastermind Risa Elledge to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

"Into Midnight" actually started as a joke. A few friends were visiting from Baltimore, and we were laughing about the idea of "bedroom pop." We were talking about Clairo, whose music I genuinely love, and wondering how something so understated could become this massive cultural phenomenon. Somewhere in the middle of all the teasing, I said, "If it's that simple, surely our Johns Hopkins brains can write one."

Quan walked over to the Juno-106 and started playing these impossibly lush chords. They weren't technically complicated, but they had this openness to them that immediately disarmed me. Before I could think too hard, I was already singing into the microphone. The melody, the first verse, the chorus-it all arrived almost as quickly as the chords themselves. "Into Midnight" was born in a single afternoon.

The only part that came later was the second verse, which I wrote months afterward on a beach in Cannes. I wanted the lyrics to stay light on their feet, almost conversational, but still leave something behind after they disappeared.

The song came from a strange period of my life when I spent countless nights driving between New Jersey and New York, usually somewhere between 10 p.m. and sunrise. I'll never tell you exactly what I was doing, but those drives became their own little universe. I'd sing everything from Al Green to Beyonce to ALVVAYS at the top of my lungs. Sometimes I'd open GarageBand in the backseat and build little loops before they disappeared from my head.

When we were back in the studio, I found myself writing toward that feeling. Not the destinations, but the space between them. That strange certainty that even if you don't know where you're headed, you're still moving toward something.

One night, somewhere on an empty highway between New Jersey and New York, I looked up and saw something in the sky I still can't explain. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was everything. But I remember feeling impossibly small in the best way. That moment became the bridge and the final chorus.

For me, "Into Midnight" has never been a love song as much as it's been a song about faith. Faith that life is always expanding beyond the edges of what you can currently see.

When I sing, "you take this trip with me tonight," I'm really saying, take my hand. Trust that there's something waiting beyond the horizon. Beyond fear. Beyond certainty. Beyond whatever version of yourself you thought was permanent.

I hope the ending feels like that.

Like you're leaving the ground for just a moment.

Like the road beneath you disappears, and all that's left is this endless atmosphere, stretching farther than you ever imagined.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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