New York City is quite possibly the most romanticized city on earth. The park, the subway, the pizza. Rats. Pizza rats. New York City is the person on Instagram with their crush’s name love-locked in emojis beneath their bio: the Concrete Jungle, the Center of the Universe, the Melting Pot. Dreamers flock to this city, hiding between crowds, peering behind every nook and taxi, just to…chomp. They take a bite out of the Big Apple like it’s theirs, savored down to the very core. Seeds and all.

In his newest single, “Other Guys,” New York-native musician Liam Benzvi chooses a different fruit in this metropolis. Blood Orange drips onto the scene, the juicy rinds of crimson peels breaking open in a mellow burst of summer sound. Otherwise known as Dev Hynes—Benzvi’s longtime friend and collaborator—Blood Orange gazes at Benzvi with a familiar face amongst the NYC masses. Offering a philosophy on comradery and coexistence after a relationship’s end, Benzvi cross-fades and twirls across strings: “How else am I to know it’s a new life? / With memories I might / Make after this is over / And have other guys over.” We move on, yet can’t help but hang on, gripping tightly to the echoes of a past life.

“Other Guys,” following “Dust” released earlier this summer, teases a sliver of his approaching album, ...And His Splash Band. Amongst the multitudes, Benzvi’s latest single adds a Blood Orange to the glass rim of a track as sweet and light as a Cosmopolitan. It’s the remnants of the paradox of closure, with a hint of citrus. Tart, yes, but not quite biting nor bitter. Just a little juicy.

Two years ago, your “Hypno” music video featured just you and your guitar. How is Liam Benzvi …And His Splash Band different from just Liam Benzvi alone?

…And His Splash Band is both a mental and an aesthetic exercise for me and my comrades. I needed a crew with me to get my points across. Dalgo is a semi-retired hustler, Silas was abducted by aliens and Jet is a Balkan bodybuilder. I couldn’t be more proud to call them my band and my friends.

In “Other Guys,” you sing, “In the fantasy of my new life / Are all of the items that I / Could never leave behind / Lotion and shaving cream / Blender and T.V. screen.” Ahead of your next album, what is one thing that you can't leave behind?

When the album was finished and I listened to it all the way through, I found multiple instances where I mention my “keys” in the lyrics, so what I can tell you is that I won’t be leaving those behind.

“Other Guys” was reimagined from an entirely different song that you wrote eight years ago. Was Dev (Blood Orange) the missing piece that you needed to take “Other Guys” from a 2016 demo to a 2024 single? What was it like working with him?‍

The verse used to be the chorus of an old song, and the chorus, as it is now, came out of my journal in the summer of 2022, and that was right around the time I was rehearsing with Dev for his Madison Square Garden shows with Harry Styles, so we were singing a lot together and I knew we sounded good together, but it wasn’t until almost a year later I asked if he wanted to sing with me on it. It took me a second to build up the courage. We’re good friends so it was a very easy going process. We have very similar taste and senses of humor, and similar ways of working on things.

There seems to be a few different energy sources in your life. In 2023, you told Perfectly Imperfect that you recommend batteries and Source Wellness Natural Formula. In “Dust,” you sing, “You’re magnetic and full of vitamins.” What, then, fuels your music?

Heartache, manual labor, and reality glitches like déjà vu or doppelgängers.

At the beginning of the “Dust” music video, a manager literally hits you in the face, while demanding a “hit” song. Tell me a little bit about your creative process: does an idea slap you in the face one day, and you see it through?

This is a great question because ideas do often hurt or sting. Ruby is a great manager and she keeps us in line, especially when she knows we’ve got a good thing going. Personally, I’ll sit on an idea for a while and let it morph into various things until I whittle it down to its rightful form.

“Dust” notes a lover’s dirty room. When life gets a little messy, what gives you clarity?

Ironically, a dirty little cigarette.

Liam Benzvi ...And His Splash Band is set to release September 27.