Following up their single “In The Dark”, The Shadowboxers reveal their new single “Honeymoon”.

With the help of Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez, The Shadowboxers created a romantic soulful ballad that represents elements of their identity.

Formed by Scott Tyler, Matt Lipkins and Adam Hoffman, the band began performing together in college. After touring alongside the GRAMMY-Award winning duo Indigo Girls, the three-part harmony-band got signed to Justin Timberlake’s label Villa 40 and opened for Timberlake on his Man of the Woods world tour.

“Honeymoon” is the second single off their upcoming album, to be released in 2020.

“Honeymoon” is now available worldwide.

Introduce yourselves - what's the band's story?

Scott Tyler, Matt Lipkins and Adam Hoffman. You know, just your typical, run-of-the-mill band story where you start out by touring as the opening act and backing band for the Indigo Girls for a few years, then Justin Timberlake finds you on YouTube, cold calls you, so you make an EP with him and tour the world as his opening act all while doing solo club tours and trying to figure out who the F you are at the end of the day. So after a decade worth of compromise and trial and error we find ourselves now at a point of ultimate reconciliation. We feel comfortable. Grounded. We know who we are now. And all of the singles we are now releasing belong to an upcoming album that is our most authentic work to date.

How would you define The Shadowboxers?

We are a three-part harmony-driven pop band who leans heavily on classic songwriting and always try to push the boundary of how those songs are framed in the studio. Also, we’d definitely be a verb. Place of origin? Probably Romania. Early 20th century.

"Honeymoon" is your new single. What's the story behind this song?

“Honeymoon” represents the butterflies and fireworks of new love, and the fear of that fading.

We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. By using our website and our services, you agree to our use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy.

When did you start working on it? Who helped you create this particular song?

We wrote this in the winter of 2017 with our friend Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez, while breaking from session after session of writing upbeat pop songs. The title, “Honeymoon” was something Matt brought in, and in trying to work out a song around the word itself, he and AG thought it’d be interesting to write a deceptively romantic sounding sad ballad. I think we spent around two hours just locking in the chorus, and once we had it, we knew we had something special.

What made you want to release "Honeymoon" as a single?

“Honeymoon” represents a lot of elements of our identity that we haven’t showcased in years. Where in the past a lot of our music has been very bold and energetic, this song is vulnerable and honest. From its lyrics to its chord changes and melodies, it’s unafraid and unapologetic about its influences and its message.

What do you like the most about this song?

The coolest thing to me about “Honeymoon” is that it’s skillfully sad. What I mean is that if you just threw this song on, maybe you’re cooking dinner or reading 50 shades and not really paying attention, you would think this song is joyous. It feels heartwarming. But as the bridge hits, you realize that the entire bottom has fallen out of this honeymoon dream - “When I pulled back the curtain, she didn’t love me anymore.” I love when that dichotomy exists in any song and I particularly love the context of it here. (Another example - “Born in The U.S.A” is about the brutality and ignorance of blind American patriotism yet everyone sings that chorus on the 4th of July oblivious to those verses. It’s amazing.)

What message do you want to convey through your music?

That it’s ok to be shorter than the average height but most importantly, we want to create connection. We want the lyrics and the melody to help excavate some truth that we all feel as people. We want our music to help you get through the day, to help you sleep at night, to make you move, to embolden you. If we can create a real, authentic feeling then we’ve made a connection. And that’s what it’s all about.

What did your experience on the "Man Of The Woods" tour teach you as artists and human beings?

Goodness. Ok. We sort of touched on this at the top of the interview, but I think it really helped us to see exactly who we are and exposed with real clarity, who we’re not. In many senses, that tour brought us closer and put us in situations that were especially daunting. Every single time, we showed up and gave it everything we had. And the audiences responded with incredible enthusiasm. It showed us that all the years of club tours and sleeping in our van and playing weddings paid off. It showed us that we thrive live. But it also brought to light aspects of us that were being sort-of smudged out by the bigness of everything and the machine that we were in. At the end of the day, we’re songwriters. We like Joni Mitchell and Jason Isbell as much as we like Justin Timberlake and that whole world just didn’t have space for track 7’s or really even for ballads. It was like “SHOVE AS MUCH ENERGY AND INTENSITY INTO 20 MINUTES AS YOU CAN EVERYNIGHT AND DO THAT FOR YOUR EP TOO AHHHH AHHH AHH!!!” so after a while, we just became exhausted with it and felt like it was only telling a small portion of the story. So we decided when we got off the road, to just slow everything wayyyy down and get real about what we wanted to do. This new album is the result of all of it.

What advice would you give to anyone who'd like to form a band?

Be a solo artist. Get hugely successful. THEN form a band.

2019 is slowly coming to an end, what lessons did you learn?

That vulnerability is a real key to unlocking the full potential of a group of people. This has been huge for us.

What did you accomplish this year?

Drank a lot more water than last year, which I definitely feel really good about. But also, we made an album and we’re quite proud of it.

What are your goals for 2020?

Release said album and tour. A lot. Play ballads live.

In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?

The climate conversations get me really down. They seem so hopeless and the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is that we just continue to make the same stupid choices as a society. Our values are just fucked. So truthfully, money out of politics.

Connect with The Shadowboxers: