Q&A: Rachel Bochner Returns With “Your Manhattan”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY IVONA HOMICIANU ☆
Photo by Bao Ngo
“YOUR MANHATTAN” IS AN ELECTRIC SINGLE ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE PAST A RELATIONSHIP— while your ex isn’t. Rachel Bochner is ready to dive into a new project. After the success of her EP Lovergirl, which lived up to the title with the love songs filled with sweetness and queer joy, the artist is ready to expand her horizons – and while “Your Manhattan” stands alone as a single, there is more to come.
The New York based artist began her career in 2019. In the past few years, she released four EP’s, respectively titled 2AM (2022), twenty something (2022), It’s Not Me It’s U (2023) and Lovergirl (2024). The latter struck a chord with her audience, who found themselves in the hopeless romanticism portrayed. Since figuring out vulnerability as one of her feats, she’s stepping into a full length album.
Bochner has the ability to depict lesbian experiences in music that feels like poetry, a love letter to anyone who has felt sapphic desire. Although Lovergirl was focused on yearning and falling in love, she shows her versatility with “Your Manhattan.” Seen through the lens of a late night in New York City, streetlights blurring your vision, the song addresses an ex coming back once you’re with someone new. The lyrics point out the irony in the happening, with an underlying message of knowing your worth.
Luna had the chance to speak with Bochner about “Your Manhattan,” released today.
Photo by Bao Ngo
LUNA: Congratulations on the new single, “Your Manhattan.” How did you come up with the title?
BOCHNER: Thank you, I'm really excited about this song. I was on my way to a session, and I was running early, which is rare for me. I stopped in this coffee shop beforehand and I was just killing time. I was thinking about what I wanted to work on in the studio that day. I was writing random notes into my notes app and I remember the last line of the chorus, “You can't drown me out of your Manhattan,” randomly came to mind and I wrote that down. That was what we ran with when I got to the session, so it was a random moment of inspiration.
LUNA: Could you tell us more about what inspired the song?
BOCHNER: All I'll say is, it's about realizing that your absence in someone's life really only seems to bother that person once they feel like you've moved on, and that like they no longer have a grasp on you. I wouldn't say that it's a bitter song, it's sitting in that moment of realization like, “Oh, okay, this wasn't really ever about me. It was about you feeling like they had me in your back pocket. Taking that away from you is what is making you ‘miss me.’”
LUNA: The visuals for your EP Lovergirl are warm, and the visuals for this single are cold, very blue opposed to orange. Is that done on purpose? Do they exist as each other's opposition?
BOCHNER: In a way, it's the transition out of the Lovergirl world, so it is kind of an intentional shift. I think with Lovergirl, we really leaned into the warm color schemes and wanted to create that feeling of all-encapsulating, dreamy La La Land. “Your Manhattan” is the realization that maybe it's not all magical and daydreams. With the blues and the cool tones, it's meant to feel a little bit more metallic, a little more like you’re alone wandering the city streets with the street lights in the background. It's just bringing us out of the Lovergirl world and towards something different.
LUNA: Is this the beginning of a new project?
BOCHNER: I'm working on an album, but this single is my way of marking the end of the Lovergirl era. It's almost like a palate cleanser. This song isn't starting the rollout of a new project or of the album, it’s signaling the shift. It's a standalone single, but I have a lot that I'm excited to roll out next year.
LUNA: Is there anything you could tell us about it, if you can?
BOCHNER: It’s a full length album, my first full length album. We've been working on it for over a year now. It's a very special project for me, but I'll save all of that for later.
LUNA: I'm excited to see everything. Lovergirl was released last year, with the deluxe being out this year. What have you learned as an artist during this time between the standard and the deluxe edition of the EP?
BOCHNER: Good question. With Lovergirl, that sort of felt like the most authentic project that I had released in my career so far. It all felt really fulfilling and there was something really profound about the creation and the rollout of Lovergirl. It felt like a really important moment for me as an artist to share that story and the direction of the music as well. I was coming into myself in a way that was organic and almost unexpected. I learned that, for me, what feels the most exciting and the most meaningful is to make music and to make art that feels like I'm sharing really honest pieces of myself and my experience as a queer person.
The way that fans have responded to that project has been so amazing to see. People have resonated with it so deeply. It’s incredible to see that the more personal and sacred it feels to me, the more that it resonates with other people in their own way. I've taken that as the inspiration to keep sharing things that are honest to me and being vulnerable even it feels a little scary or like I'm over sharing, but I think people find the meaning that they are looking for in the music that they listen to and they'll take away whatever it is they need from it. If I can convey the emotion, then people will see themselves in it.
LUNA: You've done a sapphic version of “Guilty as Sin?” by Taylor Swift. First of all, obsessed with the song. I was wondering, what other song would you love to have a sapphic version of? Not necessarily to sing, but one you think has lesbian undertones.
BOCHNER: I think what really struck people with the cover of “Guilty as Sin?” is that the song is dripping in religious trauma, this internalized fear of, “What if wanting this person, or wanting this thing, is inherently wrong?” Obviously, the meaning of the original song is something else, but it's such a common experience for queer people—coming to terms with your sexuality and having to either navigate the self imposed anxiety and internalized things that you have to work through, or it coming from external voices. I can't think of another song off the top of my head that I feel like we need a sapphic version of, but I think anything that hits on that forbidden love or navigating fear and shame really lends itself nicely in the way “Guilty as Sin?” does.
Photo by Bao Ngo
LUNA: In your song “Without a Doubt” you say that love is a risk and it's most likely going to end in heartbreak, but you still decide to go for it. Do you still feel that way today?
BOCHNER: Yes and no. When I wrote that song, I was very much living in the moment, in that period of my life, and for a lot of different reasons I couldn't really think about the long term, and I was trying to figure out a way to find the good in that present moment and not focus so much on the fear of what might happen afterwards. I still definitely stand by the fact that giving your heart to someone, or being vulnerable and trusting someone is absolutely a risk. You have to open yourself up to the possibility of being hurt or something not working out to be able to experience the beautiful connection that comes from the act of being so vulnerable with someone. Hopefully not all love ends in inevitable heartbreak, but you do have to risk it to feel the highs.
LUNA: What song on Lovergirl do you think will still feel timeless years from now?
BOCHNER: My immediate gut reaction for that is “Carolina Honey” for sure. I think that is such a beautiful love song that really captures those early feelings of wanting to know if someone is feeling the same way about you. I think the way it's written is really beautiful, and sonically it definitely has a timeless kind of feeling.
LUNA: You've collaborated with Xana on “You Don't Want Me Like That.” Are there any other lesbian/sapphic artists you'd like to collaborate with?
BOCHNER: The list is endless. I really admire a lot of queer musicians that are releasing amazing projects right now. I have been listening to Conan Gray's album non stop. Obviously, very inspired by everything that Chappell is doing. I've also really been into the King Princess album that just released now. It’s really exciting right now in music, there are so many openly queer artists making really great art. There's no shortage of people to aspire to collaborate with.
LUNA: What are you hoping for this next year of your career as an artist?
BOCHNER: Great question. I'm really excited to roll this album out. I’m hoping to continue to grow and to reach more people who see themselves in the music. Just growth and more touring and meeting more fans. Creating more music that's just fulfilling to me and sharing it with people who also appreciate the meaning in it.
LUNA: I wish you the best with that! You already have such a great project with Lovergirl, and “Your Manhattan” is also amazing, so I'm very excited to see the next releases.
BOCHNER: Thank you, I really appreciate that. I'm just really excited for everything that's to come. I feel it's only going to get bigger and better.
Photo by Bao Ngo
