NOT A TOY Sink Into Late-Night Melancholy on “DEAD EYES”
NOT A TOY’s new single “DEAD EYES” is a hazy, genre-blurring track for “dark romantics,” blending moody vocals with cinematic, slow-burning production.
ALTERNATIVENEW RELEASESNEWS
LEAH MARIN
5/4/20261 min read
NOT A TOY’s new single “DEAD EYES” feels like a moody and magnetic confession. Framed by the group’s own description as “for the dark romantics,” the track leans fully into that shadowy allure, pairing Branson Hoog’s haunting vocal delivery with a slow-burning instrumental that feels very cinematic.
NOT A TOY isn’t really a “band” in the traditional sense. It’s a four-person collective—Branson Hoog (vocals), Jeremy Marmor (guitar), Benji Spoliansky (drums/production), and TJ Wessel (violin/keys)—who came up together and now create out of a shared space in Denver. They blur everything: genres, visuals, fashion, and even how they present themselves.
True to this ethos, NOT A TOY refuses to sit neatly in one lane. “DEAD EYES” drifts between alt-rock, R&B textures, and something more experimental, with the guitar work cutting through like flickers of neon in the dark. There’s a sense of longing and detachment woven into every layer of the track, as if the song is tracing the outline of a love that’s already slipping away.
As a collective that prides itself on boundaryless creation, NOT A TOY continues to build a world rather than just a discography.
Listen to “DEAD EYES”:
