Winnetka Bowling League shares new song "This Is Life"

Today, Los Angeles indie trio Winnetka Bowling League have shared a brand new single, “This Is Life,” featuring friends Medium Build and Dawes. It follows their recently released debut album, Sha La La, which was released just last month via Local Weather/MDDN Records.

Winnetka Bowling League frontman Matthew Koma is never one to pass up an opportunity to inject humor into both his art and life in general and the story of how this song came to life is no exception. “There was this song going kind of viral on TikTok called ‘Rectangular’ and it was at the same time I started seeing videos of Medium Build / Nick in his signature shorts / dangling earring / swooning the internet with his passionate and relatable observations on the weird life experience,” Koma explains. “I was poking a little fun when I posted a Tiktok dressed as Nick, performing ‘Rectangular’, and we became fast internet buddies. On his next trip to LA we hung out at my studio and he noticed the Dawes poster on my wall….we bonded over our extreme fandom of Dawes and Taylor’s songwriting. I sent Taylor some of Medium Build’s music and he loved it, weeks later covering his song ‘In My Room’ at a show where Nick was in attendance. I had started a little nugget of a first verse with ‘This Is Life’ and sent it to our group chat seeing if they’d be down to complete the love circle with a musical gesture and, lucky for me, they were down. Taylor is our hero and I can’t (but will) speak for Nick when I say this is one of the coolest moments of our lives to be on a song with him.”

Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith says: “There’s a Joan Didion quote from her novel ‘The Last Thing He Wanted’ that hit me hard enough to take up permanent residence in my notebook: ‘When I look back on what happened I see mainly fragments, flashes, a momentary phantasmagoria in which everyone focused on some different aspect and nobody at all saw the whole.’ It’s how most of life seems to feel all of the time. And Matt nailed it when he wrote that first verse of “This Is Life.” It’s an ambitious title, and he fully delivered on the premise. To be invited to be a part of it was a blast and an honor. I was quickly becoming a massive Medium Build fan when Matt told me what he had in mind for the song, but once I got to hear what Nick contributed I realized he’s a real motherfucker of a writer. In my experience, it’s not always easy to sink into someone else’s vision for a tune and he did it as truthfully and elegantly as anyone possibly could. I was just painting with the colors that the song provided. While writing it, I didn’t know it would end up as the last verse though. So that was pretty cool. I’m just really proud people are gonna see Dawes’s name next to these other two for a song like this.”

Medium Build adds, “When I first met Matt from WBL we gushed about Taylor from Dawes. He told me they were friends. I didn’t believe him until he got me free Dawes tickets. Then he sent me this song and said me and Taylor were gonna write on it. I didn’t believe him but here we are. Point is yall should believe Matt Koma. This song fucking rocks.”

Watch the lyric video for “This Is Life” below.