The beauty of music is its timeless nature. Some songs explode upon release, while others simmer beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to resonate. Pacific’s indie pop gem, never in love, falls into the latter category. Initially released in 2021 as part of the i love you, i’m sorry EP, the track has recently found a new audience thanks to viral TikToks and online buzz. And honestly? It’s about time.
Pacific, the brainchild of Nashville-based singer-songwriter and producer Will Hunter, has always captured a unique brand of nostalgia. Blending the coastal warmth of West Coast indie pop with early-2000s alternative influences, Pacific crafts music that feels like the soundtrack to a sun-soaked daydream. never in love is no exception.
At its core, never in love is a song about timing—or more accurately, the lack of it. It tells the all-too-relatable story of two people who are never on the same page when it comes to love. One moment, one person is all in, only for the other to fall out, creating a cycle of missed opportunities and unresolved emotions. Hunter’s candid storytelling shines in lines like "Justin Bieber stole my crush"—a seemingly personal yet universally resonant lyric that makes you chuckle before pulling you right back into your own past heartbreaks.
But it’s the contrast between the song’s bright, buoyant sound and its melancholic lyrics that makes it so effective. This is the kind of track you blast with the windows down, smiling through the ache. It’s the magic of mixed emotions—sadness wrapped in a beat that makes you want to dance. The best kind of catharsis.
The music industry moves fast, but TikTok and Instagram Reels have become unexpected lifelines for songs that might’ve otherwise gone unnoticed. Thanks to a surge in user-generated content featuring never in love, the track is experiencing a well-deserved resurgence. Fans new and old are connecting with it as if it were released yesterday, proving that good music has no expiration date.
Pacific acknowledges the surreal nature of this delayed success: “Goes to show that just because a song didn’t pop off at first doesn’t mean it’s a waste. I hope that means it’s a classic in some way.” And honestly? It just might be.
With new momentum behind never in love, all eyes (and ears) are on what’s next for Pacific. Hunter’s upcoming debut album, Caught Up in a Dream, promises a fresh mix of synth-pop and soft rock, weaving together themes of love, heartbreak, and connection. If never in love is any indication, we can expect songs that don’t just live in the moment—they live in the memory, long after the last note fades.
So if you haven’t yet, take a listen to never in love. Let it transport you back to that one person who was always just out of reach. And who knows—maybe it’ll even spark an old flame.
“never in love” is having a huge viral resurgence after a couple of years. How does it feel to see a song you wrote in 2021 suddenly take off in such a big way?
It’s honestly unreal. It feels like I’m in a dream, and I’m gonna wake up any second now. I always felt like this song never had its “moment” when it came ou,t so I’m thrilled that it’s getting it now. It was always a fan favorite - like when people would come up and chat with me at shows, this was always one that got brought up. I’m just so grateful for this little moment it’s having and how it’s reaching new fans and people who have never heard of Pacific before.
The song’s theme—two people never being in love at the same time—is such a universally relatable experience. Did you expect so many people to connect with your personal story?
Not at all, to be honest haha. It’s such a specific story that is so specifically about what happened in my life in grade school that I thought for sure no one would relate to but me. Like the line about Justin Bieber singing Baby and stealing my crush’s heart (literally happened to me), I was like, no way will anyone get this, but I was 100% wrong. I guess sometimes people are way more similar than we give credit. Like what people say on TikTok, “I guess we’re all just living the same life,” haha. I love that I get to share some very niche moments of my story with fans of the song.
Your sound has often been compared to LANY, The 1975, and The Band CAMINO. How do you balance these influences while making sure Pacific has its own unique identity?
That’s a great question. I see artists as a bit of a “juicer” of their influences, if you will. In a juice, ya know, you put in carrots, celery, beets, whatever, and out comes this unique blend of all this good stuff. Same in music and in all of life if we’re real. I once heard Chris Martin (another of my influences) talking about when he was given the first inspiration for their song Yellow and how he was just trying as much as possible to sound like Neil Young. And to us what came out is one of the most iconic songs of all time that sounds nothing like Neil Young, but 100% like Coldplay. I think people who really know my music and have listened to more than a 5-second TikTok clip know that there’s a core identity that you can hear throughout my whole discography that I would call the “Pacific sound.” And yeah, it’s a little bit of The 1975, a little bit of LANY, a little bit of Coldplay, a little bit of early 2000s alternative, and lots of others - cause that’s just what I like. And I make what I like.
You have a new album, Caught Up In A Dream, on the way. How does this record build on your previous music, and what can fans expect from these new songs?
I love this album. It’s the first time I have ever tried to produce a Pacific project on my own so that alone brought all sorts of growth and newness to what already existed in my previous works. I got about 3-4 months into the production of the new album and hit a wall, but then I met Taylor Dubray (Betcha) through an A&R friend, and we clicked right away. He helped me finish this thing ou,t and I couldn’t have done it without him. New collaborators always bring a new flavor to a project and Taylor’s touch was so important to this album.
To answer the second part of your question, I hope fans can hear growth in this music. It sounds better than anything I’ve done technically. The songs are better written. The cohesion of the work is locked in. I hope fans love it as much as I do and can really feel the heart put into every second of each song. Sonically, it lives in this synth-pop/alternative world that I love so much. Songs that you could play in a living room or a stadium. That’s what I love.
You’ve been in both band and solo project phases with Pacific. How has your creative process evolved over the years, and what’s it like stepping back into the solo spotlight?
It was difficult parting ways with my bandmates since we’d been through so much together, but it was ultimately the best thing that could’ve happened for this project. I started Pacific as a solo venture in college and so being solo again is a homecoming of sorts, but with years of experience and growth in between. It really forced me to take full accountability for where this band could go.
No one else is gonna pave the way for me, and at the end of the day (with a little luck), it’s on me where it ends up. So I’m ready to give it my all and make the best music I can make and create something really special. I feel like it also gives me a unique position to be more vulnerable with my audience since I’m not speaking for 3 or 4 people. It’s just me, so I can share more openly from the heart, and I think people can really feel the difference.