Cold Engines Make Funk Feel Fearless on “Confident Woman”

There’s no slow intro, no dramatic throat-clearing. Cold Engines hit play on “Confident Woman” and immediately chose motion. The track opens bright and punchy, riding a jazz-fusion-leaning groove that snaps into full-on funk before you even realize your head’s moving. It’s upbeat in a way that feels intentional, not forced, like a band that actually trusts rhythm to do the heavy lifting.

Sonically, this thing lives in the pocket. The bass is thick and playful, the wah-wah guitar does exactly what it’s supposed to do, and the horns don’t just decorate the track, they lead it. There’s a strong 70s funk backbone here, but it doesn’t feel like cosplay. The production is sleek, modern, and clean enough to keep it from drifting into nostalgia bait. Think classic funk muscle with a future-leaning polish.

Lyrically, “Confident Woman” keeps it refreshingly simple. This isn’t a lecture or a slogan. It’s about admiration, witnessing confidence, respecting it, being energized by it. The song frames confidence as something magnetic, not performative. There’s no irony, no wink, no overthinking. Just the idea that self-worth is attractive, and that energy is contagious. In a culture obsessed with tearing confidence down or monetizing it, that sincerity actually lands.

What really works here is restraint.

Cold Engines don’t overcrowd the arrangement or try to flex their résumé, even though they easily could. Decades of experience, awards, and festival miles are baked into the performance, not announced. The groove stays tight, the hook stays memorable, and the song knows exactly when to let the rhythm breathe. That’s veteran confidence, not rookie bravado.

As the first single from their upcoming full-length album (due April 2026), “Confident Woman” sets the tone clearly: this era is about joy, movement, and songs that make people want to participate. It’s a dance floor record, yes, but it’s also a reminder that funk doesn’t need to be ironic or over-explained to feel relevant. It just needs to feel good and mean what it says.

Bottom line: “Confident Woman” isn’t chasing trends or algorithm bait. It’s a celebration track built by a band that understands groove, values positivity, and knows that confidence, real confidence, doesn’t need permission.

You’ve played massive stages and lived inside jam, rock, and funk worlds for years. What made you want this song to be fun first, instead of “impressive”?

When we get together to write, we always focus on fun. It's been really nice to get in a room with the whole band and write together in real time after things became more remote during the pandemic. Hanging out with our best friends is always fun, and I think it shows in the writing. We have never been a band that puts out “look what I can do” vibes, and we really let the songs evolve on their own while we subtly steer them with our aesthetic choices. It's a great process, and we love a good dance number!

“Confident Woman” is about admiration, not commentary. Why was it important to celebrate confidence without turning it into a message song or manifesto?

When we wrote this, our drummer, Aaron, was just playing a fun groove, and as I pressed record on my phone, we started playing, and I started singing. In listening back, I just wrote down what I sang, and it turned out to be a song celebrating the confident women in our lives that has a really fun and dance funk thing going on! With such a cool groove, I suppose the lyrics fell in line with feeling good.

A lot of modern funk either sounds retro to a fault or overly polished. How did you decide where to draw the line between 70s funk DNA and a futuristic aesthetic?

The truth is, we always sound like us for good or bad; we have a sound. The notion of “deciding” is funny for us because we just write and record what we think is natural and most excellent. If we dig it, we let it fly! We don’t really think too much about that aspect of our songs. In the later sessions of the recording process, we just follow what we think the song is asking for, which usually serves us well.

This is the first single from a full-length album coming next year. What does this song tell us about the mood of this next era of Cold Engines?

I love this question! With the breadth of our work varying so widely from genre to genre, we found ourselves back to writing whatever came naturally in the room while jamming. This makes for a very diverse record that jumps around and is full of twists and turns. We think it's a pretty fun ride and has something for everyone. While some songs are up-tempo and make us want to dance, the album moves through many emotions we have all been observing.

Confidence shows up differently onstage, in the studio, and in real life. Where do you personally feel the most confident as artists right now, and where are you still pushing yourselves?

I really feel that authenticity in what we dig and what we have to say as artists is where we draw confidence from. We can only be ourselves, and I believe that is the most important part of why we keep making music; nobody else can do exactly what we do because of our strengths and limitations. Feeling that showing up authentically as ourselves is more than enough to create art certainly carries a degree of confidence.