Songfacts®:

• On "Breathe," Malcolm Todd finds himself alone in a hotel suite with one of his best friends and decides to act on his feelings. He acknowledges the complication with the lines:
  
  It feels right, but right is wrong
  I probably shouldn't do it, but I'll do it for the song
  
  The chorus and bridge hint that this isn't a one-off lapse in judgment but part of an ongoing emotional saga.
• Todd casts himself as the life support system in the relationship - hence the title - suggesting he's the one who can "breathe" life back into something that's been quietly suffocating. Whether that's romantic optimism or narrative convenience is left for us to decide.
• Released March 13, 2026, "Breathe" was Malcolm Todd's first single since his self-titled debut album dropped in April 2025. It marked a shift in tone from that album: leaner, more confident, and less weighed down by heartbreak. Where "Chest Pain (I Love)," the breakthrough single from that record, sits with the raw ache of losing someone, "Breathe" finds Todd in the same emotional orbit but from a different angle: the wound has not healed, but Todd's posture has shifted from mourning to pursuit.
• There's no official confirmation linking the two songs to the same muse, but the thematic through-line is hard to miss. Both tracks circle absence and longing; the difference is that "Chest Pain (I Love)" mourns, while "Breathe" makes a slightly reckless bid to rewrite the ending.
• Todd co-wrote "Breathe" with Jonah Cochran, Charlie Ziman, Jasper Harris, Matthew Castellanos, and Blake Slatkin. The song was co-produced by Todd, Cochran, Ziman, Harris, and Slatkin (Castellanos contributed to the writing only).
  
  Jonah Cochran is a full touring band member and one of Todd's closest creative collaborators. He plays keyboard and guitar live. Charlie Ziman is Todd's go-to songwriting partner. Both helped him write "Chest Pain (I Love)."
  
  Blake Slatkin's production discography spans The Kid Laroi's "Stay," Lizzo's " About Damn Time," Charli XCX' "360," and Omar Apollo's God Said No album; notably the same Omar Apollo who took Todd on tour as his opening act in 2024.
  
  Slatkin's connection to Todd runs deeper than a single session hire: he and Gracie Abrams, a close friend of Todd's sister Audrey Hobert, dated on and off from around 2017 to 2022, and he executive-produced her debut EP Minor (2020), on which he co-wrote and produced her breakthrough single, "I Miss You, I'm Sorry," a song Abrams wrote about Slatkin. He continued producing her work through the This Is What It Feels Like EP (2022), and her debut album, Good Riddance, is widely understood to address their final separation.
  
  Jasper Harris is a producer and songwriter with credits including Jack Harlow's Billboard Hot 100 #1 "First Class," Tate McRae's global hit "Greedy," Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar's "Family Ties," and Camila Cabello's C,XOXO album.
• Todd played bass, keyboards, guitar, and vocals on the track. Jonah Cochran added guitar and bass, and Jasper Harris handled keyboards.
• Directed by Aidan Cullen - who also shot the "Chest Pain (I Love)" visual - the video flips the song's charged intimacy into pure comedy. The clip follows three girls as they hold Todd hostage in a bedroom, tying him up with cables and pushing him around in a shopping cart outside. It culminates with Todd performing in a red tank top in a wood-paneled living room while the girls drench him with water guns.