Music can be an easy place to hide in.
Lyrical allusion, vast arrangements and speckled production can all lead to the artist shrouding themselves in layers, distorting the surface and protecting what's beneath.
Sea Lion though, has no desire to hide herself. Real name Linn Osterberg, the songwriter recorded new album 'Desolate Stars' alone in a Gothenburg bedroom.
“I’ve been writing and making music to find out who the hell I was,” she says. “I sort of felt very ghost-like. Music—and recording things, in general—makes me feel like I exist a little bit more. Writing is a good way of learning to accept myself, ‘cos if you hate everything you do, it’s impossible to keep going, and you can’t get it done unless you become a little more accepting.”
Out on August 28th via Turnstile, 'Desolate Stars' recalls the stark folk of Jessica Pratt or even those early Joanna Newsom recordings.
Clash is able to tease the release with new cut 'If My Baby', a poetic, open and honest piece of songwriting which uses music to strip back layers, rather than hide beneath them.
Linn explains: "'If My Baby' is a sort of low key pop song. It's about love that is not unrequited but still feels like it, about unrealistic expectations and not knowing where to draw the line between dreaming and living ordinary life. It's a song for everybody that has ever left a relationship being more in love than ever".
Check it out now.
