Maine-based rising artist Louisa Stancioff today shared her new single “Nobody’s Watching” off her auspicious debut album When We Were Looking, due out April 12th, 2024, via Yep Roc Records. “Nobody’s Watching” is a gorgeous, fervent ballad juxtaposing love and a sense of wonder towards nature with distress about its mass destruction. “It is both a love song to mother nature, and a breakup song to the greed and overconsumption of humanity,” explains Stancioff. It arrives alongside a self-directed video, featuring stunning snapshots of nature, animals and loved ones.
The album’s lead single “Gold” was released last month to great press from Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, No Depression, and more. When We Were Looking is now available for pre-order.
Stancioff is currently on tour, joined by Molly Parden and Eliza Edens for the majority of shows; Stancioff’s run ends February 21st with a show at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere Zone One with Edens and Stello. A current itinerary is below and more dates will be announced soon.
There are times in life when you’re so present, so fully immersed in the moment that you can catch a glimpse of another universe, of a realm beyond our own,” says Stancioff. “It might last for a second or an hour, it might come in the midst of bliss or sadness, you might be alone or with a lover, but when it happens, there’s nothing quite like it.” When We Were Looking is full of those moments. Written and recorded through a transitional, transient period filled with heartbreak and uncertainty, the collection is the raw and unflinching work of a nomadic soul who spent stints living in Alaska, California, New York, and North Carolina before returning home to her native Maine–one that holds nothing back in its bittersweet reckonings with pain, healing, acceptance, and growth. Stancioff writes with a cinematic eye, conjuring up richly detailed stagings for her emotionally-charged character studies sung with a silvery resonance.
The songs’ guitar-and-synth-focused arrangements are immersive and nuanced to match, thanks in part to the evocative sonic landscaping of producer/keyboardist Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Craig Finn), who proves to be an ideal creative foil on the record. Add it all up and you’ve got a dreamy, nostalgic, snapshot-filled album that blurs the lines between indie stoicism and folk sincerity–a lush, cathartic work that hints at everything from Phoebe Bridgers and Arlo Parks to Big Thief and Waxahatchee as it learns to find the beauty in grief and rebirth.
Louisa Stancioff upcoming shows:
02/14 – Northampton, MA @ The Parlor Room*
02/15 – Cambridge, MA @ Lizard Lounge*
02/17 – Portland, ME @ One Longfellow Square*
02/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ City Winery*
02/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Zone One^
* with Molly Parden, Eliza Edens
^ with Eliza Edens, Stello
