News: Johanna Samuels Releases New Album “Sorry, Kid” – Out Now via Odd Man Out Recordings / Jealous Butcher
Johanna Samuels has released her new album Sorry, Kid, out now via Odd Man Out Recordings and Jealous Butcher.
Recorded to tape and produced by Jonathan Rado (Weyes Blood, Father John Misty, The Killers), the cinematic record features contributions from members of Samuels’ Los Angeles music community, including Courtney Marie Andrews, Tyler Ballgame and Erin Rae.
Alongside the album’s release, Samuels has shared focus track “Rare (The Runner Song)”, featuring Madison Cunningham. The patient but increasingly expansive track explores the tendency to avoid conflict rather than confront it.
“The song is about avoidance. I was feeling like I had nowhere to put my truth and I had this vision of a kettle sitting on a stove whistling out. I identified with the urgency of the teapot but felt like there was an unspoken rule that the kettle wasn’t supposed to make any noise. I liked the image and wrote from there. Of all the songs on the record this one has the most pathos for me. I think our country is an avoidant nation. We don’t put ourselves in each other’s shoes much. We just run, and run and pursue ourselves. What we’re seeing now is a result of a billion issues and missed opportunities to listen to each other avoided and numbed into temporary submission. I believe turning toward the discomfort of the friction between us all is where the healing lies.”
Sorry, Kid brings together songs written across almost two decades, with material dating back to 2007 alongside newer work shaped by Samuels’ experiences. She describes the album as a closing chapter and a message to her younger self.
“I think about how much has changed since I wrote these songs, and I know that releasing them will finally close the stitch on a chapter of my life that taught me so much.”
Much of the album was built in the studio with Rado, who handled drums while Samuels played piano, acoustic guitar and Wurlitzer. The recordings were subsequently expanded with bass, keys, fuzzy electric guitars and vintage synthesizers, with additional Mellotron contributions from Philip Krohnengold.
“Rado and I share a very similar musical palette, and because we were already pals, it felt easy and natural,” Samuels recalls.
Vocal sessions and additional production were later completed with Patrick Damphier at New Monkey Studio, once home to Elliott Smith, whose music has been a major influence on Samuels.
“Recording there felt surreal. His music has been a true north for me for more than half my life,” she says. “Singing through his Neumann mic felt full circle, like I was meant to wait that long. If these songs began as questions, they arrived as resolutions rather than answers,” she says. “When the circles meet, Johanna Samuels sounds like an artist who’s made peace.”
Sorry, Kid is out on August 14 via Odd Man Out Recordings. Get the album here | Get it on Bandcamp here.
Track List:
1-White Limousine (feat. Courtney Marie Andrews)
2-Rare (The Runner Song) (feat. Madison Cunningham)
3-Circles (feat. Tyler Ballgame)
4-Blue vs. Pinkerton
5-Two People, the Moon
6-Full Story (feat. Jordan Lehning)
7-Bats (feat. Erin Rae)
8-The Kind One
9-Grade 11 (Sorry Kid) (feat. Erin Rae)
10-Do What I Can
11-Indelible Within HerJohanna Samuels Links
