ADA LEA RELEASES VIDEO TO NEW SINGLE “WHAT MAKES ME SAD”

Saddle Creek’s newest signing, Ada Lea  released her debut album what we say in private

To Levy – who is also a painter – music and visual art are different vessels for communicating similar ideas. “It’s a world that I can build around me and sit inside,” she says. Through all her art, Levy explores the concept of womanhood as it feels and looks to her, as well as love and how it transforms over time. She doesn’t shy away from exploring uncomfortable and painful emotions, either. With the brightness of love, strength, and hope contrasted with the darkness of loss, suffering, isolation, and abandonment, the Ada Lea album what we say in private is a varied and vivid record that constantly seems to shift in the light, bringing together all the intricate influences she’s collected over the years.

“what we say in private” began with a need to document the ending of an important romantic relationship. Following a tormented period of staying up all night (sometimes days at a time), frantically painting or writing songs as a means of coping, she journaled for 180 days in the hope of finding herself again. She conducted this period of analysis and introspection in private, like most of her creative pursuits, and the process eventually resulted in a rebirth: a rediscovery of self and a new sense of freedom and self-acceptance. These chaotic feelings and the resulting catharsis are deeply felt in the final recording of what we say in private. Levy wanted the album to feel like a journal entry from those 180 days as she cycled through emotions. Throughout, she expresses feelings and thoughts that all humans experience behind closed doors and alone, but are conditioned to keep to themselves.

“what we say in private” truly comes alive thanks to the way these recordings utilize the very real world around them, rather than shutting it all out. Expanding the boundaries of the studio, Levy, alongside the record’s producer Tim Gowdy, found new and nuanced ways of allowing the songs to flourish. “It was all part of a bigger idea,”she says. “We stuck microphones out of windows in mid-January to capture the chilly nighttime sounds. We recorded snow removal trucks backing into the lot and airplanes flying overhead. We used voice memos, a piece from here and another from there. I had built a room with the demos of my songs and Tim helped to add a second level.” As such, the album reverberates with human warmth, defined by the signature characteristics that can be found throughout — as on “the party,” which fittingly comes wrapped up in static white noise, a soft atmosphere lingering in the distance and gently surrounding the stark instrumentation that is gradually introduced.

See Ada Lea live:

Tuesday 22nd June – Troyes, FR @ The Nuits De Champagne
Friday 25th June – Groningen, NL @ USVA
Saturday 26th Octobe​r – Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling
Sunday 27th October – Rotterdam, NL @ Rroodkapje
Thursday 31st October – Bristol, UK @ The Crofters Rights
Friday 1st November – Manchester, UK @ The Castle Hotel
Saturday 2nd November – London, UK @ Mirrors Festival
Monday 4th November – Glasgow, UK @ The Hug And Pint *
Tuesday 5th November – Newcastle, UK @ Surf Cafe
Wednesday 6th November – ​Brighton, UK @ The Hug & Pint *

w/Stef Chura

Tour dates and tickets via adaleamusic.com

Find Ada Lea online:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Saddle Creek Website

About Author

Danny

See author's posts