Though it’s yet to be released, Haley Heynderickx’s debut album is already turning heads. The Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwriter is readying her first full-length, I Need To Start A Garden, for an early March release, and it has already popped up on our most anticipated albums of the year. For my part, privileged as I am to listen to albums before they’re released, this record has been on constant repeat since I first got my hands on it late last year.
If you’re still catching up, check out her early single “Oom Sha La La,” which NPR discovered after she sent in an entry to their Tiny Desk Contest.Today, Stereogum highlighted Heynderickx as an Artist To Watch, and along with that premiered another new song off her record, this one is called “Untitled God Song.”
“Growing up with a religious background, I always grappled with the idea of what God looked like,” Heynderickx explained. “I mean this in a humorous sense. The older I get, the more convinced I am that God is just a busy mother trying to balance all the chaos around her, and I have no idea why but I do love this imagery. Maybe it’s an allusion to my own mother, but please don’t tell her that, she’ll probably feel shy about these lyrics.”
The song wraps around like a tendril, lightly at first, examining a religious connection reimagined to suit the the female experience. Heynderickx’s voice is shy, like she says, but it’s also a wonderful warble, and she wields it with the practiced skill of a veteran singer, knowing when to rush toward the end of a phrase, arms open, and when to slow down to a crawl, stretching the words out to fit a snare, a downward stroke, a line end. Listen to the track below and look for her debut album out 3/2 on Mama Bird Recording Co.
I Need To Start A Garden is out 3/2 via Mama Bird Recording Co. Pre-order it here.
