Emma Ayzenberg’s new EP iron mountain was created in Los Angeles with an accomplished group of artists, featuring Luke Temple (Hand Habits, Art Feynman) and Carly Bond (Meernaa) as producers, and appearances by Greg Uhlmann (Perfume Genius, Fell Runner) on guitar, Sam Kauffman-Skloff (Angel Olsen, Miya Folick, St. Vincent) and Jorge Balbi (Sharon Van Etten, Olivia Kaplan) on drums, and Pat Kelly (Perfume Genius, St. Vincent, MARINA) on bass. On iron mountain “Ayzenberg’ reflects on personal agency and resilience, exploring the realizations that have come as she’s followed a fascination for Jungian psychology, grown into her queerness, and processed both personal and generational trauma”.

“count the dreams,” a song Ayzenberg wrote in response to Temple tasking his class with writing a love song. “This was my love song to queerness,” Ayzenberg says, “and to the simultaneous joy and fear of being loved as I change and learn more about myself.” “It’s in our blood to know fear/Maybe that’s why we find pleasure between here and there,” Ayzenberg sings, naming the duality of life lived in a queer body, defined as it is by both generations of heartbreak and profound joy. Inspired by Leslie Feinberg’s seminal book Stone Butch Blues, Ayzenberg was heartened by the notion that queerness is synonymous with change, continuous and perpetual. And in understanding that there is no point in the future at which she will have arrived fully actualized, Ayzenberg has come to a place of acceptance for what is, right now, even as she tenderly welcomes the next inevitable transformation.

Emma Ayzenberg on Iron Mountain:

“On iron mountain, I give voice to some of the close encounters I’ve had with pain, to what it means to gain a sense of safety in the body again. These songs alternate between story and my own inner monologue, with reflections on personal agency and resilience, memories, and how I’ve processed both personal and generational trauma”.

order iron mountain by Emma Ayzenberg HERE