Singer/songwriter Johanna Samuels recently shared her new single “Golden Gate,” off her forthcoming new album Bystander, which drops June 23rd via Jealous Butcher Records. The full-length was produced by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman. “This song is a true quarantine artifact,” she explains. “I was playing and writing frequently in that period and I fell in love with the chords and song structure. I was really blocked when it came to the words that were wanting to come out. I felt very disconnected. I knew I wanted it to have some Dylan Rodrigue life breathed into it. He is one of my all time favorite writers in Los Angeles right now. He wrote the lyrics extremely quickly and wildly enough it was about exactly what I thought it was about: dissociation, numbness and weightlessness in the darkness.” “Golden Gate” follows previous singles “Holy Mothers” (feat. Madison Cunningham) and “Ugly On The Inside,”

Emerging from the ruins of a dark personal time and a toxic relationship, Samuels sends a dispatch from the tender moments of a new beginning on Bystander. Treating listeners like trusted confidantes, we get to hear where she’s been and what she’s seen—and, most importantly, where she wants to go from here. While writing the 11 songs that would comprise her new album, Samuels didn’t even know if they would ever be heard. This left her feeling free to create a world that was just for her.

Across the album, Samuels’ writing exudes a literary flair that gives listeners a distinctive sense of setting and character at all times. Bystander travels from “some street in Texas” to the Golden Gate Bridge to Las Vegas, alongside an array of fascinating and, at times, deeply meaningful case studies—but Samuels is always sharing her own story, too. Produced by Kaufman and featuring drums from Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Fleet Foxes).

Pre-order Bystander by Johanna Samuels HERE