Paige Stark, known for her work in Tashaki Miyaki, will releaase her Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Evan Dando, Spoon) produced debut solo EP Good At Love, available june 7, 2024. Ahead of the album’s arrival, Stark has shared the Title track, along with a video directed by her and Angela Ricciardi.

Over the last few years, Stark has written and recorded “many, many” songs. Certain abandoned songs have been sitting around orphaned- too personal, too different from the band material to belong there. “I needed a place just for me.” Stark says in her subtle California drawl, “I needed a space to put them.” Stark’s bandmates and other friends in her creative circle have been encouraging her for years to “do something” with her solo songs of which she’s “probably recorded 3 records worth of demos.” One of those people was Jon Brion. “Jon kept saying to me…I think this stuff is really good. He told me it was his favorite of my work so far, and that stayed with me…” Stark explains, “…but I kind of move at my own pace, I rarely feel hurried. But recently I started to feel like it was time. I had gotten enough messages from the universe to put it out.”

Paige recruited Jon to helm the EP, making him a playlist of sounds she was inspired by. “At first I asked him to help me finish one song. It was the title track, “Good at Love”. I recorded it as a demo during a Tashaki session. I had quickly recorded vocals, piano and a little drum machine I used to keep time. It was very raw, but I liked the vibe of it. I gave it to Jon and asked if he could help me finish it…I thought maybe he could add some keyboards. When I next heard it, I was floored. It made me cry. It was exactly how I always wanted my music to sound. And at that moment I asked if he would help me finish a few other things, and he said yes, and that’s the genesis of the EP. A couple things we started from scratch, a couple were started elsewhere and Jon brought them to their fully formed life.”

Much of Good At Love deals with loneliness and romantic decay. “I wanted to make feminine music. The sonic female gaze. I wanted it to be soft but gutting. Women go through a lot. We love hard and carry our own wounds, and often other peoples’, and a lot of the time silently. I’m just exhausted by noise and violence and I want to make something very tender,” Paige explains. On the EP’s opener, she sings of the paradoxical emotions of love: “Keep it loose/ don’t hold too tight/ I’m trying to stay in line/ But I’m no good at love” she coos, laying out the tone and theme of the EP in languid breaths. The four songs follow an emotional through line all the way to the closer-a gorgeous cover of Harry Nilsson’s “I Will Never Leave You” far more stripped down than the original Nilsson Schmilsson version. It completes the circle of the torments and elation of romantic love. “Even when love is really good and right, it’s hard,” Paige says, “It shakes you to your core and forces you to ask yourself who you really are. And if you don’t respond, it shows you. And I love that, but it’s challenging. I wanted the EP to have that kind of emotional journey…questioning and resolving. So the Nilsson cover felt right for the end. I mean, I love a happy ending.”

Pre-order Good At Love by Paige Stark HERE