Nisa, recently shared new single, “St James Gate.” The track is off her forthcoming release Time To Plant Tears, due out on December 2, 2021. The title takes its name from the final stanza of an Elizabeth Bishop poem called Sestina. Working together with collaborator and producer, Ronnie Di Simone, the songs were recorded between Brooklyn’s Studio G and the Brick Box studio. In describing the mood of the EP, Nisa has said that the songs are centered around “confrontation and focus; weathering internal and external changes; desire, and emotional rebirth.” Intersecting cinematic and poetic frames of reference, it lands between what is said and what is felt.

When discussing the single, Nisa says: “I wrote “St. James Gate” after reading Sally Rooney’s Normal People and feeling deeply affected by the author’s descriptions of love in private spaces. The raging horn solo and blistering shouts over the final chorus are sobering reminders of the emotional claustrophobia of hiding.”

Born to Albanian immigrants in the Bronx, Nisa learned to speak Albanian before English and grew up listening to the traditional folk music of her parent’s native country. It wasn’t long before she began venturing out into what she describes to be a “diverse and accepting arts community,” playing regularly at open mic nights in high school and joining a rock collective in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her exploration of songwriting began when she was advised to lean into the rock stylings of the Eagles as an introduction to the guitar, from here she developed her own way of storytelling while referencing the likes of PJ Harvey, Björk and Radiohead as other key cornerstones to her approach.

Nisa
Time To Plant Tears EP
December 2, 2021
Track List

1. St James Gate
2. Cold
3. We’re In For It
4. Optic Nerve
5. The Savior
6. Unthinkable

Pre-order Time To Plant Tears by Nisa HERE