sadie – “Nowhere”

The Brooklyn producer and songwriter Anna Schwab is currently recording hyperpop under the name sadie. On the summer solstice, she’ll release her debut EP Nowhere, co-produced by Joe Valle (Wet) and Maya Laner (True Blue & Porches). Last month she released its free-flowing, skittery lead single “4am.” Today, she’s sharing more details about the project and releasing a video for the title track. Schwab’s ping-ponging vocal melody on the track reminds me of a more computerized Caroline Polachek, and she sings it with a casual grace that cuts against the tense and eerie feeling I associate with this genre.

Here’s sadie’s statement on the song:

“Nowhere” is sort of about listlessness, and about the slippery quality of emotions — it’s about feeling a sense of purpose and joie de vivre for a moment, and losing it the minute you feel it. I usually find the minute I name, or recognize, a feeling—it’s gone. And then the memory of the feeling, and the desire to feel it again, makes its absence more acute. I wrote the song in early spring. I find the world takes on a sort of manic happiness and electric hum at the first signs of spring, and it’s always the time of year when I feel the most low. “April is the cruelest month,” as TS Eliot says. So I wanted to juxtapose those feelings with bubblegum melodies and the sort of ice-cream truck inspired synths you hear in the background, to help capture that sense of dissonance.

Watch director Matt Hixon’s “Nowhere” video below, where you can also find “4am.”