Joni – announces debut album ‘ Things I Left Behind’ out Apr 11th + shares title track

American-born, London-based songwriter Joni announces her debut album, Things I Left Behind, ahead of an April 11th release via her twin homes of Hand In Hive (Divorce, TV Priest, Wyldest), and Keeled Scales in North America. She also announces a headline London show in support of the album, taking place May 8th at SJQ. Tickets go on-sale this Friday Feb 14thhere.

Alongside the news, she shares the album’s beguiling title track, a captivating account of how so much of growing up is centred around losing people, places, and things; how we constantly leave pieces of ourselves behind as we move forward. Underpinned by a shuffling drumbeat that keeps the song forever moving forward, Joni’s voice feels suitably alluring against a subtle swirl of guitars and varying tonal shifts that lend the track a bewitching edge. The track comes produced by Jackson Firlik (B. Miles, Great Barrier).

Speaking about ‘Things I Left Behind’, Joni calls it “a reflection on how we’re all made up of the things we’ve lost and left behind. People. Places. Experiences. While writing the lyrics, I was having all these vivid images from my past rush by, almost like lights when you’re driving in a tunnel. Little things and big things. Scraping my knee as a kid. Falling in love for the first time. Losing love. Taking mushrooms and calling my childhood best friend. Lying on the grass at night. It’s painful to realise you can’t hold onto these things physically, but ultimately comforting to know that they sort of become you and you carry them along in some way.”

1. Your Girl
2. Strawberry Lane
3. Avalanches
4. Things I Left Behind
5. Castles
6. Birthday
7. Bucket List
8. The Tide
9. Still Young
10. PS
Pre-order Things I Left Behind on vinyl and digitally here: https://orcd.co/things-i-left-behind

When Joni says that “pain is the price you pay for loving someone” it’s coming from a place of deep experience. Having relocated to London from LA with her long-term partner, and closest musical collaborator, the singer-songwriter suddenly found herself thrust into a deeply unsettling break-up, one that left her isolated in a brand new country, and also one that pulled back the curtain on a host of unhealthy patterns she had become accustomed to within the relationship.
 
Things I Left Behind, is a document of the journey between both the before and after, and is as deeply personal and powerfully moving as such a snapshot suggests. Formed of ten new songs, the album embraces its imperfections, taking its dues from the likes of Feist, Sparklehorse and Daniel Johnston, and is as much a story of personal growth and the courage of convictions, as it is one of heartbreak and turmoil.