Steph Green is a songwriter based in New Orleans who previously recorded under the moniker Carver Baronda. Writing about the EP Spooky Love, we described how Green’s sound blended pop and garage rock with what she calls “the lonesome, eerie side of American roots music.” Country rock influences lent a warm and wistful air, but as we described in our piece, this “does not restrict the unsettling tone.” Rather, the song were shot through with “a pervasive sense of weirdness” which “[lifted them] into a Southern Gothic territory.”
Now recording under her own name, Steph Green has unveiled Thanks for That, her debut full-length album to be released early next year on Mashed Potato Records. Described as “a concise, seven-track kaleidoscope,” the album casts an even wider net in search of influences, juxtaposing loud and quiet styles to bring Green’s ambiguous moods into relief. Nineties revival distortion accompanies the lush sincerity of contemporary folk, while elements of dream pop and classic surf rock swirl around the Gothic/noir-ish country tones established on Spooky Love. A sound at once empowered and vulnerable, capable of both confrontation and escape.
First single ‘Night Falls’ very much leaned into the country side of this style, but the latest track ‘Next Place’ shows off another dimension to the sound. With the dense haziness of the guitars playing off again the soft croon of the Steph Green’s vocals, the song highlights the album’s loud-quiet dynamic, and the gradual ebb and flow conjures a certain ethereality. A dreaminess evoked in the lyrics too, drawing the listener toward the titular next place.
Check out the stop-motion video directed and edited by Green herself:
Thanks for That will be released via Mashed Potato Records on the 14th January. Keep an eye on the Steph Green Bandcamp page for updates.
