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Oct 06, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Justin Fraham

Next week, Bay Area-based indie singer/songwriter Anna Hillburg is set to return with her forthcoming third album, Tired Girls. Hillburg first debuted with her 2013 self-titled album and followed in 2018 with her sophomore effort, Really Real. Tired Girls sees her operating from a similarly evocative and ornate chamber pop mold, but also sees her incorporating swelling horn arrangements, building on her training as a classical trumpet player. Meanwhile, her lyrics dive into the travails of contemporary womanhood, excavating feelings of anger and frustration while exploring the ways that women persevere and create space to love themselves.

Earlier this year, Hillburg shared “Holdin’ On” and “Girl Girl Girl,” the album’s first two singles, and today she’s back with a third and final single, “How Do You Make Believe,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“How Do You Make Believe” is one of Hillburg’s more winding and shadowy efforts, but it also retains the dreamy sheen that colors the record’s soundscapes. Smoky guitar lines give the track a dusty western feel, contrasted with bright horn accents and chiming acoustic tones. The resulting track paints Hillburg in a decadent shimmering mirage while hinting towards a darker side. Meanwhile, Hillburg sings about hiding her true self, retreating to worlds of imagination: “I knew they’d act this way / Got a little bad news today / I guess I’ll go and hide away.”

As Hillburg describes, “This is is the most sinister-sounding song on the album, and it is a song about the dark side of imagination.

Musicians often create alter egos to help them become more of who they want to be, or escape who they actually are to give them more creative freedom. The Beatles had Sgt. Peppers, Bowie had Ziggy Stardust, Beyoncé has Sasha Fierce, Prince had Camille (a female character he could embody from time to time ), and even Garth Brooks had an alter ego who had a soul patch if I remember correctly!

The version of me that I have in my mind is always brave and in control, successful and powerful. Someone who I long to be but in real life I am often not. Sometimes not being who you want to be can be a torturous experience, so in the song and video I wanted to play with the idea that this perfect version of me was actually a villain who was torturing me and calling me to be her.

After a recent show I played in Portland, a friend turned me on to the band Kiss for the first time. It immediately clicked, my alter ego should be an imaginary trumpet playing, 5th member of Kiss. I enlisted my friend Dahlia Gallin Ramirez, a New Yorker cartoonist to help me come up with a character. The rest is Kisstory.”

Check out the song and video early below. Tired Girls is out everywhere on October 13th.