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Jan 11, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by @alohaburnframes

Byland is the project of Seattle-based singer/songwriter Alie Renee Byland, in collaboration with her songwriting partner and husband, Jake Byland. Byland first emerged with 2018’s Desert Days and followed in 2020 with her full-length debut record, Gray, a record that followed as she carefully shaped her style of atmospheric, widescreen indie rock. She is set to follow later this year with her upcoming sophomore album, Heavy For A While. She shared a handful of new singles from the album last year, and today she’s back with another new track, “Lean In,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Lean In” begins in a sparse and simmering mode, with Byland’s vocal accompanied only by an unhurried percussive beat. As the song unfurls, it steadily grows more tense and atmospheric, weaving in churning guitars, shadowy multi-tracked vocals, and towering drums. That tension grows and grows without any release, with its final moments capturing Byland caught up in a whirlwind of feverish instrumentation before settling into silence. The results feel dark and magnetic, but also deeply emotive. Byland’s lyrics explore the dejection and frustration of being left on the outside looking in, pining for acceptance but constantly being denied at the precipice.

Alie says of the track, “My vocal is dry and close at the beginning of this song, before it opens into an echo of sorts, a voice in the void. It’s a moment I believe many can identify with, in some way - the woes of chasing success in this world when you think you know what that looks like. We wrote this after being rejected by a radio station in town that we idealized and felt was the only way to reach people with our art. Truly, there’s always a way if that’s what we truly want, but it always costs something. I still am weighing out that cost all the time, writing this song as a thirty-one-year-old who is tired but also determined. At its best, this is my ‘chip on the shoulder’ / ‘fuck the gatekeepers’ anthem, but also an empowering protest to my own gnawing lack of self-worth.”

Jake continues, explaining, “The song opens with the phrase, ‘I can hear the sound through the walls.’ It’s about the feeling of not being invited to the party. It’s about feeling insulated from success. It’s about trying to cozy up to the people you think will get you in the door. It’s about wanting to fit in. It’s a self-satire of sorts. But ultimately, it’s about making peace with our own light despite not shining the way we think it’s supposed to.”

Check out the track and accompanying live video below. Heavy For A While is out everywhere on March 29th. You can also check out Byland’s upcoming tour dates opening for The Bones of JR Jones below.