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May 22, 2025 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Haley Bowland

Brooklyn-based indie singer/songwriter Gemma Laurence is launching into summer in style with her new single “Hedonist.” Laurence got her start making confessional sapphic folk songs steeped in gentle yearning and autumnal acoustic tones, debuting with her 2019 album, Crooked Heart, followed by her 2022 album, Lavender. Later this summer, she’s set to share her third full-length album, We Were Bodies Underwater.

Her latest album follows the intertwined paths of two lovers’ lives, offering vignettes meditating on the visceral pull of desire, glimpses of warmth and tenderness, and the lingering scars left behind when people fall apart. On We Were Bodies Underwater, she also traces these moments with an expanded instrumental palette, writing for a full band for the first time. Laurence already showed her band in action with the album’s lead single, “Bloodlines,” which decked out her usual banjo and pedal steel with a sturdy groove and a wild guitar solo. Today, she’s following that song with the album’s second single, “Hedonist,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Hedonist” is Laurence at her most bold and confident, taking a turn away from her usual wistful reflections into a track that roils with tension. The track dances between banjos and blistering blues guitar lines, steadily growing in intensity until flaming out into a smokey guitar solo in its latter half. Amidst all the simmering intensity, Laurence sings of the excitement of indulging in a new connection, reveling in finally making herself the center of attention. In the heat of the moment, she also throws out some instantly memorable lines, showcasing the utter joy of truly feeling yourself: “I’m on my selfish antagonist shit / Shared my body count with my therapist / And honestly, she can get it too.”

Laurence says of the track, “‘Hedonist’ is a song about being completely self-indulgent. It’s about giving myself the love and attention that I usually give to others and channeling it all back towards myself. I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to make myself smaller for other people and worrying about being ‘too much.’ This song really throws that in the garbage and lights it on fire. I wrote it in the aftermath of a breakup, but it’s not really about the person who broke my heart at all — it’s about me; it’s about falling in love with myself again.”

She continues, saying of the accompanying video, “The music video is wild. I made it with one of my best friends (Sophia Alaniz) and it was so much fun to join forces. The song is all about giving into your desires and being a little selfish, so we wanted to build this stylized, heightened world of decadence and abundance. Twin Peaks was a big reference; I’m obsessed with David Lynch. I wanted to create my own One Eyed Jacks-esque liminal cabaret space that put queer female sexuality at the foreground, but (importantly) not through the cis straight male gaze. It was my first time choreographing, and I did it with the help of this incredible dancer and choreographer, Julia Wortman, who I know from the queer NYC line dancing scene. Line dancing with four of my best friends – all dressed to the nines in gay cowboy burlesque – was so much fun. It was truly a delight working with such an amazingly talented cast and crew on this video. I hope when people watch the video or listen to the song, they feel as empowered as I felt making this.”

Director Sophia Alaniz shares, “I wanted the video to just be about Gemma. Within the lyrics and video the sole focus is Gemma. You never see the person she is with in the video and we never mention anyone listed in the lyrics. Not the girl she went home with, or her ex, or even her therapist. Just Gemma. I’m so grateful that Gemma trusted me with her vision and her song, which I very much resonate with. Honestly, my biggest take away from this video is I want girls, women, femme-presenting people to be hedonists. #SelfishGirlSummer.”

Check out the song and video below. We Were Bodies Underwater is out in July 2025.