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Apr 05, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

Lampland is the new project from New York-based singer/songwriter Tommy Bazarian. Bazarian debuted back in 2019 with his first LP, No Mood, and next month he’s back with his sophomore release and his first record for Park The Van Records, Dry Heat. Bazarian wrote his latest effort while immersed in ‘70s heartbreakers, searching for the soul-rending core that runs through artists like Stevie Nicks and Dolly Parton. Dry Heat twists and reframes those influences, reimagining them amidst warped indie rock soundscapes, fuzzy and fried instrumentation, and bitterly vivid lyricism.

The full record is out May 20th, but today Bazarian has shared his first taste of the album with his new single, “Newborn Feelings,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Newborn Feelings” finds Bazarian in the midst of deep longing, bringing his heartbreak to new life. The lyrics trace the thoughts of a character who has locked himself in a bathroom at a house party, lost in a world of wistful remembrance and all-consuming heartache. He recalls the lost moments of their lives in a series of vignettes, with each line darting to a new memory. The mournful pedal steel and chugging rhythms have an instantly classic feel, calling back to potent musical touchstones like Fleetwood Mac. Yet, Bazarian is a powerful songwriter in his own right, able to draw searing emotional weight from the simplest of moments (“I found your lipstick / In my bag / Too soon to throw it out / Too late to give it back”).

Bazarian explains of the track, “I started picturing this really detailed story when I was writing this song - about this guy at a party in Arizona, in like a white clay house with curved walls. He goes and locks himself in the bathroom. And there’s smoke and incense seeping under the door of the bathroom. And there’s this little circular window in the wall across from him, and he looks out the window at the purple desert. And he remembers this whole long relationship he had that is now over. This saga with a woman he’s still in love with. All he can think about is the end of it, and the aftermath, and what he could’ve done differently. And he steels himself and goes back to the party, and there’s the woman, she’s just arrived at the party. And she tries to talk to him but he’s too freaked out and leaves.

The recording came together pretty quickly for this one, and we tried not to touch it too much. I was nervous to do the vocal because it’s so high and vulnerable sounding. But it was actually one of the first ones I did, and we just left it. Stephen Becker played the “Dreams”-esque guitar (Stephen is a great songwriter with an album out on NNA Tapes last year). And Nate Mendelsohn played all of the synths (Nate helped record and produce the record, and has his own band called Market with a new album out in April).

The video is a collaboration with my girlfriend, artist Madeline Ludwig-Leone. I bought this giant VHS camera from the ‘90s that was originally used for TV news broadcasts. We collected all of these objects, and recorded hours of footage of them in closeup in this starkly lit space. The objects felt so emotional and dramatic when we filmed them this way. It felt right with the song—finding this melodrama in everyday things. We kept fussing with them and adjusting them and turning them until they looked like their most iconic selves, and that process felt meaningful too. Then I did the lip sync into this slightly warped mirror, which felt like it put me into that world.”

Check out the song and video below. Dry Heat is out May 20th via Park The Van Records.