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Nov 04, 2025 By Caleb Campbell

Ovven is the new project from Chicago-born and Nashville-based indie singer/songwriter Owen Burton. After spending the last few years playing with Nashville indie folk outfit Dallas Ugly, Burton paired with producer Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Indigo De Souza) to record his debut album as Ovven, Gnawing at the Cord. Farrar and Burton began working together after Burton emailed the producer with only two songs written. Over the following two months, Burton quickly sketched out the rest of the record in a creative rush, making the most of the tight deadline to create an album that feels urgent, immediate, and unpretentious.

The full album sees Ovven evoking the same blend of twangy guitar work, reedy vocal performances, and disarming charm as rising stars like MJ Lenderman and Greg Freeman. He already introduced this style earlier this year with a trio of singles from the record, “Crows,” “Abbreviated,” and “Dishes,” and today he is sharing another new track, “Embarrassing,” premiering with Under the Radar.

Ovven opens “Embarrassing” with a line that is equal parts funny and sad: “There’s nothing more embarrassing than to be alive.” He lets his voice sprawl out atop a sun-drenched haze of guitar lines and meandering percussion, winding unhurriedly through portraits of awkward moments and quiet exits. Although Ovven dresses up the plaintive balladry with hints of keys一and even a flugelhorn一the wiry guitar bends and winking, self-deprecating undercurrent place it firmly in the indie and alt country tradition of bands like Wilco. Similarly, Ovven’s presentation is wry and unassuming, delivered with a deadpan tone that fits perfectly with the bittersweet lyrics.

As Ovven explains, “Each verse of this song is an unfortunate true story, first bombing when talking to a girl at a bar and leaving without saying goodbye to anyone, and second, almost drowning in the ocean and not saying anything to your friends when you barely make it back on the beach. Both of these things really happened to me, each one more than once, believe it or not. In the moment, it’s too hard to own up to them. You just hope that if no one knows, then maybe you’ll forget about it. Of course, that’s not how it plays out. After some distance, it started to become funny to me. I liked the paradox of writing a song as a confessional inner monologue. It’s like getting on stage and saying, “Hey everyone, listen up! I have something I don’t want you to know about.”

Check out the song below. Ovven’s debut LP, Gnawing at the Cord, is due out in the Spring of next year.