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Nov 11, 2025 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Michael Ward

San Diego-based indie singer/songwriter Rebecca Sykes began her career as a session drummer for local bands before taking to songwriting in the midst of COVID. She began crafting diaristic, slowcore-tinged indie folk and playing live gigs with her friends before teaming with producer/engineer Ryan Finch to record her forthcoming debut EP, Face to Face. The full EP is due out later this month, and Sykes has already shared the record’s lead single, “Dysmorphia.” Today, she’s following with another new track, “I Am (Not),” premiering with Under the Radar.

“I Am (Not)” is a wintery and desolate descent inwards, spiraling around Sykes’s icy vocals, loping acoustic chords, and echoing instrumental accents. The slow, dour folk tones that shade the opening gradually take on newfound crushing weight, with pounding drums and layered guitars taking up the haunting, spacious corners of the mix. The track swirls downward, growing darker and more chaotic until it fades into a quiet acoustic confession in the song’s final moments. Along the way, Sykes’s lyrics offer a portrait of numb exhaustion as she is slowly engulfed in mounting anxieties and burnout: “When you need me, I won’t be here / If you want me, I won’t be near / I am cold and I am brittle / I am less than I used to feel.”

Sykes says of the track, “I wrote this song about feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, and lost. My job was draining, my band was falling apart, and I was struggling to find my place in the world. Through the process of writing this song, I began to realize that I have the power to shape my life and create my own reality.”

Check out the song and animated video below. The Face to Face EP is due out on November 21st via Dusty Mars Records.