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Sep 19, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Chris Weiss

Next month, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Stephen Becker is set to share his debut solo record, A Calm That Shifts. Becker has played with various indie acts over the years, including Katie Von Schleicher, Market, and Vagabon, but in recent years he’s broken off on his own, debuting in 2020 with his EP, Nothing Sun Under the New. Becker announced the record earlier this year with “Unspoken,” and today he’s back with his latest single, “Company,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Company” finds Becker continuing to explore his folk side, conjuring echoes of Sufjan Stevens or Elliot Smith with his crystalline vocals and lush chord changes. Yet, Becker also adds his own jagged edges to the track thanks to some bursts of distorted guitar and dreamy psych pop passages. He crafts a track that feels both expansive in scope and intimate in execution, bringing a celestial psych sheen to its glassy folk beauty.

Becker explains of the track, “’Company’ is about late 20’s social anxiety, self-isolation, the rabbit hole that is getting immersed in your self and your art. It’s a strange game - toeing that line between productive solo time and breezy social time, being part of a community. The truth is that both are productive, but it’s easy to get confused in this results-oriented content-hungry world. Productive is the wrong word, maybe I mean helpful or important. I wrote ‘Company’ on a whim, the evening before one of our last tracking days in the studio. It actually almost got cut from the record. I’m glad it didn’t.”

Check out the song and video by Dan Goedeker below. A Calm That Shifts is out October 14th.