Nymphlord – Emptiness
Los Angeles-based indie singer-songwriter and producer Nymphlord today shares her new single and music video, “Emptiness.”
The track marks the third single from her forthcoming debut album, Shedding Velvet, out May 15 via Lauren Records.
“Emptiness” flickers between distorted runs and a heavy, wallowing chorus. A self-proclaimed “song for rock bottom,” it echoes ’90s alt heroines Hope Sandoval and Beth Gibbons, moving between mope, grief, and defiance.
Produced by Katie Von Schleicher (Cassandra Jenkins, Frankie Cosmos, Dougie Poole) with Sean Mullins on drums (Not For Radio, Hannah Cohen, Sam Evian), Nick Llobet (YouBet) on guitar and Hugo Stanley (Frankie Cosmos, Palm) on additional drums, Nymphlord recalls, “we wanted it to be the kind of song that makes the person listening feel a little off balance,” admitting, “the song is a downer but the process of making it was more playful and cathartic, a much needed release.”
“Before setting out to make the video there were two images my partner and I couldn’t shake when listening to the song: one of a washing machine filled with dirty white clothes, their fibers slowly coming clean, and the other: waves crashing repeatedly over a sinking body,” says Nymphlord. “We tried to capture those feelings visually.”
Filmed on and around Bainbridge Island, WA using an eBay-sourced Sony DCR HC42 handycam, “I had been desperately hoping we’d be lucky enough to catch a deer on camera… we ended up catching two (and a coyote)!”
With nods to ’90s alt and earlier folk, Nymphlord’s debut album Shedding Velvet explores what happens when dreaming big starts to feel impractical: the friction between fantasy and reality. It’s a collection of coming-of-age songs shaped by disillusionment and resilience. Off-kilter with a dry wit, the songs invite sing-alongs even as they push against traditional pop structures. Her vocals carve out gentle confessionals across the tracklist, underpinned by plucky acoustic guitars before giving way to raw electric swells. Throughout Shedding Velvet, Nymphlord presents a portrait of identity in process, velvet peeled back to show the bone. Angsty, ethereal, and dissonant, but still hopeful, she welcomes you into her overgrown garden
#nymphlord_