Jouska – California
Today, Oslo-based singer and producer Jouska shares “California,” the final preview ahead of her forthcoming album How Did I Wind Up Here?, out October 17 via Koke Plate.
The songs on the album reflect a period when she felt physically, emotionally, and mentally worn down, experiencing a slow drift that left her life feeling unrecognizable. While this theme is present in previously released singles “Pierced.,” “Flower Moon,” and “Season of Dread,” “California” captures a fleeting moment of reprieve during a trip to Los Angeles, cutting through the haze of exhaustion and disconnection.
Anchored in lyrics that cut close to the heart, the breezy track captures the calm found in unexpected places. Jouska explains: “I had been working nonstop, barely keeping up, and I was feeling more disconnected than ever. When I landed in LA, it was the first time I had been outside of Europe. I’d never experienced a time zone shift like that, never seen that kind of sunrise.” She continues: “In LA, it felt like I could finally slip out of myself for a while. Everything was just so calm and blissful. The noise in my head quieted, and I met people who made me feel welcome without needing to perform. Some of them became close friends. It felt like I could start over, or at least exhale…that first visit stayed with me. It gave me space when I had nothing left to give, a strange kind of calm in the middle of everything falling apart.”
Written between late 2022 and 2024 between New York City, Los Angeles, and Oslo, How Did I Wind Up Here? came at a time when everything was thrown into question for Jouska, the solo alias of Norwegian artist Marit Othilie Thorvik. “I’ve always been emotional, anxious, and melancholic by nature, but during that time everything felt especially heavy,” she remembers. “I was caught in cycles of anxiety, depression, and self-doubt. I couldn’t seem to make the present work — and when I looked back, I felt grief over all the years I felt had slipped away. The past and the present blurred. I didn’t feel like I was moving forward — I was just stuck inside myself.” Across the record, there is a push-pull between conflicting desires for attention and disappearance.
Moving away from the polished electronic sounds of her past work, on this record she leans into more fragile and exposed textures, inspired by bands like The Radio Dept., Beach House, and Slowdive. Creating a soft-focussed soundscape of melancholic dream pop, it leans into the records themes of grief, guilt, shame and emotional distance, yet still provides brief flashes of clarity and small moments of acceptance.
Blending dream pop and trip-hop into fluid, hazy, and bittersweet forms, How Did I Wind Up Here? marks the start of a new era for Jouska, following the release of her 2023 album, Suddenly My Mind Is Blank, which drew praise from BBC 6 Music, Clash, Dazed, Gorilla vs. Bear, Loud and Quiet, Marg.mp3, NTS, NYLON, The Line of Best Fit, The Quietus, and went on to win a Spellemann Award (Norway’s equivalent of a Grammy). Guided by her intuition, Jouska’s latest offers a series of vulnerable, hushed inner monologues cresting over relaxed and shimmering arrangements.
Listen to “California” above and stay tuned for the full release of How Did I Wind Up Here? on October 17 via Koke Plate.
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