When the emotionally charged, epically inclined Illinois indie band Bristletongue launched their Femme Florale EP in 2018, we had been smitten. The challenge landed Bristletongue on our lists of the week’s finest songs in addition to the yr’s finest new bands, EPs, and songs. Additionally they acquired a shout-out in my thinkpiece about how 2018 was the yr of the EP. That’s lots of weblog posts based mostly on one four-song EP, however Femme Florale was that good. So it was unlucky that Bristletongue by no means launched the rest.

The band got here to an finish throughout quarantine instances earlier than sharing subsequent recordings, and frontperson L Morgan went by means of a part of author’s block that left them questioning whether or not music would nonetheless be a part of their life. Now, 5 years after Femme Florale, Morgan is again with debut solo single “Blackguard.” It’s a bit softer, dreamier, and extra electronically inclined than the Bristletongue materials whereas retaining the previous band’s grand sense of scope and intimate private expression. Morgan has this to say about it:

There was an extended whereas between my final challenge and this one the place I felt that I had misplaced the power to make music. I couldn’t determine what was fallacious with me or why any makes an attempt to repair this block didn’t appear to be working. Inside the final yr, remedy has helped me be taught that this was the results of persistent stress and lots of previous trauma. A giant a part of the therapeutic course of has been re-establishing who I’m, and I actually needed to query whether or not or not music was a part of that identification.

After taking a while to revisit the issues that impressed me to start out making music within the first place, I believe I’ve found that songwriting and writing typically had been a number of the purest types of myself and my need to create, cognate, and actually really feel all of my feelings. This track “Blackguard” is definitely the reimagining of a track that I initially wrote at 17 years previous when music was nonetheless very new to me. I’m very excited that I get to honor my youthful, stronger self by taking the potential of their imaginative and prescient and believing in them sufficient to launch their track now – 10 years later. Generally it feels prefer it’s taken me too lengthy to get thus far, however the tumultuous journey has actually made this challenge’s fruition that a lot sweeter.

Hearken to “Blackguard” under.