Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter zzzahara announces their new album, Distant Lands, out June 5th on Lex Records, and shares its lead single/video, “I Can Be Yours” feat. Winter. The followup to their 2025 album, Spiral Your Way Out, their fourth album Distant Lands came to them in a dream they had of their brother who passed away when they were 12. The album title comes from the sense that they exist, now, in different worlds, touching from a distance. It also references disconnected headspace zzzahara was in when they were taking opiates in their early 20s. “I would often feel like I was off in a different world, a dream world, blacked out and trying to connect to something that’s not there,” they say.
Until now, the lyrical side of zzzahara’s songwriting has been driven by their love life. Their 2022 debut album, Liminal Spaces, chronicles a reckless coming-of-age in Highland Park. Their 2023 follow-up, Tender, marked a period of pause and introspection, which was quickly counterbalanced by 2025’s Spiral Your Way Out, an album written in the aftermath of a breakup, which rejected the pressure to strive towards squeaky-clean personal perfection in favour of embracing themselves.
Distant Lands is a departure from all that. The dream about their brother prompted zzzahara both to dig deeper and zoom out; sit with some old wounds and write songs outside their comfort zone of sex and romance. Rather than focusing on the turbulence of their recent love life, they took influence from long-standing feelings around their family life and experiences with opioid addiction. “I feel like I’ve lived a life filled with lust, having all these rendezvous everywhere – which is really fun, but it can’t be fun forever. I wanted to make something that was personal and authentic… and not about chicks,” they laugh. “It’s kind of a record about growing up, in a non-traditional sense.”
Produced by Casey Lagos, Distant Lands is a tender mix of lo-fi, dream pop and slowcore, displayed on today’s single, “I Can Be Yours,” featuring the indie rock band Winter. Inspired by listening to a lot of early Beach House, Neutral Milk Hotel, and The Microphones, the album takes the same approach of spinning shimmering gold from basic set-ups and old analogue equipment. “I tried to focus more on the music than the lyrics, and making it feel like more of an escape in that way,” zzzahara explains.
Watch the Video for “I Can Be Yours” feat. Winter
Distant Lands takes inspiration from Wong Kar Wai movies—their flawed characters and terminal state of yearning, as well as works of literature that embrace the uncertain and follow the logic that many conflicting things can be true at once (Milan Kundera has made a significant appearance in their reading list). This self-administered cultural education is something they feel has given them a healthy sense of perspective that has led to more stability, without sacrificing their natural wild streak as captured on Spiral Your Way Out.
“With this record I thought, what can I say about my life that’s authentic to me without having to be ‘woe is me’? So that’s how I wrote the songs this time. Let me tell it like the facts,” they say. Staking a flag in the ground for living truthfully—and not necessarily perfectly—Distant Lands is laced with the stoic acceptance of life’s currents, positive and negative. There’s no bullshit to be found here—no solipsism, and certainly no regrets. “As long as you’re young and you still have energy then you should do things you love, because you never know,” they say. “You gotta just put your whip to the sky and fucking crack it.”’
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]
