Geist Shannon Lay

• 1Rare to Wake04:38
• 2A Thread to Find03:48
• 3Sure04:20
• 4Shores03:34
• 5Awaken and Allow03:00
• 6Geist03:30
• 7Untitled04:39
• 8Late Night04:12
• 9Time's Arrow03:30
• 10July02:55
• Total Runtime38:06

Info for Geist

Geist feels like a window - or a mirror - into possibilities of the self and beyond. Shannon Lay’s new album is tender intensity, placeless and ethereal. It exists in the chasms of the present -- a world populated by shadow selves, spiritual awakenings, déjà vu, and past lives.

“Something sleeps inside us,” Lay insists on the opening track, and that’s the guiding philosophy throughout. A winding, golden, delicate thread of intuition that explores the unknown, the possibility. Its title, Geist, the German word for spirit, is rife with an otherworldly presence, the suggestion of another. The promise that you are never alone.

Lay tracked vocals and guitar at Jarvis Tavinere of Woods’s studio, then sent the songs out to multi-instrumentalists Ben Boye (Bonnie Prince Billy, Ty Segall) in Los Angeles and Devin Hoff (Sharon Van Etten, Cibo Matto) in New York; trusting their musical instincts and intuition. She then sent those recordings to Sofia Arreguin (Wand) and Aaron Otheim (Heatwarmer, Mega Bog) for additional keys, while Ty Segall contributed a guitar solo on “Shores.”

As a whole, Geist is both esoteric and accessible. Songs range from a concise, pared-back cover of Syd Barrett’s tilt-a-whirl-esque “Late Night,” to the meditative Dune-inspired "Rare to Wake,” to the mostly a-cappella “Awaken and Allow,” which channels Lay’s deep Irish roots, a moment of reflection, before a drop happens -- its intensity mirroring the anticipation and anxiety that come with taking the first step to accepting change for yourself.

And the title track “Geist,” a song about the power living in all of us, is a love song to the possibility of healing, an ode to falling into the arms of what you’re becoming. It’s a glimpse into the parts of yourself you have yet to meet. But you can, if you want to.

Shannon Lay

Shannon Lay
Los Angeles-based folk singer/songwriter Shannon Lay spent the first half of her career relying on light guitar lines and narrative-driven lyrics. By her third album, 2019's August, she began incorporating wider instrumentation, including drums and saxophone.

Lay grew up in Redondo Beach, California, and by 13 was taking guitar lessons. In her late teens, she joined a band, Facts on File, but it wasn't until she was drafted into the group Feels that her career began to take off. Alongside band duties and retail work, Lay recorded demos at home, eventually collating them into Holy Heartache in 2015. Learning to home record gave Lay the necessary skills to ensure she always had a hand in the production of her records, which she put to use on her debut album in 2017, All This Life Goin Down. The remainder of the year was busy for Lay, as she embarked on two separate tours (in support of Kevin Morby and Ty Segall, respectively) before releasing her second album, Living Water. In August of the same year, Lay finally managed to quit her retail job and pursue music full time, an act so significant to her that she named her third album August. The record saw release in 2019, after she signed to Sub Pop; Ty Segall co-produced it and played some of the additional instruments alongside Mikal Cronin, who provided saxophone. (AMG)

This album contains no booklet.