In the summer of 2022, Donna Missal was disoriented to find herself living out of her car and on friends’ couches in Los Angeles, questioning whether she could continue – financially and emotionally – to make music. In the past five years, she had collected tens of millions of streams across platforms, cultivated a passionate fan base for her heartfelt songwriting, played festivals from Bonnaroo to Bottle Rock, and toured with high-profile artists including Lewis Capaldi, CHVRCHES, and King Princess. Rolling Stone calls her music “stunning”, and Billboard has hailed her “drop kick of a vocal.” But still, Missal was struggling. Working through the pain, she found refuge in the creative process, digging deep into her beliefs about safety and satisfaction. The result is Revel, a dance-heavy and intimate album about enduring and transcending pain to find bliss from within. Last year, Missal shared on Twitter that she’d been let go at the end of her four-year recording contract. “It’s emotionally exhausting to posture like everything’s cool,” she wrote, of the “optics Olympics” that keep artists from sharing their challenges openly. Missal’s record deal had felt meaningful – it included resources, structure, and a set of people contractually obligated to believe in her. With this barometer of self-worth removed, she was unmoored and devastated. Fighting to take care of her basic needs while still working in the studio with other artists, Missal gained a new awareness of the tenuous nature of success in the music industry.  Missal had started out as a songwriter and backing artist, collaborating with artists like Tinashe, Sharon Van Etten, Macklemore, and Lee Fields, and landing a publishing contract in her early 20s. After what The Guardian called the “strident queer torch songs” of 2020s ‘Lighter’, Missal became a sought-out vocalist, tapped to contribute a cover of Cigarettes After Sex’s “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby” for the Oscar-winning film ‘Promising Young Woman’. In the confines of the early pandemic, Missal dove into bedroom pop recordings, using her powerful voice in a quieter way to avoid disturbing her neighbors. She showcased this spare and sexy homespun electronica on 2022’s in the mirror, in the night EP, which was executive produced by Sega Bodega (FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek). Since then, Missal has leaned into computer and dance music, and Revel contains all of these new reference points  – space-filling singing, heated lyrics, big drums, and complex programming – with nods to Frou Frou’s Details, and Lady Gaga’s ‘Art Pop’, as well as Radiohead, Massive Attack, and Robyn. “Out of Me” channels the expansive grooves of Madonna’s ‘Ray Of Light’, a major influence on Missal as she sought a musical vocabulary of the sublime meeting the dancefloor. “Move Me” is a pulsing slow jam that ignites with Missal’s ecstatic murmurs and ethereal high notes, culminating in an addictive chorus about hope in despair. On “God Complex”, Missal uses the moody tension of trip-hop sounds to work through vulnerable feelings about security and belonging. Her voice is at first grounded as she pleads for clarity in relationships, then layers into an aural collage of heady bewilderment.   To represent her journey through the last year for the nightclub anthem “Flicker”, she enlisted choreographer Sadie Wilking to work with her on a video centering Missal performing a combat dance sequence in a grimy warehouse. Missal didn’t want it to be sexy. She wanted it to look like she was fighting for her life, and she trained for months to manifest the sequence’s display of physical power. Sweaty and muscled, Missal’s visceral movements in “Flicker” contrast with the ethereal sounds of the song. It embodies and completes her transformation. It was through making Revel that Missal examined her motivations for making music. She asked herself who she was without the expectations and accolades that came along with label support, and found that she was still driven to create. With external markers of success and joy taken away, she let go, turned inward, reframed her sense of self, and came to a sense of peace. Emerging with strength from a cocoon, ‘Revel’ showcases Missal’s metamorphosis into a purposeful independent artist with a strong creative vision.

Samia’s 2020 debut album, The Baby, was a testament to her impressive vocal might, irresistible tunefulness and vulnerable lyricism, both clever and illuminating in equal measure. Drawing widespread acclaim from Pitchfork, Stereogum, NPR, NME, The Sunday Times, and others, the LP more than delivered following the promise of early singles like 2018’s “Django” and 2019’s “Ode to Artifice.” After emerging as one of the most exciting up-and-comers in indie rock, Samia released a companion album this past January titled The Baby Reimagined, a collection of covers and remixes featuring Bartees Strange, Anjimile, Field Medic, Palehound, former tourmate Donna Missal, and more. Samia spent much of 2020 in self-reflection, and she also made various life changes that left her feeling more earnest and centered. “I got back into therapy and started thinking about boundaries, I moved to Nashville, I did yoga sometimes,” she says. During this time, she wrote a handful of songs that make up Scout, a new EP out digitally on July 23. “These were pretty much the only four songs that came naturally during this time, but I think they really mirror my emotional experience this past year,” Samia says. While The Baby leaned more on self-deprecating humor, Scout was born out of a need to “honor feeling secure in what [she] had to say.” Lead track “As You Are” revels in the preciousness of unconditional love (“When somebody loves you / They take you as you are,” she belts in the chorus) and floats delicately with graceful vocals and steady percussion. Staticky guitar number “Show Up” is an acknowledgment of personal growth, and its unwavering desire for wholesome joy really tugs at the heartstrings (“Nothing could ever stop / my ass from showing up / to sing another song for the people I love”). The EP is packed with reverence for life’s ups and downs, but more than anything, it’s an ode to loved ones. The compassionate glow of this EP partially stems from her new Nashville surroundings, as well as her recent experiences “feeling genuinely loved, making new friends, and holding onto old friendships.” There’s a palpable intimacy to these recordings, whether it’s the voicemail murmurs of “As You Are,” the heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics or the piano twinkles throughout. It’s reminiscent of that reassuring exhale in the mirror after an imperfect yet fulfilling day. As Samia puts it, Scout is “The Baby's slightly older sister letting her know that everything is gonna be alright.” The EP title is a nickname of Samia’s, and it’s a fitting nod to the record’s benevolence. “My partner calls me Scout,” she explains. “It's just a word that implies bravery to me. I always picture a little girl with a sash and badges basking in her autonomy selling Samoas.” Whether you’re a girl scout trying to gain confidence or an adult who needs reminders of our inability to make everyone happy (“Elephant”) or the untold power of being there for someone (“The Promise”), this EP is an unashamed loving nudge.