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A 12-track memorial to his late partner, Visiting the Well is a spare and aching document of grief. A brutal monument to heartbreak that couldn’t have felt less like a career launchpad: fueled not by ambition, but by necessity. The feelings that anchor it had to come out somehow, they can’t be tolerated alone.
So it’s either a surprise or not a surprise at all that its gutting lead single “Blur” managed to clock millions of streams. For Sondermann, it certainly was an unexpected mark of success, on a project so preoccupied with a deeply personal exorcism that the idea of finding an audience was barely a footnote. That the song resonated so widely was touching, but paralyzing too. What to do next, if there even could be a “next”, suddenly carried a lot more pressure.
Time ended up being the only thing that made his new single “When We Find It” possible. A lush and twinkling paean to his new home in Fire Island Pines, it provides the first taste of his upcoming album self-release Leave It in the Sand. Produced in collaboration with Ivan Berko (Fcukers, Boy Harsher), it’s a glistening expansion of the sonic world of Pleasure Systems, laced with shivering strings, euphoric synths, and a newfound clarity and precision in his vocals that preserves the intimacy of his debut while imbuing it with life.
Sondermann describes the new album as being grounded in a feeling of cautious optimism. The sound of giving oneself over again to a world that is sure to hurt you in indescribable ways, but trusting that it can and will be worth it. “I don’t love how overused the word “healing” is, but fuck it, it was healing,” Sondermann says. “If Visiting the Well resonated with people, it felt important to send a direct statement that it is possible to heal from something like that. Love, happiness, joy, connection, solidarity, everything good in life is transient and impermanent. We have to cling to it when we can.”
Grief, anxiety, and paralysis still swirl in the air above Leave it in the Sand. But new love, friendship, and a connection with the natural world prove to be pretty tempting siren calls. Inspired by his move to New York, where he met his husband and began splitting his time between the city and Fire Island, the album is a toe dipped back into unsure waters.
Berko’s guidance also played a big role in the album’s genesis. Though renowned as a dance producer and DJ in New York, he and Sondermann bonded over a love for singer-songwriter music. His experience creating room-filling party music challenged the bedroom trappings of Sondermann’s earlier work.
“Ivan was a godsend for me every step of the way,” Sondermann admits. “We very quickly locked into that mind meld where as soon as I opened my mouth to suggest something, he was already doing it. I kept wanting to double track my guitar parts to smooth out the edges and he’d tell me ‘No, just play it right.’ He found an incredible balance between actualising my vision and pushing everything into a more fully realised version of itself.”
“When We Find It” is out today ahead of Leave it in the Sand, due 5 June. A self-edited music video accompanies the lead single, composed of unpublished archival Super 8 footage of 80s and 90s Fire Island, shot by Willi Rauhut. For Sondermann, it’s a portrait of the queer sanctuary that opened the world back up for him: “It feels so completely of its time and also completely universal. It felt like how our friends dress and act now and how they would have dressed and acted then too. Everyone was so chic and prankish and knowing. I guess I’ve bristled at the idea of being a “gay songwriter” in the past, but it became a label I really wanted to wear with this album.”
The paradox at the center of Leave It in the Sand is a frightening one: that letting yourself get close to something good puts you in arms’ reach of torture. In this, Sondermann finds what he hopes will be the album’s takeaway. “Being hopeful about the future isn’t naive. It’s an informed decision and a wise one at that.”
English (US) · 