Today, NYC-based singer-songwriter Lana Nauphal releases her debut LP: "Wildland," produced by Tim Bidwell who has worked with the likes of Lucy Rose and Kate Walsh.
The new album itself is a collection of tracks centered around widely exploring themes of falling in love for the first time, be it with a person, a group of friends, a way of living and being and creating, or even with oneself.
On Lana Nauphal's Origins and Her 'Wildland' Album
Having roots in Lebanese, American, British, and French cultures, Nauphal had to navigate a maze of cultural identities pulling at every direction, however, at age 13 she discovered Bob Dylan and anchored her own introspection on his iconic works and artistry.
"I always jokingly say he was my first love: the obsession was real," she recalled. "I remember getting ready for school in the morning in London- it's damp in my room and dreary outside- and I'm just playing Blood on the Tracks on repeat on my little blue CD player."
"It's funny to look back on that now because I was so young and clearly could not understand the depths of the emotions ringing out of Dylan's divorce album," she continued. "But I felt so unconsciously drawn to it regardless, it was speaking to me on a deep level of musicality."
Working her way through the 60s with Dylan, Nauphal then discovered 70s country/folk legends like Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Gram Parsons, and Warren Zevon, eventually pushing her to the path of a musician.
Before long, she was teaching herself how to play guitar and wrote her first song. However, as a young adult in college, her passions seemed like a shaky career to pursue. That is until she fell in love.
"Pursuing pre-law at Georgetown University, I met a truth-teller in the form of a boy," she said. "A musician himself, he picked up on what was circling, unrelenting, in my periphery, and confronted me with it: my undeniable call to music."
hadn't realized how buried it had become - his reverence of my capabilities inspired me to dig it up, dust it off, and claim it as my own. I fell in with him, and his raucous band of friends, and we were ridiculously happy - sleepless nights, making music, painting on the walls," she adds.
"They brought to life a wildness in me."
When the relationship had to end, Nauphal was left picking up after the pieces of the life she now deems inseparable away from her: those of music. "This time, it was up to me. Piece by piece, I built myself up," she declared. "This album, Wildland, was my glue."
Explore these potent pieces of Nauphal's musical expression yourself through tracks like her whimsical lead single: "Oh He Oh My," her wistfully nostalgic "Is It Raining in California," and the album's emotional nadir: "Sure As The Score."
Also on the record is her bluesy and languid track about letting go: "The Sweetest Thing" and her closer: "One Is The Loneliest Dream," bringing audiences into Nauphal's next chapter and forging ahead a new life path.
Stream "Wildland" by clicking here. You can also sample the tracks right below.
