INTRODUCING: LANA NAUPHAL – EARWORM “OH HE OH MY” OUT TODAY + DEBUT LP OUT MAY 24

Singer-songwriter Lana Nauphal has announced her debut LP Wildland, with the release of its first single and video, “Oh He Oh My.” The album, produced by Tim Bidwell (Lucy Rose, Kate Walsh), is due out on May 24, 2024. Nauphal, daydreaming in a college class, began to doodle in the margins of her notebook – those doodles turned into lyrics, and 20 minutes later, she’d written a song.

“Driven by sprightly acoustic guitar strums and bright drums – all of which surround and support Nauphal’s rich and radiant voice – ‘Oh He Oh My’ proves an instantly irresistible introduction to the New York City-based singer/songwriter,” noted Atwood Magazine in their premiere. “Evoking beloved artist[s] like Ingrid Michaelson and She & Him (the duo led by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward), Lana Nauphal is, intentionally or not, filling a much-needed gap in the current folk-pop space. Her first release is warm, inviting, and effortlessly catchy; if ‘Oh He Oh My’ proves something of a standard, then we’ll surely be falling for the entirety of Wildland in no time at all.”

Nauphal wanted the music video to be one-take and capture the emotional space she was in when writing the song: it was a happy, messy, confusing, exciting time. “The props either hold personal meaning to me or are playful takes on the lyrics: when I sing ‘oh he, oh me,’ he’s the Joker, I’m Barbie; when I sing ‘still searching for that reason / not to lay out on the line,’ we’re searching through psychology books,” she explains. “Our actors, Roman and Archie, were the dutiful prop handlers who passed me the items, and I love how they kind of take on the role of this Greek chorus, masters – or master interrupters –of my fate, my journey through the song. They were the best, brimming with ideas and humor,” she adds. “We all just had a blast filming that day, and I really think that shines through.”

Wildland has a lot to do with falling in love for the first time– with a person, a group of friends, a way of living and being and creating, with oneself. While the album mostly chronicles the painful fall out of such a love, “Oh He Oh My” is the only song written during that hopeful, light-hearted, the-future-is-still-ahead-of-us period.

Navigating a maze of Lebanese, American, British, and French identities, Nauphal first found solid ground at age 13, when she discovered 60s- and 70s-era folk. Before long, she got her first guitar, and wrote her first song: she’s been rooted ever since – though the decision to pursue music as a career came later. As most stories of a soul’s unfolding into purpose begin, it began with falling in love.

“Pursuing pre-law at Georgetown University, I met a truth-teller in the form of a boy. A musician himself, he picked up on what was circling, unrelenting, in my periphery, and confronted me with it: my undeniable call to music,” she explains. “I hadn’t realized how buried it had become— and it was his reverence of my capabilities that finally allowed 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, singing, painting on the walls,” she adds. “They brought to life a wildness in me.”

And then, as it does— everything unraveled. The relationship ended, the band broke apart, and Nauphal was left alone with the pieces: pieces of a life she now knew she needed to live, music she knew she needed to make. “This time, it was up to me. Piece by piece, I built myself up,” she recalls. “This album, Wildland, was my glue.”

Pre-save Wildland HERE, and be sure to follow Lana Nauphal at the links below for the latest news and updates.

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