Goth Babe Announces Debut Album 'Lola' & Shares New Track 'Bioluminescene'

The new album will be released on Fall.

By: Jul. 17, 2023
Goth Babe Announces Debut Album 'Lola' & Shares New Track 'Bioluminescene'
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Goth Babe has announced today his highly anticipated debut album, Lola, will finally be released this Fall on Mom + Pop Music.

Since his breakthrough single “Sometimes” in 2018, Goth Babe (née Griff Washburn) has balanced his skyrocketing profile as a musician with staying grounded and living a scaled back lifestyle that allows him to pursue his love of the outdoors and the environment.

Having spent time living in his car, a tiny house, and a camper van, all inclusive of moments of joy and unfettered freedom as well as loneliness and trauma, Lola—his new album, named for the sailboat on which he now lives— is a splendid confirmation of Goth Babe’s story so far, all those shimmering sounds and topsy-turvy life dynamics coiling into songs that look for respite and redemption. Pre-order for Lola is available HERE

The trailer for his upcoming short film, also named “Lola”, was also released in tandem with the album announcement and new single. Directed by Ian Durkin, the short film follows the making of the new album and introduces new and old fans alike to who Goth Babe really is (and get to know his perpetual sidekick, his blue-eyed Australian Shepherd named Sadie). 

To celebrate the album’s announcement, Goth Babe has shared his newest single, “Bioluminescence”. With its glittering sequences and luxuriant synths, the song feels like a love song for an adventurous lifestyle, for having patience and faith in wanderlust and the wonders it reveals.  

Bioluminescence follows the previously released “Alone In The Mountains,” an earnest and endearing manifesto about work-life-joy balance, especially as Goth Babe’s profile continues to grow. Griff naturally hopes that people like this new Goth Babe material. Maybe they find a few minutes of respite from hustle culture or moments of sheer wonder. Those feelings, after all, are the point, the reason he makes music for himself and anyone who needs it, not the vaulting ambition of careerism. “There’s so much beauty in the world, obviously balanced by a lot of pain and suffering,” says Griff, who has endured the latter to experience and then offer the former. “I would love if these songs allowed people, even just for a second, to escape the weight and heaviness of the world.”

Five years have passed since Griff first burst on the music scene. Now 26, Griff has, somewhat unwittingly, built a massive following with a subsequent string of two-dozen charmers about living on the road, edging toward contentment, and trying to define home as part of a historically unmoored generation. He recently headlined Red Rocks and NYC’s Pier 17, played Electric Forest and Austin City Limits. And he has amassed a zealous audience online, with some of the songs he wrote in his most trying moments racing past the 100-million stream threshold.

But none of that is actually the point as much as a side effect of the unconventional life he’s managed to make and that continues to shape the songs of Lola. “It would be terrifying for my entire identity to be my band, because so much ego is wrapped up in that,” he says of the rightful conviction that we are more than jobs. “That seems like a cycle of always trying to be someone you’re not to impress other people. I don’t just want to be Goth Babe. I want to be Griff, to not have all my eggs in one basket.”

Goth Babe’s second leg of his LOLA headline tour kicked off in Phoenix on the 14th, followed by a stop at LA’s Greek Theatre and tomorrow’s sold out show at Santa Cruz’s The Catalyst. With the routing zigzagging across North America, he’ll be on the road through to the end of September, including an appearance at Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas, two nights at San Diego’s new venue The Sound and finishing off at NYC’s Forest Hills Stadium with Sylvan Esso.

Touring has always been a way for Washburn to give back and $1 of every ticket will be donated to Protect Our Winters, an organization that helps passionate outdoor people protect the places and lifestyles they love from climate change. As a member of Protect our Winters creative alliance team, Goth Babe previously released a POW EP, with all proceeds going to the cause. 

Since founding Goth Babe in 2015, Washburn has partnered with environmentally conscious brands to share his music to the world in unconventional ways. With outdoor brand Arc’Teryx, he traveled to Iceland to create an original music for Creation Theory, a film directed by Ben Sturgulewski and Ben Moon that seeks to find the parallels between sport and music, and answer the question: where does creativity come from?

The film went on to win The Banff Film Festival's Creative Excellence Award, Spain's Mendi Film Festival's Best Soundtrack and Vimeo's Staff Award Pick. The music was released in the form of Surfing In Iceland EP in 2022. With Kombucha brand JuneShine, he recently launched a signature Goth Babe hard kombucha named after his 2019 single, “Weekend Friend,” with 1+ of sales going to Protect Our Winters. 

Goth Babe on Tour:

7/14 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren+ SOLD OUT 

7/15 - Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre + 

7/16 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater +

7/18 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Catalyst + SOLD OUT 

7/19 - Bend, OR - Midtown Ballroom + SOLD OUT 

7/22 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Edgefield +

7/24 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre + SOLD OUT 

7/25 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre + 

7/27 - Boise, ID - Treefort Music Hall+ SOLD OUT 

7/28 - Missoula, MT - The Wilma + 

7/29 - Bozeman, MT - The ELM + SOLD OUT 

7/31 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue + SOLD OUT 

8/1 - Kansas City, MO - The Truman + 

8/3 - Detroit, MI - The Majestic Theatre + SOLD OUT 

8/4 - Toronto, ON - The Danforth Music Hall + SOLD OUT

8/8 - Portland, ME - State Theatre + 

8/10 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hal l+ 

8/11 - Richmond, VA - The National + 

8/12 - Raleigh, NC - The Ritz+ SOLD OUT 

9/22 - Las Vegas, NV - Life Is Beautiful Festival

9/23 - San Diego, CA - The Sound

9/24 - San Diego, CA - The Sound

9/29 - New York, NY - Forest Hills Stadium (w/ Sylvan Esso)

+ w/ Husbands


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