Linying Returns With New Single 'Take Me To Your House'

LA-based artist Linying today announced her new EP House Mouse will be released on November 17th, 2023, via Nettwerk.

She also shared its auspicious lead single “Take Me to Your House,” which unfolds in shimmering textures and shapeshifting melodies as she meditates on longing, hopefulness and elusive connections. Listen on YouTube ahead of its release to all DSPs tomorrow, Friday October 6th (pre-save HERE).

“There was a point in my last relationship where my ex had moved into a new house and I spent weeks being sad that he hadn’t given me a key. It felt like a perfect metaphor: standing outside and wishing so badly to be let in, when really… wrong house,” explains Linying. “This song is about relief and hope as much as it is about yearning and desperation – the anticipation of thinking that maybe this is it, this is what the bad times were worth pushing through for, this is when I finally get to put some furniture down and call this place home."

House Mouse is the sound of an artist rediscovering the joy of creating with total abandon. In an evolution of her acclaimed debut album There Could Be Wreckage Here—a 2022 release made with musicians like former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla—the Singapore-born singer/songwriter follows her intuition toward a kaleidoscopic form of dream-pop that’s both effervescent and emotionally intimate, bursting with radiant imagination and heavenly melodies. House Mouse is proof of the wild magic that comes from letting go and leaning into your most unfettered impulses.

Mainly co-produced with Jon Graber (an engineer known for his work with punk bands like NOFX and MxPx), the EP came to life at a Los Angeles studio that Linying describes as “a haunted mansion full of every instrument you could ever imagine.”

As they experimented with unusual instruments like the EBow and erhu and tack piano, the duo also worked with musicians like Jordan Blackmon (former live guitarist for Toro y Moi) and constructed an elaborate sonic world around Linying’s up-close examination of her inner life and all its complexity. 

“This EP was the first time I realized how rewarding it can be to let go and just make music with your friends,” she says. “When you start sullying it with fear and pride, it’s such a disservice to the privilege we’ve been given of making music.”

Although she began playing piano and dabbling in poetry as a child, it wasn’t until her mid-teens that Linying started writing songs of her own. “Around that time I discovered people like Bright Eyes, who’s so raw and specific in his lyrics, and Bon Iver, who showed me how important texture is when you’re trying to create a whole experience with your music,” she points out.

Not long after she began posting covers on YouTube, Linying caught the attention of a French electronic act who enlisted her as a featured artist on a 2014 single—a turn of events that soon found her collaborating with the likes of Lost Frequencies and Felix Jaehn, as well as joining the latter as support for a European tour.

As she continued working on her own material, writing and recording in her bedroom, she scored a viral hit with “Sticky Leaves” in 2016 and promptly landed a deal with Nettwerk Music Group.

Along with releasing a string of EPs and singles over the coming years—and taking the stage at major festivals like Summer Sonic in Japan and Bigsound in Australia—Linying was commissioned by the Singapore government to compose the 2021 National Day of Singapore theme song, a viral sensation that emerged as the most-watched YouTube video in her home country that year.

In looking back on the making of House Mouse, Linying notes that taking up surfing in recent months had a profound impact on her creative process. “With surfing you need to be in the present. You simply don’t have the bandwidth to exit the now, because the waves are changing all the time,” she says. 

“I think that act of physical surrender trains the same muscle philosophically. You don’t think about the last wave you caught, or the next wave you’re going to catch — you move in tandem with what’s in front of you. And when you’re able to do that, resist the urge to impose and control, you truly reap the rewards: the sweetness and the rush of a smooth ride, and a happiness that feels effortless.

I’ve realized that music isn’t a vehicle for me to chase excellence—it’s a way for me to encapsulate what’s happening in the moment as authentically as I possibly can. That’s what we focused on with this project, and it’s why this collection of songs is so special to me."

House Mouse is now available for pre-save HERE.

Photo Credit: Michelle Mei 

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