Donna Missal’s debut album, This Time,
out on Harvest Records.
includes her latest single “Keep Lying,” which has been steadily
climbing the charts at Alternative radio. Listen to Her Music Here
DONNA
MISSAL RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM THIS
TIME OUT NOW (HARVEST RECORDS)
ALBUM RELEASE SHOWS CONFIRMED FOR BROOKLYN AND LOS ANGELES
SURPASSES 11 MILLION COMBINED
STREAMS LEAD SINGLE “KEEP
LYING” CONTINUES TO GROW IN ALTERNATIVE RADIO
The
release of American singer-songwriter and musician Donna
Missal’s debut album, This Time, out on
Harvest Records. The eleven-track album infuses Missal’s
timeless, fiery vocals with scorching production by Tim Anderson
(Solange, BANKS, Halsey), harkening back to the heyday of classic
soul music, all the while creating something fresh and contemporary.
Including standout cuts like “Driving,”
“Transformer,”
“Girl,”
“Thrills”
and current focus track, “Jupiter,”
an impassioned anthem with a driving bassline and massive chorus.
Donna
Missal - Jupiter
The
album also includes her latest single “Keep
Lying,” which has been steadily climbing the charts at Alternative
radio with 18 stations adding the track. Following Zane Lowe’s
premiere of Missal’s original demo version of “Keep Lying” on
Beats 1, the song shot to the top of the Spotify Viral and HypeMachine
charts.
Blending elements of soul, hip-hop and rock & roll, Missal shaped
This Time’s sonic landscape partly by laying live recordings
down on tape, then sampling those recordings to imbue her songs
with a fresh yet timeless energy. Much of that live recording
took place at the iconic Different Fur Studios in San Francisco,
where she was joined in the studio by Nate Mercereau (Leon Bridges).
“I really wanted this album to reference my history of playing
in bands,” she explains. “It’s all these very pure, talented
musicians playing together in a room, but then we took that
and sampled it and altered in a way that creates something totally
new.”
Donna
Missal - Keep Lying
With
its title taken from a track Missal co-wrote with her frequent
collaborator Sharon Van Etten, This Time is an uncompromisingly
honest look at living entirely on your own terms. “I’ve spent
most of my life being hyper-focused on time, which I think is
something that a lot of women obsess over,” says Missal.
“We’re in such a rush to make things happen, when really
we should take the time to figure out what we actually want
out of life. And even though it’s so fucking hard to have that
kind of patience, I think it’s so important to believe in yourself
enough to let things develop in a way that feels right to you.”
Throughout the album, Missal crafts her lyrics with the kind
of idiosyncratic detail that instantly etches each line onto
your heart, exploring self-empowerment on tracks like “Transformer”—a
fiercely charged anthem about “having the courage to take
what you want from life, without apology,” and on “Thrills,”
which sees Missal musing on self-love and sexual confidence,
her voice soaring over a gently swaying groove and dreamy guitar
tones. “‘Thrills’ is about owning what makes you real,”
says Missal. “There is a shift happening in our societal
standards of beauty and sexuality, and the more we embrace our
flaws the closer we become to effecting real change. I’d love
for people to hear the song — and not just women, but anyone
who feels disenfranchised— and remember that being sexy and
confident comes from self-acceptance.”
Elsewhere on This Time, Missal infuses social commentary
into songs like “Girl”: a stripped-back yet intricately textured
track that unfolds with both gentle playfulness and piercing
vulnerability. “I wanted to address this idea that women
need to be pinned against each other in order to succeed, or
need to point out the flaws in other women just to feel good
about themselves,” says Missal. “That kind of thinking
has been around forever, and it doesn’t feel like it’s going
away—but the more we talk about it, the better it’s going to
get.” And on “Driving,” Missal delivers one of the album’s
most mesmerizing moments, with her flowing melody, hypnotic
rhythms, and ethereal vocals merging with a quiet grandeur that’s
simultaneously escapist and inspiring. “‘Driving’ is about
being on the precipice of taking control over your life—that
feeling of seeing something you want in the distance and making
the decision to go for it,” says Missal. “It’s about
saying ‘Even if it takes a long time, or I hit some bumps along
the way, it’s all okay because I’m the one behind the wheel.’”
To date, Donna Missal’s songs have racked up more than 11
MILLION COMBINED STREAMS, and now with the release of her
debut album This Time, Missal is excited to provide her
fans more of what they love so much about her music. “This
isn’t a record about love and loss and relationships,” Missal
explains. “It’s about taking chances for yourself, figuring
out who you are and really standing behind that. I made a point
of putting myself out there as a real person navigating this
life at this moment in time, because I want to do whatever I
can as an artist to help people feel more confident in navigating
their own lives. I’d love for the listener to receive the message
that you can take your time to learn and love yourself. That’s
been the most important discovery that I want to share with
this album.”
To celebrate the release of This Time, Missal has announced
two special album release shows later this month, including
a SOLD OUT date at Rough Trade in Brooklyn next Monday, September
10 and at The Troubadour in West Hollywood on September 25.
Earlier this summer, she sold out her first-ever Los Angeles
headline show and completed a sold-out West Coast run with King
Princess. In October, Missal is confirmed join Bishop Briggs
on tour and make her Austin City Limits Music Festival debut.
For more information and tickets, please visit donnamissal.com.
Donna Missal’s is a voice that comes around once in a lifetime,
and This Time is an album for the ages.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
9/10 - Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade – SOLD OUT
9/25 - West Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour
10/6 - Houston, TX - House of Blues Houston*
10/7 - Oklahoma City, OK - Tower Theatre*
10/9 - Austin, TX - Emo’s*
10/10 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues Dallas*
10/13 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Music Festival *Supporting Bishop Briggs