New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, Izzy Heltai announces the October 20 release of his new EP mostly myself again. Co-produced by Alberto Sewald (Katy Kirby, Jack Van Cleaf) and Ethan Fortenberry (Ethansroom), mostly myself again follows his 2021 debut EP Day Plan (5 Songs Written 4 the End of the World). Izzy kicks off the new music with "Bad Time," a ruminating new single that offers hope for the future in its opening lines: "I was surprised / When I felt like myself again / Been a few months since I woke up and felt like this."
"'Bad Time' is about three things: dating someone new, and coming to terms with the fact that if reaching out to them is seen as an inconvenience, they probably aren't that into you, and realizing you only care because you don't have that much else going on," says Izzy. "I've been recovering from a broken hip for the better part of this year. It's the first time in my life I've been fundamentally stripped of the ability to do almost everything I love. I couldn't play shows, I couldn't bike, I couldn't even walk for two months. Basically, overnight, I lost the majority of the healthy coping mechanisms to keep my acute anxiety and depression at bay. I was left to sit and stew on my many inadequacies, getting stoned and fixating on all the parts of my life that aren't going as planned."
"Bad Time" follows two tracks Izzy released earlier this year - February's "Running Out," which was featured in Rolling Stone's Songs You Need To Know, and March's "All Of This Beauty," which he performed on stage at Bridgestone
Arena for the Love Rising benefit concert. Izzy's music grew out of the tireless grind of DIY shows, with the unpredictability inspiring him to fine-tune his curious and observational style of songwriting. Sonically unpretentious and lyrically relatable, Izzy's songs invite you into his world like a conversation with a friend over a cigarette. The new four-song EP came together while he was recovering from a bicycling accident at home in East Nashville, reminding us that time is not infinite.
Izzy explains, "I think a lot about age. Mostly, I think about how I almost never got to this age. There's a not-so-distant parallel universe where I didn't make it out of my teens alive. I think that's something a lot of trans and queer people deal with — how fleeting time is, how much of a privilege it is, and how not to waste it. In my adulthood, finally being given the resources I need to feel comfortable in my own body and identity, I've become fixated on never wasting time. I work constantly, and I've still never felt satisfied. Working hard is a wonderful thing, but this fixation makes me completely lose sight of why I want the things I want — what I'm working towards." He continues, "This EP is an exploration of presence. It's about giving myself grace. It's about patience. Most importantly, it's about feeling the most myself I can, even in moments when that feels impossible."
After winning Singer Songwriter of the Year at the
Boston Music Awards in 2021, Izzy had a breakout 2022 where he made his debut at the Austin City Limits Festival, Bonnaroo
Music Festival, and Newport Folk Fest, and toured coast to coast supporting Bear's Den, The Mountain Goats, Deer Tick and Liza Anne. Rolling Stone named him one of the "Best at Newport Folk Festival 2022," saying "Heltai delivered a gorgeous batch of self-probing indie-folk to a small crowd who knew they were lucky to be seeing what was surely the first of many larger Newport sets in years to come."
Izzy has been on the road this year with stops at both SXSW and Outside Lands, and he just opened for The Head and The
Heart last night at Celebrate Brooklyn in Brooklyn, New York. This fall, Izzy will open for
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit during their annual residency at the Ryman Auditorium.
mostly myself again Tracklist:
1. Bad Time
2. Fifteen
3. 25
4. happy
