New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Fast-rising Dublin singer-songwriter-producer
Orla Gartland today announces details of her long-awaited debut album Woman On The Internet, due for release on August 20, 2021 via her own label New
Friends distributed via The Orchard.
Featuring previously released singles "More Like You," "
Pretending" and "Zombie!" as well as today's new release, the tender heartfelt piano-led ballad "Do You Mind?", Woman On The
Internet is the culmination of years of music making, live shows and Gartland honing her production skills.
Of announcing her debut album, Gartland shares, "Announcing my debut album feels like a moment I've been waiting for for years. Something clicked into place last year - I grew into my role as a producer and lyrically I knew what I wanted to say. Although this album was made in 2020 it isn't laced with lockdown blues - it feels more like the soundtrack of new time to me; a sunnier time, a more hopeful time. I'm so proud of this record and beyond excited for everyone to hear it!"
In a world where we're taught to aspire to unattainable levels of perfection, Orla Gartland's unfiltered honesty is a breath of fresh air. Balancing normal insecurities and a self-deprecating wit with impressive levels of self-reliance and steely determination, the Dublin-born, London-based singer-songwriter/producer has never pretended to be anything other than a work in progress, and has always used her music as a vehicle for self-discovery.
"When I was a few songs into writing the album it became clear that Woman On The
Internet is about the chaos of my 20s," she expands. "It's a different chaos to your late teens, such a different brand of angst. I feel so much more settled and sure of myself now than I was when I was 18 or 19 but I'm still just half the person I'm going to be and to capture that became really important."
Gartland explains that the album title references a nebulous, self-help-type figure. "She's a caricature; a nameless, faceless figure telling me to eat better or buy some specific hair product; when I feel low I'm so vulnerable to questionable advice. The woman appears in these songs as someone I look to for guidance when it feels like no one in my real life can help, when I'm truly lost. A lot of this album is about learning to really own that lostness."
This commitment to honesty stems not just from self-discovery but from a desire for genuine connection. "I'd love for people to come away understanding me more, but also it doesn't have to be all about me. Even if it's the odd lyric here and there, I'd love it if people felt more understood just by listening to the album." And, ironically, it's precisely by embracing and laying bare these imperfections that Gartland has created her most compelling work to date, moving between alt-rock, punk, folk and synth-flecked pop, with a succession of inventive arrangements and insightful observations.
