- Words Notion Staff
Haley Johnsen's new album explores the line between confidence and doubt in emotional style.
Haley Johnsen’s music puts emotion first. Inspired by the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Brandi Carlile, whose powerful voices took emotional expression to a new level, she blends genres from indie to pop to folk to find a way of letting her own vulnerability out that will surely resonate with the listener.
A pair of EPs and her highly successful debut album, ‘Golden Days’, have seen Johnsen take advantage of the voluminous catalogue of songs her creativity has led her to pen – and as suggested by the sheer size of that catalogue, she is nowhere near done yet.
Her latest album, ‘Goner’, takes her artistry to a new level. With its sweeping soundscapes that pay homage to Johnsen’s musical heroes, singles such as “Goner” and “Higher” represent a musician coming into her own and accepting all parts of herself in order to move forward with greater confidence and hope. There’s an edge, too, to her work, such as in the political outcry of “Common Ground”, which puts forward a message of centrism against the political divides of the day.
She describes the album as expressing “this constant push and pull between confidence and self doubt. Fear and trust. This longing to be PRESENT with myself. To be grateful for who and where I am. Not worrying about the past or future, or getting caught up in the desire to constantly WANT as opposed to just BE,” confides Johnsen. GONER is quirky, dramatic, soft, somber, eclectic, and energetic.”