After years spent playing in Northern California’s underground heavy music scene, Billy Stuart is taking a more intimate approach to songwriting on Sink With Me, his five-track debut solo EP, released on October 9.
The Sacramento-based singer-songwriter has been playing guitar since 2002, with previous stints in hardcore punk band Strike To Survive and instrumental doom metal group The Blue Sunshine Family Band. His solo material takes a more stripped-back approach, built around acoustic guitar, piano and clean electric textures, with songs exploring fractured relationships, loss and uncertainty.
The EP opens with “Downtrend”, which traces the aftermath of a damaging relationship, followed by “The Open Door”, about the uncertainty of leaving behind something familiar.
Instrumental track “Reprieve” offers a brief pause before “Swan Dive” explores fading connections and the acceptance that some things cannot be repaired. The title track closes the record with a narrator who fears his personal struggles could hurt someone close to him.
Written over several years, the five songs touch on relationships, guilt and the difficulty of navigating change, with recurring images of falling and sinking that connect tracks written at different points in Stuart’s life.
Stuart recorded the EP in Sacramento with producer Michael Cox, who, unfortunately, died in a car accident involving a drunk driver about a week after the pair’s fourth recording session. Stuart has credited him with giving him the confidence to record vocals in a booth for the first time.
“I hope people take away the feeling that they’re not alone in struggling with things they don’t always know how to put into words,” Stuart says. “If someone hears this record and feels understood, then it has done what I hoped it would do.”
Following the release of “Downtrend” and “The Open Door,” Sink With Me brings the two singles together with three previously unreleased tracks. The finished EP also preserves Cox’s contributions to the project, making his work an integral part of Stuart’s debut solo release.
Listen to the EP below:
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