At the intersection of indie rock, dreamy pop, and jangly folk, one finds the fearlessly vulnerable world of babename. Jamie Averley writes from the heart — specifically the heart of a pandemic-times-baby-queer stumbling their way into a life worth living. Mildly awkward and painfully sincere, babename looks at the world through reborn eyes. With gentle wit and melody, their journal-esque oversharing brings us along on a journey through fantasies of new beginnings, sapphic yearning, and musings on identity, power, and possibility.

Tomorrow, babename is slated to release their debut album Highlights. Today, the band has allowed listeners to get a sneak peek at the album by streaming it below.

Averley said of Highlights: “It’s so incredible to be able to hold this album in my hand and to know that in just a few days it’ll finally reach its destination in the listeners’ ears.

Each step in making this was a realization of my own courage, an exercise in self trust, and an affirmation of my own journey. The biggest reward though has been seeing this project bloom beyond just myself and my stories. Words that I initially wrote in private have now come to be held in community. Friends, musicians, and artists across the country have contributed to making this what it is, and I really hope it continues to resonate as it keeps finding its audience.

Art, and queer art in particular, has always been about imagination, possibility, living into the world that seems as of yet unattainable. I’m grateful and humbled to be able to offer something to that lineage. Creating this record and being supported by my community to do so gave me a permission to dream that has left me profoundly changed, and I hope on some level that permission translates. I feel so much kinship and care for anyone who resonates with this journey, emerging from grief and impossibility towards connection, freedom, and ultimately joy.”

For as long as they can remember, music has been the way Averley makes sense of the world. Songwriting offers both a window into someone’s thoughts and an emotional outlet in a way no other form of writing can. That sense of connection – between sound, story, and self – has guided their path from early piano lessons to the deeply personal songs that now define the debut record from babename.

Growing up, Averley found community wherever music lived: in school jazz and marching bands, in college rock projects, and long afternoons spent teaching themself guitar. But the deeper journey began when songwriting became a way to translate emotion into meaning; lyric-forward sketches of identity, belonging, and transformation unfurl like entries in an ever-evolving journal.

Their listening history traces that evolution. Punk-pop and grunge gave voice to teenage alienation; the art-minded alternative rock of the 1990’s opened new emotional landscapes, and protest anthems from the 60s to the present revealed that music could hold both moral clarity and rebellion. Later, as Pacific Northwest neofolk acts (Fleet Foxes, The Head and the Heart) found their way into rotation, Averley began to see how songs could tell stories that meet a listener right where they are – and leave them changed.

That revelation deepened in 2015, when they discovered Kithkin, Seattle’s self-described “Cascadian Treepunk” band. “They danced in the face of collapse,” Averley recalls. “They brought noise, melody, and wild percussion to stories of destruction and hope. It hit me on a personal, political, and visceral level in a way no other artist had.”

By 2020, during a period of solitude and self-reckoning, music became even more intertwined with identity. Coming into their trans identity opened new creative doors, as artists born of the emotionally literate, confessional queer indie scene of the late 2010s (Boygenius, MUNA, Katie Pruitt) offered both representation and liberation. “They were claiming their identities, unpacking trauma, and giving the community something joyous to come together to,” Averley says. “It reminded me that music could be more than the sum of its parts. It reminded me that it could be freeing.”

Songwriting classes through School of Song soon followed, including sessions with Robin Pecknold, Miya Folick, and producer Philip Weinrobe (Adrienne Lenker, Billie Martin). Writing a song a week, Averley learned to quiet their inner critic and trust the imperfection of an honest voice. What began as an exercise in craft became a practice in self-acceptance.

Emboldened by Weinrobe’s challenge to release an album by their next birthday, Averley set to work. Early demos recorded in a cabin in Auburn, Washington, evolved into a full-band studio record tracked at Studio Litho and Earwig Tacoma, featuring Jamie Averley (vocals, guitar), Dylan Schillinger (lead guitar), Jessica Wetter (bass), Alex Blackburn (drums), and a handful of guest musicians.

Highlights is a time capsule of transformation. A collection of songs about queerness, self-discovery, loss, and the courage to return to oneself. It explores the tension between leaving and coming home, the ghosts of religious trauma, the ache of global upheaval, and the beauty of finally taking up space in one’s own story.

“Coming out is a process, not an event,” Averley reflects. “Each of us is becoming someone new every day we exist. If this record can be a salve for even one queer, trans, or questioning kid… if it gives someone permission to love and embrace who they are, then everything I’ve put into this was worth it.”

Still early in their career, Averley approaches their art with gratitude and curiosity. Each deeper step – writing, recording, performing – has returned meaning tenfold. “My heart lives very much on my sleeve, which is what feels sincere to me, and I think matches my desire to make art that is grounded in queer storytelling and connection” says Averley. “My voice, even as it wavers, has something to say,” they add. “These songs have given me clarity and self-knowledge. I only hope they can do the same for someone else.”

Photo Courtesy: Wayne Foley