Lightning Bug announces their triumphant fourth album, No Paradise. After completing a grueling 4,000 mile motorcycle ride solo from Mexico to New York, frontwoman Audrey Kang began writing No Paradise—her way of processing the beauty and darkness she encountered on the long journey home. This new record marks a seismic shift for the band, which comprises Audrey Kang, Logan Miley, Kevin Copeland, and Dane Hagen. Their last record A Color of the Sky was released on Fat Possum, and unfurled expansive, ethereal soundscapes that soothed the soul with its soft-spoken beauty. Now, the band has chosen to self-release for full independence. And befitting both its title and its symbolism as a point of no return, No Paradise falls determinedly from the heavens, clutches its fingers deep in the dirt, and makes its voice heard.  Pre-order No Paradise, out May 2nd, HERE.

To introduce the new music, Lightning Bug shares lead single “December Song,” which expresses what Kang describes as a “deep personal winter in the midst of high summer.” Drawing inspiration from ancient Greek mythology, Kang paints a vivid portrait of depression as a period of waiting—waiting to come back to life. Her voice soars with a new intensity, over interweaving instruments that evoke gentle snowfall, gusts of wind, and the icy brilliance of winter. The video was written, directed, and filmed by Kang on the Greek island of Andros. 

Audrey Kang on “December Song”:

I’d just gotten back to New York City after spending every last droplet of energy I had on riding a motorcycle from Nayarit to NYC. When the trip was over, I fell into the lowest low I’ve known. December Song was my way of giving my life some meaning again, by thinking of my sadness as part of a story, a season. In the song, I retell the myth of Persephone from the perspective of Demeter as she awaits her daughter’s return to a land made barren with grief.