Ava McCoy Sets 'Dragonfly' Album, Shares Title Track

Brooklyn-based indie folk singer-songwriter Ava McCoy has announced her sophomore album, Dragonfly, to be released on May 30 via Acrophase Records. Following last month's "Young Girl" teaser single, McCoy has shared the upcoming album's title track alongside the announcement. 

Written after a summer spent with someone she loved in her childhood home, the song was sparked by a small moment: a dragonfly found dead in the kitchen. “At that time in my life, I wasn’t eating, and I was the smallest I had ever been,” McCoy recalls. “I went to the doctor weekly out of concern for my well-being, but I was being praised by the person I loved for the drastic changes in my body.” It’s a song about seeing yourself through someone else’s gaze until you don’t recognize who you are, and about reclaiming that gaze for yourself.

Dragonfly is a coming-of-age record in the truest sense. The only member of her Oregon-rooted family to be raised in New York, McCoy found her voice in two places: the towering skyline of the city and the sprawling landscapes of the rural Pacific Northwest. She grew up surrounded by musicians, absorbing melodies from the backseat of her parents’ car: the likes of Roy Book Binder, John Prine, and Big Star. By the time she could speak, she was singing. By 11, she was writing songs, and by 16, she was sharing them onstage.

Recorded between Portland, Brooklyn, and Nashville, Dragonfly was carefully crafted with a patchwork of collaborators and homegrown sessions. Josef Kuhn (Samia, Mali Velasquez, Annie DiRusso) produced the bulk of the record in his East Nashville studio, while additional songs were shaped alongside Ben Coleman, Jonah Ward, and quickly, quickly (Graham Jonson). Across the album’s eight tracks, McCoy expands her sonic world without losing the intimate storytelling at its core. Banjo, mandolin, 80’s-era guitar pedals, synth pads, and lush vocal stacks weave in and out. There are moments of raw folk minimalism and others of cathartic, road-trip-ready indie rock.

“The songs are fragile, imperfect,” McCoy says, reflecting on the album’s visual motif of Delft tiles created by ceramicist and print-maker Amelia McDonnell. Illustrated with delicate drawings inspired by moments from the record, the tiles are tangible renderings of the patchwork nature at the heart of these songs.

“It’s kinda all over the place, but so am I,” McCoy says. “Dragonfly feels like a patchwork quilt of me post-college. Realizing the dumb decisions I made (maybe don’t get that tattoo in your dorm room), the things I should’ve said, the ways in which I’ve changed. My tendency to self-sabotage. Friendships and relationships that have gone sour. Surviving sexual harassment and assault, and allowing myself to speak about it freely after spending almost a decade being ashamed. Since writing and recording these songs, I’m no longer afraid to say everything on my mind.”

Photo credit: Anna Warner