Jamie Drake Announces Upcoming Album 'New Girl'

Singer-songwriter Jamie Drake is happy to announce the June 10 release of a new album New Girl via AntiFragile Music. Today she shares the first single "Easy Target," her first new music since last year's Here Comes The Light, The B Sides EP.

The track exemplifies her penchant for perfectly melding indie folk with pop stylings. It was written with Nashville's Caroline Spence and marks their first collaboration. Musically inspired by Drake's love of early 1970s Laurel Canyon, the lyrics are a personal reflection on her romantic choices. She shares: it's easy (pun intended) for me to relate to this song because it's about how naive I have been in the past when it comes to love."

Like many, I'm someone who grew up in an abusive home and as a result searched for love to fill that void. I searched my whole life until I truly realized that I had to love myself first. Love addiction is one of the common side effects of growing up in an abusive environment.

I'm really happy and proud to say I'm a recovering love addict who has finally found my person as a result of loving myself first. 'Easy Target' is an honest reflection on my not-so-recent past, as if I'm reminiscing over the mistakes of my younger self with a forgiving smile, knowing that I've finally learned my lesson.

Drake shot the video for "Easy Target," directed by Jon Danovic, in Los Angeles. Listen/share "Easy Target" here and watch the clip here:

In 2020 Jamie found herself living in upper Ojai, California, on an airstream property. It was there she discovered Getz/Gilberto '76, the live album by Stan Getz and João Gilberto. "It was a pandemic so I bought a bike and listened to that album every day while riding around with my dog Moxie and a JBL speaker in the basket. I knew those songs had gotten into my marrow when I met and wrote "It's A New Life" with Rich Jacques. It's the first song I've ever written that has a bossa feeling to it and I knew I would make my next album with him after that.

The feeling of "It's A New Life" was the world I wanted to live in musically." In the fall of 2021 the two reconvened along with artist and multi-instrumentalist Austin Myles Grant to start working on New Girl. The trio was invited to record at a private residence set in the Santa Monica mountains, seeped in the purity and quiet of nature where they could fully unfurl and connect musically.

New Girl is also informed by Jamie's discovery of ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families) which she credits for changing her life. Through that work and a trip she made to North Carolina to be near her family during the pandemic, Jamie has found herself healing old wounds. She shares, "Music's always felt like a mysterious, second language to me. A melody will fall down from the sky when I'm driving or in the shower, and I'll record a voice memo on my phone so I don't forget it. Lyrics don't come as easily to me but they're always biographical. It's difficult for me to have the desire to write a song if it's not personal."

One of LA's best-kept musical songwriting secrets for over a decade -- collaborating with the likes of Sondre Lerche, Jim James, Moby, Sarah and Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek), and Mikael Jorgensen (Wilco) - Drake moved to the front of the stage with the 2019 release of her debut album Everything's Fine (AntiFragile Music). The album featured the title track, "Wonder," and "Redwood Tree" and to date has surpassed over 15M streams on Spotify. Along the way Drake found critical acclaim from the likes of NPR Music, Talkhouse, Flood, and more.

Listen to the new single here:

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