Nisa to Release Debut Album in April

Nisa has announced her debut album Shapeshifting due out April 26 via Tender Loving Empire Records. The solo project of Brooklyn-based Nisa Lumaj, whose early singles earned immediate acclaim from The New York Times, Pitchfork and Gorilla vs Bear, released the “Currents” / “Vertigo” double single late last year to excitement spanning Rolling Stone, FLOOD, BrooklynVegan and more.

Today, Nisa is thrilled to reveal lead album single “Smokescreen” alongside an official video. Armed with indie-punk hooks and dazzling, unexpected pop flourishes, “Smokescreen” is a perfect introduction to Shapeshifting which is, at its core, an album about movement, transformation, and the way self-growth can feel simultaneously exhilarating, disorienting and uncertain.

Nisa shares, "I wrote ‘Smokescreen' about the dance between seeking closure while being unable to fully let go. I was stuck in a loop of repetitive behavior and somehow also expecting to feel different, and after a while, it started to weigh on me. In order to make a change, I had to admit that I was prone to harmful patterns, and this song is about that self-realization."

Fittingly opening with a track titled “Ready... Set!,” the new collection is a journey towards self-acceptance, self-actualization and a coherent sense of identity. As a daughter of Albanian immigrants, Nisa grew up listening to traditional folk music. As a young person living in New York City and studying in London, she was introduced to the world of English-speaking pop music and enamored by artists like Björk, Peter Gabriel and PJ Harvey. Shapeshifting is a reflection of this interest in forward-thinking sounds—encircled by disorienting processed electronics, chunky guitars, gauzy vocals and unusual melodic choices.

While her previous output was buoyed by sparse indie rock, Nisa worked closely with frequent collaborator Ronnie DiSimone (aka Torna), who produced, mixed and co-engineered the new collection. Nisa's transformative debut album Shapeshifting delivers a more lush and dynamic version of Nisa's unique brand of off-kilter electro-pop and experimental punk, while always keeping her towering vocal prowess front and center.

Photo Credit: Rhianna Hajduch