Emily Yacina has been self-releasing music for over a decade, offering a “treasure trove of wrenching melodies and delightfully off-kilter meditations on time and absence” (Stereogum). Although she’s collaborated with some of the most notable names in indie rock, including Alex G and Rostam, Yacina is a singular artist. Her voice is compelling and instantly recognizable, sometimes winking, lilting, or layered and chopped and used as an instrument. Veilfall arrives six years after the release of her debut studio album, and is another mesmerizing entry in her catalogue. Illuminating Yacina’s sharp command of crystalline production, Veilfall showcases an expanded roster of collaborators operating at the highest level. Her ability to mine intangible emotions is sage-like, as she navigates formless concepts like the process of grieving, and the types of alienation that can follow in its wake.
Veilfall’s thirteen songs first began to take shape in 2021 after Yacina moved to Long
Beach (Yacina was born and raised in Pennsylvania). For some songs she deliberately sought out collaboration with producers she knew, like Charlie Brand of Miniature Tigers, who worked on “Battle” and “Blanket.” Others she sat with for years, patiently fleshing out arrangements on her own. Eventually, she came to the realization that she needed a regular collaborator and co-producer to help her see the record through. In 2023, she enlisted longtime friend Jonnie Baker (Florist) to help expand her vision. Spending upwards of 14 hours a day, Baker and Yacina would re-record demo versions and add overdubs at Long Beach’s Dream Machine Studio. Baker was a natural fit and proved to be fruitful as not only a producer, but as a catalyst to Yacina broadening her comfort zone and opening the record up to more contributors. Gia Margaret plays piano on “Shine,” Oliver Hill (Coco) provides the album's string arrangements, and Cameron Wisch (Porches) provides much of the album’s percussion arrangements. The finishing touches on Veilfall were done at Alex Wernquest’s Basement Floods Records in the Catskill, where Baker and Yacina utilized a studio’s worth of analog gear to build up and polish the songs even more.
Amongst Yacina’s releases, Veilfall is sonically varied and exists in its own world. Nowhere is this more clear than in the lively “Talk Me Down,” a track whose instrumental flourishes feel like they're inside your chest. Over a consuming synth and an engaging drum machine beat, Yacina muses over the touch and go nature of learning to be vulnerable: “Peeking over ledges // Talk Me Down // I wish I was more of a natural // I wanna open up.”
Lyrically, “The Clearing” acts almost as a foil to “Talk Me Down.” It opens with shuffling percussion and blooms with floating synth and Yacina’s hushed but assured voice. Peels of electric guitar and a jockeying sample reflects the new, exhilarating moment of feeling safe with another: “With your arms around me I forgot we were naked // All sick and exposed to the elements // You took me to the clearing // I feel no hell below me.”
Around the same time Yacina was creating Veilfall, she began hosting a series of death-themed salons in an LA bookstore, during which strangers are encouraged to open up about their experiences with death and how it affects their lives. The mark that these experiences left on Yacina is an indelible current that runs through Veilfall. Lyrics referencing death and parting the physical world are smattered throughout the record; “When I’m looking at you I’m mourning, anticipatory grief // I could just pretend like it’s nothing // but that wouldn’t be me’” on “Meteor,”; “One day we’ll be dirt under the ocean // So promise me you’ll never fake it” on “Holy For A Moment,”; “Death laughs at denial and pours it back into the earth” on “Clarity.”
These death salons have driven Yacina to better understand and push through the complicated nuances of relationships, and the reverberating effects of grief. It can feel risky baring and giving yourself over to the unknown. But as Yacina memorializes with the album title, letting the veil fall can be equally as rewarding.
Veilfall’s thirteen songs first began to take shape in 2021 after Yacina moved to Long
Beach (Yacina was born and raised in Pennsylvania). For some songs she deliberately sought out collaboration with producers she knew, like Charlie Brand of Miniature Tigers, who worked on “Battle” and “Blanket.” Others she sat with for years, patiently fleshing out arrangements on her own. Eventually, she came to the realization that she needed a regular collaborator and co-producer to help her see the record through. In 2023, she enlisted longtime friend Jonnie Baker (Florist) to help expand her vision. Spending upwards of 14 hours a day, Baker and Yacina would re-record demo versions and add overdubs at Long Beach’s Dream Machine Studio. Baker was a natural fit and proved to be fruitful as not only a producer, but as a catalyst to Yacina broadening her comfort zone and opening the record up to more contributors. Gia Margaret plays piano on “Shine,” Oliver Hill (Coco) provides the album's string arrangements, and Cameron Wisch (Porches) provides much of the album’s percussion arrangements. The finishing touches on Veilfall were done at Alex Wernquest’s Basement Floods Records in the Catskill, where Baker and Yacina utilized a studio’s worth of analog gear to build up and polish the songs even more.
Amongst Yacina’s releases, Veilfall is sonically varied and exists in its own world. Nowhere is this more clear than in the lively “Talk Me Down,” a track whose instrumental flourishes feel like they're inside your chest. Over a consuming synth and an engaging drum machine beat, Yacina muses over the touch and go nature of learning to be vulnerable: “Peeking over ledges // Talk Me Down // I wish I was more of a natural // I wanna open up.”
Lyrically, “The Clearing” acts almost as a foil to “Talk Me Down.” It opens with shuffling percussion and blooms with floating synth and Yacina’s hushed but assured voice. Peels of electric guitar and a jockeying sample reflects the new, exhilarating moment of feeling safe with another: “With your arms around me I forgot we were naked // All sick and exposed to the elements // You took me to the clearing // I feel no hell below me.”
Around the same time Yacina was creating Veilfall, she began hosting a series of death-themed salons in an LA bookstore, during which strangers are encouraged to open up about their experiences with death and how it affects their lives. The mark that these experiences left on Yacina is an indelible current that runs through Veilfall. Lyrics referencing death and parting the physical world are smattered throughout the record; “When I’m looking at you I’m mourning, anticipatory grief // I could just pretend like it’s nothing // but that wouldn’t be me’” on “Meteor,”; “One day we’ll be dirt under the ocean // So promise me you’ll never fake it” on “Holy For A Moment,”; “Death laughs at denial and pours it back into the earth” on “Clarity.”
These death salons have driven Yacina to better understand and push through the complicated nuances of relationships, and the reverberating effects of grief. It can feel risky baring and giving yourself over to the unknown. But as Yacina memorializes with the album title, letting the veil fall can be equally as rewarding.
