Kevin Bronson on June 16th, 2023

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Catching up with new singles from Sofia Wolfson, Isaac Watters, Kath Myers and Jess Kallen …

SOFIA WOLFSON, “From Up Here”

“From Up Here” is singer-songwriter Sofia Wolfson’s first release in three years. The 23-year-old L.A. native put music on the back burner in favor of college, first in Boston (referenced none too fondly on her new single “From Up Here”) and then back home in L.A. She unpacks some existential baggage on the new song, produced by Gabe Wax, and summons some strength, too: “My body’s glass, I’ll make it stone,” she sings. Wolfson was still a teenager when she released her last EP, “Adulting,” and not unlike other teen prodigies (Phoebe Bridgers and Charlie Hickey come to mind) who seem to know what questions will be on the final exam, hers is already an advanced course in songwriting.

ISAAC WATTERS, “Coconut in the Street”

Isaac Watters (fka John Isaac Watters) opened a new chapter of his poetic, soundtrack-worthy indie-rock in January with the release of the four-song “Extended Play 001.” On Aug. 30, he’ll release “Extended Play 002,” and the hauntingly beautiful “Coconut in the Street” is the second single, following “All I Need.” There are few more compelling narrators of the human condition right now than Watters, who turns his writerly eye toward the disparity in wealth in Los Angeles on the new single. “Really it’s just a song about being out in Los Angeles at night,” he says. “Roaming the streets with your friends, or trying to find someone to be your friend. All these images are things that happen in L.A. I think it’s something about the compression of wealth and poverty, facelessness and celebrity. It drives people to the extremes.”

KATH MYERS, “Come Through”

The follow-up to the title track, “Come Through” is the latest single from Kath Myers’ album “Bad TV,” out July 21. It deals with another kind of bad. “This song is about living in L.A. for too long and realizing that you are turning into the type of person that you used to complain about,” she says. “It’s about bad habits and self-awareness and surrender.” Longtime collaborator Aaron Stern co-produced, and amid a shuffling, warm backdrop, Myers’ vocals sparkle, even as she confesses, “I’m just as unreliable as you.”

JESS KALLEN, “Exotherm”

Jess Kallen’s debut album “Exotherm” is out June 21, and it is far from … well, exothermic. Kallen, a guitar teacher and side player for artists such as Rosie Tucker, Alex Lahey and Temme Scott, crafts indie-rock with both gravitas and a sense of humor that masks pain and grief. “My pet turtle likes the space between the flower pot and wall / Feels like a hug without really being held at all,” is the songwriter’s opening metaphor on the title track (the turtle indeed stars in the video). Stay for the nifty guitar solo, and the conclusion, after all, that “This fragile hell feels fine.” (See also “Ink”, “The Knife” and “A Garden Bed of Thistle Weeds.”) Kallen celebrates the album release with a show at Club Tee Gee on June 26.