[Cover photo credit to Chantal Anderson]
Kacey Johansing has announced the upcoming release of her new album Year Away. The LA-based songwriter has also shared a new video for “Daffodils,” the first single and centerpiece to the album. Year Away will be released on July 28th, 2023 via Night Bloom Records.
“Daffodils” finds Johansing confronting own mortality by observing the brief lifespan of a flower. The songs acts as “an elegiac tribute to someone facing death with grace and curiosity.”
Johansing writes:
Daffodils are one of the first flowers to bloom as the earth begins to thaw, coming even before spring and often emerging from the snow. The vibrant yellow is a sign that a seasonal shift is on the horizon, a gesture of hope and light, even in the darkest of times.

The new album covers a time during the pandemic when the artist was processing personal loss and concerned that the music community was disappearing from LA, but this led to a period of songwriting. Johansing booked time at Highland Park’s 64 Sound Studio the week that it reopened. Over the course of three days, she and her band gathered basic tracks for 10 songs, before returning home to finish the record with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Tim Ramsey (Vetiver, Fruit Bats).
The record features mixing from veteran producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Cat Power), woodwinds from Logan Hone (John Carroll Kirby, Eddie Chacon), and a featured rhythm section of drummer Josh Adams (Jenny Lewis, Bedouine) and bassist Todd Dahlhoff (Feist, Devendra Banhart). Recorded across multiple studios including LA’s Sunset Sound, the album was engineered by Tyler Karmen (MGMT, Alvvays).
Upcoming tour dates
05/11/23 – Los Angeles, CA – Gold Diggers ^
05/12/23 – Ojai, CA – Ojai Women’s Center ^
05/13/23 – Carpinteria, CA – Sweet Mountaintop Farm ~
05/21/23 – Nevada City, CA – Miner’s Foundry Cultural Center ~
05/24/23 – Olympia, WA – New Traditions Cafe ~
05/25/23 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern ~
05/26/23 – Portland, OR – The Old Church ~
* w/ Anna St. Louis, John Andrews & The Yawns
^ w/ Bonny Doon
~ w/ Mariee Siou