[Cover photo credit to Paulette Argeres]

Louisiana-based artist Noa Jamir has released her debut album, Cicada, and shared new single “Nights”. The spare new track features just Jamir and her guitar, was produced by Michael Lockett (Joe Hall & The Louisiana Cane Cutters, Ruby Andrews, Gloria Lynne, Beau Jocque). The whole project stems from a very difficult time in the artist’s life when she felt isolated by depression.

Regarding the album, Jamir says:

The title ‘Cicada’ came to me that summer. It was inspired by a walk I took to work every morning, in which I’d notice little cicada shells stuck to the trees and on fence posts. Something about cicadas resonated with me on a symbolic and spiritual level at that time. I did a lot of reading about them, and learned about how they spend years dormant underground, until ready to emerge in their shiny, new adult form. That really resonated with me. Most of 2023 felt like my own personal dormant hell, which I was slowly beginning to emerge from. That summer, I had just gotten sober, started going to therapy, decided to finish school, and found the energy to start picking up the pieces of my life.

She adds about the album:

I hope it can convey hope of leaving a dark place better than you found it, while still acknowledging that it happened, and the ways in which it made you stronger.

Noa Jamir shares about the single “Nights”:

“The inspiration behind ‘Nights’ was the time I spent by the Mississippi River. There’s a spot I’d go to while living in New Orleans that overlooked the river, where you could see ships and cargo passing by. This spot had the most incredible view of the sunset, it would always leave me a little bit breathless. There were times I’d go there with friends. I had my first date there. Sometimes, I’d also go alone. And all of those moments felt somewhat sacred to me. They were always filled with joyful and peaceful memories. As someone who struggles with mental health and bouts of anxiety and rumination, particularly at night, I found solace in that spot by the river. When I’d go there, I’d feel small, though not in a sad way. Just in a way that reminded me how impermanent everything was— sadness, anxiousness, stress, whatever it was that I was feeling, being there helped me remember that it wouldn’t last forever. And thus, ‘Nights’ was born! It is meant to sound like a lullaby of sorts, a song to convey the calmness I felt while by the Mississippi. A lot of my friends and peers struggle with similar mental health issues, and ‘Nights’ is just my reminder to all of us that it’s going to be okay, no matter how it feels now.”