[Cover photo credit to Liz Maney]

Brooklyn-based Indie Rock band Looms has announced new music, following on their 2023 EP The Dogs of Doubt. Their upcoming Big Dream EP is set for release this Fall, on September 19th, 2025, via Paper Garden Records. The track “Happy Birthday”, along with a video, is out now.

The song is “a melancholic and bittersweet meditation on the painful unraveling of a once-close friendship.”

The band headed back to their longtime studio home, Gearbox Recording, with trusted engineer Ryan Ball to make the EP. Core tracking was laid down by Sharif Mekawy (vocals, guitar), Harry Morris Jr. (guitar), A. Hammond Murray (bass), Louis Cozza (drums), and Fred Copeman (keys), with vocal harmonies later contributed by Mary Hood and Caroline Strickland.

Their recording sessions lasted only a few days, but the rest of the year was spent layering overdubs and mixing. Notably, Nels Cline (Wilco) appears on “I Killed a Man” via unused overdubs from a 2018 session.

Mixing wrapped in early April, and the tracks were mastered by Joe Lambert. Visuals for the album were handled by Liz Maney, and the band officially joined the Paper Garden Records roster for its release.

Frontman Sharif Mekawy explains about “Happy Birthday”:

A few years ago, I had a very close friend that started to drift away. I was desperate not to lose them and tried relentlessly to save the friendship to no avail. On the eve of their birthday, I was walking home thinking about how much I’d like to talk to them, and the words just came line by line very quickly. I finished the song that night, and sent it to them, but never got a response.