Stephanie Seymour is a musician with a long history across several projects. She played drums for The Aquanettas, an all-female rock band based in New York City, including releases like the Love With The Proper Stranger LP (Nettwerk/IRS, 1990) and Roadhaus EP (Rockville, 1993). She also worked as a backup singer and percussionist for Psychic Penguin during the mid-to-late ’90s.
Later, she became the lead singer and songwriter for Birdy, with releases including Supernominal Paraphernalia (1999) and Quarantine (2001) on Cropduster Records. In 2019, she released her solo album There Are Birds, and in 2022, she released the single “There Was a Time.”
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Stephanie Seymour has released a new album, “Grand Isle.” It starts with “Harvest Time,” a country track that opens with breezy riffs and laid-back, slow groovy beats. The chorus, sitting in the backdrop, adds a dreamy aura, while an electric guitar solo brings in a really nice flavor. The whole song also sounds nostalgic, like you’re stepping into a memory. And when it sings about “when it’s harvest time we’ll clean the fields together,” it feels like reminiscing all the way back in time.
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Next, Seymour’s spirited rendition of Chris Harford’s “You Brains” injects a burst of urgency and social commentary, and it’s cool to hear how the observations still feel just as relevant today.
“One Trick Away” feels like such a merry, lovely song. The energetic, exciting vocals and the big chorus make it bright and uplifting. It’s the kind of track that makes you want to wear your dance shoes, and it really shows in how it’s built, especially with the recording featuring gang vocals, a stand-up bass, and drums. Total standout.
Finally, “Scour Your Heart” closes the album on a more emotional note. It has pain, melancholy, and a lot of raw feeling. The song confronts loneliness, self-doubt, and survival with striking honesty, making the ending land with real weight.
We had an opportunity to talk to Stephanie Seymour about her new album. Keep reading to know more.
1. Hey, Stephanie Seymour! Welcome to Sinusoidal, and huge congratulations on your new release, “Grand Isle.” The EP feels like it lives somewhere between memory and movement. There’s joy, nostalgia, heartbreak, and resilience all sharing the same space. Did you always know you wanted those emotions to coexist, or did the EP reveal that to you as you were making it?
I don’t think I ever consciously thought about that. I feel like every song is a little microcosm, and each one comes together in the end to form the macrocosm…the overall tone of the EP. So yes, as you say, this macrocosm is like a potpourri. There’s a little bit of everything thrown in there, and I’m glad about that, but I didn’t try to make that happen on purpose.
2. “Harvest Time” feels warm and familiar, almost like sitting on a porch at sunset. Was there a specific place or memory you kept returning to while writing it?
Yes! This song was the impetus for the whole EP. It’s about my ancestors from Canada coming down to northern Maine in the mid-1800s and settling in that area. I still have family up there, though my grandparents had moved away many decades ago. When my grandmother was in her eighties, she decided to move back to Presque Isle, near my great-aunt and cousins. We visited them regularly until she passed away at age 97, and a lot of my cousins moved downstate or out of the state. I love the boreal forest up north, and that’s what is depicted on the cover of the EP. The artwork was created by my very talented friend Brian Rusnica.
3. When you decided to record “Your Brains,” what made you feel like, “I have something new to say with this”?
I’ve always thought of this tune as a protest song from the moment I heard it on Chris Harford’s 1992 album “Be Headed.” The lyrics were written by Sean Coleman Keenan, and although I don’t know what he was thinking about when he wrote them, I really feel like some of those lines are so relevant today: You can’t see / People they just want to live, they wanna breathe, and sow their seeds / Not fade away / I think there’s gotta be a change, I think there’s gotta be a big change / U. S. of A. your sons they stray / They’re never gonna see the shame, they’re never gonna take the blame
There is so much insanity happening here in the states, and I can’t help but apply those lyrics to present-day issues, even though the song was written almost 35 years ago. It felt great to sing that song.
4. “One Trick Away” feels effortless, but songs that sound effortless usually take a lot of work. Was this one of those songs that arrived quickly, or did you spend time shaping it into what it became?
That’s funny that you asked, because this song was actually written in a day or two. I was trying to resist this one, since I had already recorded the basic tracks for the other five songs and didn’t want to go back to square one with yet another song. But in the end, it felt like it had to be included, for the very reason that it all came together so fast. It ended up being the first song we completed (recording-wise) on the EP. This song was probably the most fun to record, as well. We had seven of my good friends and me around three microphones, and we belted out the choruses in just a few takes. It was a blast.
5. You end the album with “Scour Your Heart,” which is emotionally heavy after some of the brighter moments earlier on. Why did that feel like the right way to leave listeners? Also, what was the inspiration behind this song?
The song is definitely heavy, but in a way, there’s a little bit of lightness in the second chorus: But then you scoured your heart and found another way through
The song is about and for Lisa Marie Presley, whom I greatly admired and whose music I love. It seems to me that she struggled with much turmoil and angst in her life, probably stemming from being born into one of the most famous families in the world, but also possibly from internal and personal issues. And I think that, despite it all, she still lived life on her own terms and did the absolute best she could for herself and her kids. Her death was an awful tragedy, but her music does live on. Ultimately, I think the song ends on a hopeful thought.
6. What’s next for Stephanie Seymour?
I’m just preparing for the July 17 release of “Grand Isle.” I’ve been sending it out to press and radio, with a really positive response so far. It’s available now for pre-order on Bandcamp: https://stephanieseymour.bandcamp.com/album/grand-isle
In the past couple weeks, I’ve gotten an idea for a whole new album – possibly a concept album – and I have partial lyrics for four or five songs already. But until then, enjoy your trip to “Grand Isle.”
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