From her home in Orange County, California, kelz sat down to pen her latest album, 5am And I Can’t Sleep, released with Bayonet Records. Featuring eight songs, this album showcases kelz’s strength as a musician, one with an attuned ear for melody and texture. Through pulsating beats and candid lyrics, the album traverses her experience with past friendships and relationships. She shares that the intervening songs on the album serve as a form of meditation and emotional working through, interweaving infectious guitar picking with heartfelt emotions.

Kelz is no stranger to DIY bedroom pop, her previous releases – “I Can’t Sleep” and “Guitar + Peaches” – are dreamy and melodic, pulling at all of our heartstrings. And as she brings us through her own journey you’ll find yourself unraveling a cross-genre experience that’s eerily familiar.

And by the looks of it, kelz is just getting started. Recently the Vietnamese-American producer and artist made her SXSW debut, performing her single “My Friend.” And like the other songs on this album, “My Friend” unfolds with infectious melodies and the musician’s characteristic airy vocals.

“I consider this song to be my magnum opus so far, mourning the lost friendships and relationships as time passes,” she elaborates. “Over time, I realized it’s also a note to myself as I was becoming someone new. I always imagined the chorus and its looped trance as my way of crying. I felt a lot of catharsis and euphoria with ‘My Friend’ – it just came so easily.”

Stream her latest project below!