It’s challenging enough to make a name for one’s self within the hypercompetitive music industry these days, but it’s another thing altogether to do so while remaining yourself. It’s a realization that Johanna Samuels has learned the hard way over a decade into her career as an indie-folk songwriter navigating a system that always prioritizes money over art, and tends to conflate the value of both. For her debut single after signing with Odd Man Out Records, Samuels addresses this unavoidable facet of being a public figure with her new single “White Limousine,” its title referring back to the setting of her first panic attack. “A friend had rented one for her 15th birthday, and I felt a pressure rising within myself to be inauthentic that night,” she recalls. “I felt a sense of dread come over me, like I was unsafe. I could feel myself growing apart from myself.”
Despite the existential horrors it details, the track couldn’t possibly sound more removed from that moment of anxiety. Enlisting producer Jonathan Rado and his familiar bag of tricks (many of them sourced from Laurel Canyon), along with tapping Courtney Marie Andrews for vocal harmonies, the gentle indie-pop cut elicits a pleasant sense of nostalgia to pave over the stress and confusion she experienced as a teenager. “I have found that in the pursuit of art in my adult life, the marketization of the medium and the social setup of the musical community has brought this same feeling up again and again,” she continues, bringing things back to the present. “I’ve found myself having to recenter values when I find myself drifting from my authentic heart. I’ve learned that if you don’t make a practice of it, life will recenter your path for you (to remind you who is in charge). This route is oftentimes much less graceful and not as peaceful.”
For the track’s music video, starring and directed by Norma, the white limousine is once again the source of anxiety, though here it’s experienced by a figure outside of the vehicle. “I wanted Norma to interpret the song however came naturally to her, without instructions,” Samuels shares of the noir-thriller black-and-white clip. “She is such a talent and captured that paranoia and nostalgia I felt when I wrote it. I have a huge love for old movies, so her references and the cinematic quality left me so jazzed.”
Check out the video below.
