With her seventh studio album Who’s Keeping Time?, Portland-based songwriter Alela Diane confronts the introvert’s plight of becoming so familiar in one’s own surroundings that the concept of a world outside their home—or their head—somehow becomes more fantastical than the rich inner life they’ve cultivated for themselves. The indie-folk artist addresses her renewed desire for community with the new project, as well as a need to feel “alive” again after losing her friend and local scene staple Michael Hurley last year.
Few of the tracks on Who’s Keeping Time? take on these feels more directly or more playfully than “In My Own Time,” the record’s latest single which serves as a “reflection on time and distraction and trying to keep oneself on track,” per Diane of the single she recorded with a five-member band that additionally includes two backing vocalists. “It is so hard to stay present and not get caught inside the web of distraction that is the modern world. This is a song for those of us who waste our own precious time, but strive to go outside and smell a rose instead. I am someone who could just fester away inside my house forever, but that isn’t what I want for myself. I want to feel alive! To breathe the air! To take the dog for a walk! To go out and see live music! I am doing more of these things, but I really do take my own time to get there.”
The gently rocking acoustic- and Wurlitzer-led cut comes with a music video that sees Diane making the most of her time indoors, dancing across furniture and playing with her pets. Check it out below, and pre-order Who’s Keeping Time? ahead of its May 22 release here.
