Debbie Neigher’s career is marked by an inherent lust for joy. A sought-after keys player and vocalist, Neigher has toured with pop icons Demi Lovato and Marina, Grammy-winner Daya, and indie darlings Suki Waterhouse and Ezra Furman in addition to cultivating her project Lapel. Now, on her new EP Brutal Joy, Neigher blends her taste for pop catharsis with incisive self-reflection as she questions how to nurture and protect joy in the face of systems that seek to tear it away.

The kinetic pleasure of Brutal Joy is like a gasp for air after being held underwater—ecstatic, but not frivolous. This is hard-won joy, the thrill of arriving when you might not have. That grief and pleasure are so intertwined in these songs is a reflection of Neigher’s personal journey as a woman, activist, and artist, as well as the greater context in which the songs were made. Written and recorded in the arc surrounding the pandemic, Brutal Joy became a vehicle for Neigher to exercise her agency. Studying production and drum programming in between community organizing and solo living room dance parties to release the heaviness of her days, Neigher produced alongside Andrew Lappin (Anderson .Paak, Marina, L’Rain) and invited friends to record remotely.

The result is a collection of songs steeped with yearning for freedom as much as they effortlessly provide a sense of it. They remind us of our responsibility to preserve our own joy, and the bounty that awaits if we remain tender in the fight.

Lapel is following

Lapel is not following anyone.