“Stem” is a haunting indie-folk track and the first single from our upcoming album Back To Land (2025). With ethereal female vocals, tremolo guitar, piano, and strings, the track creates a moody, intimate atmosphere before building to a sweeping crescendo. Lyrically, the song explores themes of isolation, quiet transformation, and emotional resilience. “Stem” offers a deep, reflective listening experience that captures our signature soothing-but-spooky sound - perfect for autumn! “Stem” would be a perfect fit for indie-folk and Americana playlists and radio stations.

Stem

“This Side of the Border” is a catchy folk/Americana tune, and the lead single from our upcoming album Back To Land (2025). The strong female vocal, by our singer Sam, delivers a catchy ear-worm melody supported by a chorus of harmonies. The track features bright finger-picked guitar which builds into a beautiful, sunny arrangement. Lyrically, the song explores themes of love and separation, referencing traditional folk motifs while also capturing our signature beautiful-yet-dark style and aesthetic. “This Side of the Border” would be a perfect fit for bright indie-folk and Americana playlists and radio stations.

This Side of the Border

"Ammonite" is the latest single from our upcoming album Back To Land (2025). A captivating blend of indie-folk and Americana, it features Lewis' heartfelt lead vocals, with a rich tapestry of harmonies from Sam. The track combines strummed acoustic guitar, tremolo electric guitar, banjo, and percussion, creating a sound that's both intimate and uplifting. Lyrically, "Ammonite" explores themes of love after loss, breaking free from grief, and finding hope in the light. Drawing upon contemporary folk, indie, and country influences, the song is perfect for indie-folk and Americana playlists and radio stations.

Ammonite

Life In Gossamer

Shining Sea Shell

Diana's Mirror

Marine Tragedy (In Four Acts)

Crystalline

Back To Land

Orchids Speak (Listen)

This Is Not The End

I Don't Wanna Be A Mockinbird - track 1 from the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

Umbrellabirds

I Don't Wanna Be A Mocking Bird

The Prophet - track 9 from the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

The Prophet

The Second Time I Left The Levant - track 6 from the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

The Second Time I Left The Levant

The City - track 2 from the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

The City

The Monster In Me - track 8 from the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

The Monster In Me

Rhododendrons - track 4 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Rhododendrons - Lyrics

Light the way
I don’t have the words to say
Anything in any way
They’re floating in the bay

Spider hands
Crawling ‘round inside my head
I wear my brother’s clothes to bed
Fill the pockets up with lead

A videotape
Playing in the garden with my sister in spring
It’s distorted and grey
On Valentine’s Day
I might look like I’m living
Living on the outside
But I’m fading away

Drown the day
I don’t have the nerve to stay
Lemon juice and Valium
I am very thin

Out of breath
Every night I dream of death
In Bethlehem and Nazareth
All their hands are falling off

A videotape
Playing in the garden with my sister in spring
It’s distorted and grey
On Valentine’s Day
I might look like I’m living
Living on the outside
But I’m fading away

And with light on your side
You live another life but I
Am in the bible blackness

A videotape
Playing in the garden with my sister in spring
It’s distorted and grey
On Valentine’s Day
I might look like I’m living
Living on the outside
But I’m fading away

Closing Ceremony

Rhododendrons

I Am All - track 1 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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I Am All - Lyrics

Further in, not further on
Waters rise, the ground is gone
Where were you when we were one?
I am what the water’s done

North of here is constant ache
Songs to old gods, fire as praise
Ashes gone now, leave no trace
I am where the fire stays

Sweeter now, the air outside
Earth in glory, nature’s pride
Tread lightly here for beauty lies
I am what the flowers hide

First of my line to give in
Learn to love my own within
Good and bad: my kith and kin
I am all and all is sin

I Am All

Vespertine Animal - track 3 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Vespertine Animal - Lyrics

I thought I saw a light in the dark
I thought I saw a light in the dark
I thought I saw a light in the dark
I thought I saw a spark
But it was just the devil coming home

I didn’t see the way you looked at me
Lilac lover
You see the sun
You see the sun in me
Lilac light
Vespertine

I thought I saw the birth of the world
I thought I saw the birth of the world
I thought I saw the birth of the world
I saw it all unfurl
But it was just the devil coming home

I didn’t see the way you looked at me
Lilac lover
You see the sun
You see the sun in me
Lilac lover
Lilac light
Vespertine

Vespertine Animal

I Remember The Rain - track 3 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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I Remember The Rain - Lyrics

Standing next to me
In the memory
I just want you to know
That you are a friend to me
Not the enemy
Even though, even though

I miss my brother
And my grandmother
I will remember the crows
What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
Who says that the world is a rose?

You know my face
Darling, you know my name
But nothing is all the same

What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
You missed that final refrain
I remember the rain

The house smells like flowers
Weeks after the funeral
Put away all the clothes
I sat for hours
By the roman numerals
At the end of the road

A mysterious stranger
Is reading Corinthians
Silver dragonflies float
What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
Who says that the world is a rose?

You know my face
Darling, you know my name
But nothing is all the same

What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
You missed that final refrain
I remember the rain

Familiar strangers
Have been coming over
To stick the spike in the vein
I remember the rain

I Remember The Rain

Sobriquet - track 5 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Sobriquet - Lyrics

I’m not quite yet so unafraid
That I might let you use my Christian name
You’ll call me whatever you please –
It usually fits and I get my kicks
When your tongue plucks your lips

What is precious to you these days?
What do you wrap in your coat when the wind howls?
When is it worth it to open your mouth?
I’ve been quiet for years, yet I perk up my ears
At certain turns of phrase, certain days

I asked you to turn out the light
“Why don’t you just close your eyes?” you said
But I can still see the glow from behind
And it’s not fair
I won’t pay for your nightmares

Sobriquet

Everything Is Still - track 6 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Everything Is Still - Lyrics

What’s a memory?
It’s something I don’t understand
It’s a time machine that fills you full of lies
It’s a saccharine exercise in vanity
It’s the one thing that makes me feel alive

But I don’t wanna bring it back
Resuscitate the heart attack
The 1980s, I’m your baby

Everything is still
Inside the children’s hospital
There’s a cold chill rolling through the sky
There’s a garden full of crumbling statuettes
I don’t wanna live, but you don’t wanna die

I ain’t gonna bring it back
The black diamond from the zodiac
Painted ladies, why don’t you fuck off

One thing I want you to know
There’s nothing could convince me to go
To the bloodbath rodeo

No one told me
A year can change a universe
From an aviary to a carcass full of flies
If you love me, there ain’t no need to tell me
It’s okay to be lonely, if everybody dies

I don’t wanna bring it back
Resuscitate the heart attack
The VHS is now just static

One thing I want you to know
There’s nothing could convince me to go
To the bloodbath rodeo

There’s a white noise
Playing in the cinema
It’s a dark room where everybody hides
It’s a comfort I’m learning to appreciate
I just laugh ‘cause I don’t know how to cry

And I ain’t gonna bring it back
The blood diamond from the zodiac
The human race has done fuck all

The moon is black and cardiac
I’m the lilac wave amnesiac
The 1980s, I’m your baby
The 1980s, I’m your baby
The 1980s, I’m your baby
The 1980s, I’m your babe

Everything Is Still

Polygraph - track 8 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Polygraph - Lyrics

You were the everything
You left here in the spring
I know you, babe
An imploding fireball

I was a broken one
You were a setting sun
I know you, babe
Or I have to believe I do

I don’t know the dream you had
That made you hesitate
I don’t want to
I don’t want to

I don’t know what made you call
The devil to the gate
But I still love you
I still love you
Babe

There was no photograph
There was no polygraph
But you know me, babe
Or I have to believe you do

I don’t wanna live a life
Without you in the space
I don’t want to
I don’t want to

The universe, it turned away
And laid it all to waste
But I still love you
I still love you
Babe

Polygraph

Closing Ceremony - track 9 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Closing Ceremony - Lyrics

I saw you on the avenue
An angel with a parasol
A demiurge with peacock plumes

The microscope you’re looking through
You stole it from the Interpol
A field of white and cobalt blue

I walked through you
Like molasses on a moon

I didn’t know it but you were gone
They put me on the pill
You put me on the windowsill

The darkness shattered the light that shone
It took away the thrill
Now there’s nothing left to kill

I went to see the oracle
With baskets full of bergamot
And necklaces of heron bones

She pointed to the hologram
“The past is locked in amber and
The future is a memory”

I looked through you
Like a melting crystal ball

I didn’t know it but you were gone
They put me on the pill
You put me on the windowsill

The darkness shattered the light that shone
It took away the thrill
And now there’s nothing left to kill

Georgetown

June - track 4 on the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

June

Nature Documentary - track 5 on the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

Nature Documentary

Ophelia Among The Flowers - track 10 on the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

Ophelia Among The Flowers

The Book Of The Dead - track 11 on the album Umbrellabirds (2016)

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The Book Of The Dead - Lyrics

You said there was no future
And you said I lacked the acumen
I dare you girl, say it again

Now you float above the satellites
And I'm sinking in the bitumen
I dare you girl, say it again

When I stood in the light
Of the candelabra in the gothic night
Well I lied, I said I hated all your life
And I carved through it like a blunt bread knife

Oh, but I loved your life

You've been travelling the continents
Bewitching all the denizens
I dare you girl, just say it again

Now I'm sitting on the monument
With a field guide and a fountain pen
I wish you would just say it again

When I stood in the light
Of the candelabra in the gothic night
Well I lied and said I hated all your life
And I carved through it like a blunt bread knife

Oh, but I loved your life

Waterfalls of champagne
To your name
All the love I display
Is in vain

When I stood in the light
Of the candelabra in the gothic night
Well I lied, I said I hated all your life
And I carved through it like a blunt bread knife

Oh, well I loved your life

The Book Of The Dead

The original demo of Georgetown, from 2013

Guyana Songs

Georgetown [Demo - 2013]

U M B R E L L A B I R D S

The new album BACK TO LAND: out now 🔮

Umbrellabirds is Sam Blickhan, Lewis Daly, and Alex Hunt. The band began as a long-distance recording project when Sam Blickhan and Lewis Daly began exchanging demos in 2013. Alex Hunt heard these sparsely beautiful demos and initially signed up to produce, but was soon recruited as a full band member. The intricate, autumnal debut album was recorded in 2014-16, the product of many late nights and countless miles of travel. Oda Almås played strings on the self-titled debut. Shortly thereafter, the band began work on their second album—Closing Ceremony (2020)—featuring a bigger sound and a wider collective of musicians including Shyam Prasad on drums, Will Harvey on strings, and Cath Day on clarinet. Their third album—BACK TO LAND—was released in November 2025, further developing their signature indie-folk sound. Umbrellabirds have been played on BBC 6 Music by DJ Tom Robinson and featured on the BBC Introducing Mixtape.

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