“Islands” started as a journal entry about loneliness. Then a blog post. Then an apartment demo performed at Memphis house shows. It took years to find its final form — and a producer who knew where to push it.
Naø Glover, the St. Louis-based solo artist and founder of Noise Gate PR, released her second single and we’re thrilled to give you some behind the track insights on this adventurous offering.
“Islands” is a metal-leaning rock track built around atmospheric guitar layers, a slow-building tension, and harsh vocals making their return for the first time since her metalcore days.
It was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Kameron Walker — Naø’s old bandmate, going back to their youth group days — and the chemistry shows. They reworked the chords, the instrumentation, and the overall shape of the song before Walker pushed it somewhere she hadn’t fully anticipated.
“The song that came out of the studio is very different from the one that went in,” she says. “We had a lot of fun seeing how we could push its limits and find the right balance of space and intensity.”
The lyricism is rooted in a specific observation: how people end up isolated despite being more “connected” than ever, and the ways self-protection curdles into avoidance. Naø traces the song’s evolution directly — from journaling about a loneliness she saw in herself and her friends, to grief over her own role in it, to something closer to a prayer.
“It started as a journal entry,” she explains. “A reflection on how we all got to be this lonely in a world that’s more ‘connected’ than ever. Eventually, that reflection turned into grief over my own loneliness, acceptance of my role in it, and a prayer to fight the current that pulls me further out.”
The backstory runs deeper than the recording session. When Naø relocated to St. Louis a few years ago, she lost access to the Memphis metal scene she’d built her band life around, and the years that followed were slow. She resisted the solo path for a long time — she’s always described herself as thriving in a band setting — but eventually the alternative, waiting around for that kind of opportunity to come back, stopped making sense.
“The tide always comes, and I have to learn to love deeply and hold loosely,” she says. “If we stay stuck in virtual relationships to keep a safe distance, or become overprotective of our own hurt, we’ll create these untouchable worlds and we’ll forget that the beauty is found in the risk and in the mess.”
“Islands” follows her debut solo single “Funny Bone” from last year. Artwork, promo photos, and the lyric video — shot with footage from Corronbro Studio — were all handled by Naø herself.
The track is out now on all platforms. A lyric video is up on YouTube.
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