Self-taught songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ezra Williams (fka Smoothboi Ezra) today returns with their haunting new single, “Deep Routed” via AWAL. This is the first single since their debut Stuck EP; a clear step forward in maturation of their already finely-honed musicality, while remaining loyal to their signature, longing sound. Listen to “Deep Routed” HERE.

Ezra offers an often overlooked take on emotional relationships, as they’re writing as a person who is gender non-binary and on the autism spectrum. They are helping people who don’t often see themselves represented in the media hear themselves in music, and to know that there are songs which speak to their experience; they’re moving the needle on what it means to write a love song.

Ezra Williams writes catchy but subtle tracks; self-deprecating but never sombre, always utterly charming. They’ve been compared to “Phoebe Bridgers at her best” (Paste), and their tender, self-examining indie calls to Fiona Apple, Soccer Mommy and Indigo De Souza, though they wouldn’t corner or compare themselves with anyone but their own self. With this new work, though, we find hints of Nirvana in the electric guitars and in the moody falling-down-the-scale melodies. Bits of Dido, even, in the cavernous way their voice lingers around. The rawness and intimacy of their last EP remains, felt just as deeply and emotionally, expanding exponentially through atmospheric production that leaves a resonant impact.

Of “Deep Routed,” Ezra says, “I wrote this about trying to deal with things from past relationships while also trying to give your all to someone new.”

The accompanying video shows just that in a simple but heart-wrenching manner: a person going through the day battling these thoughts, either running towards or away from someone that they clearly love in this moment.

Growing up in a coastal town in County Wicklow, Ezra always loved living right next to the sea – but hated the sand. An introverted person growing up, they veered between being “the quiet kid or kid that was always getting in trouble… I was a different person depending on who I was around, which I think is an autism thing,” they say. At night, Ezra would steal their brother’s iPod Shuffle to listen to music under the duvet, and constantly jotted down “little poems.” It never occurred to Ezra that these observations could form the basis of songwriting, and they mostly felt “embarrassed” to share them. It simply took uploading their first songs to SoudCloud, simply so their mother could listen, for flocks of folks to organically fall in love with their demos.

Since then, Their single “Stuck” landed on Bob Boilen’s All Songs Considered, while their previous single “My Own Person” garnered widespread acclaim from the likes of BBC Radio 1, NME, Consequence, Dork, the Irish Times, and more. In their short career, they’ve played Great Escape, Consequence’s Protect Live Music livestream (alongside Glass Animals, Real Estate, Perfume Genius, and many more), Glastonbury Fest online, recently opened for Malaki, garnered +16 million Spotify streams and 1.4 million at Apple for their independent releases, supported Orville Peck at Dublin’s Grand Social, and more. They’ll also be playing a string of live dates this Spring in the UK, including shows in London, Dublin, and at the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition.