Today, Siichaq — the project of the Atlanta-based musician Kennie Mason — announces her sophomore album CATCHER, out August 8. Siichaq also shares today the first preview of the album with the shamelessly pleading “Project 3.” Listen to “Project 3” here and presave CATCHER here.

“Project 3” creates a grungy, deep, droning, murky sonic world that’s perfect for introducing such an introspective, autobiographical album in CATCHER. It’s a sluggish symphony of minimalist shoegaze and slacker rock, where frayed feedback floats in a pool of melancholy. It brings to mind The Microphones blown out despondency and julie’s gothy bluntness.

There are glimpses of gloom and darkness that stem from deep within Mason”s psyche; things you’d never pick up on if you meet her in person. Cheery, chipper, a little bit flitting not unlike a hummingbird searching for sugar, Mason moves through the world as a beacon of positivity and empathy in spite of what they carry. The outside and the inside meet on “Project 3,” with a bit of a sense of humor and acknowledgment that it’s not that deep; she’s unafraid to beg for answers on the droning chorus with a simple, prying “please… please…”

Of “Project 3,” Siichaq says, “Project 3 is a song about feeling desperate and resentful. I wrote this during a period of waiting. There’s that saying, ‘hurry up and wait…’ That’s what it feels like to make music most of the time, and the stalling is far more uncomfortable for me than the hurrying. It’s in the quiet moments that scare me, and I lose confidence in my art or my persistence because there’s no tangible work to be done, nothing to ‘produce’. I find myself, embarrassingly, begging the universe for a chance to earn my spot in the world–begging for a chance to succeed in an industry that’s chalked full of people with more talent, skill, drive, more everything than me. It always feels pathetic when I’m doing it, but I do it anyway. I resent the universe for not giving me signs, I resent the periods of stagnation, I resent the silent forces that pull us blindly through our lives.

And so, I beg. I don’t know if it works, really, but sometimes it feels good to just tell the universe what you want. Please, please, please, don’t make me stumble blindly into the future, please, please, please, tell me I can do it.”

You might be sick of indie rock being deemed “honest,” or “raw;” but let “Project 3” and the album to come cleanse you of that tiresome note. There is nothing contrived here – just a nearly-flippant display of things that needed to be written down and orchestrated. The Cliff Notes: Mason grew up in South Florida as the only native person, or even person of color, to note. At twelve years old, she was placed in a correctional wilderness program after a hired consultant warned her parents that it was the only way to keep her around long term. For six or so weeks, she fended for herself in the forest in the rain, cold, and darkness. After that, Mason always found herself making friends with older folks; her soul much older than her physical being, which had always placed her at odds in her environment, anyway. Just a few years ago, around the age of 20, a friend lent her a copy of Catcher in the Rye, which lent a hand in the titling of the album.

Across CATCHER, Mason tapped into her flourishing musical community: Rand Kelly (The Slaps), Maggie Geeslin, Ben Wulkan, Connor Dowd, and Matteo Delurgio (all of Lunar Vacation), Annie Leeth (Faye Webster), and Evan Dangerfield (Finn Wolfhard). You see interludes of noise rock (“Horse & The Heretic”) sit comfortably next to lush string arrangements (“Life’s A Mess”); golden two-tone harmonies sing about the pleasures of being alone (“A Couple Bad People”); groovy pop melodies (“Cannibal”) and bare bones banjo (“World Equestrian Center”) share equal space. Mason’s organic honesty finds a home and flourishes in this music, her style in sound brought to life by a web of wildly talented artists, yet rooted wholeheartedly in its own dreamy world.