Brooklyn singer/songwriter Adelide celebrates the messy privilege of growing older on ‘The Way Up,’ a sun-kissed sophomore EP that channels the heartbreaks and upheavals of her twenties into irresistible, soul-stirring pop music, inviting us to dance through our own unfinished stories and embrace the people we’re becoming.

Stream: ‘The Way Up’ – Adelide

The mess of your twenties looks different once you’ve survived it.

With a little distance, you begin to see those years through a different lens, finding compassion for the younger person who was figuring life out as she went.

On her vivacious, life-affirming EP The Way Up, Adelide revisits the people she loved, the mistakes she made, and the experiences that changed her, embracing the messiness of her past while celebrating how far she’s come. Wrapped in dreamy, danceable soul pop, her memories take on a newfound sense of joy, making growing older sound like a beautiful reason to celebrate – even when we’re still making sense of everything we’ve been through.

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering The Way Up, the radiant sophomore EP from Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Adelide. Arriving October 23, four years after her self-titled debut, the six-track record blends the infectious grooves of soul and disco with the polish of modern pop, bringing sweet, sweaty synths, mesmerizing keys, smoldering guitars, and her enchanting golden voice together in a lush, sun-kissed sound that’s as captivating as it is emotionally compelling.

Adelide has spent much of her musical career discovering how to bring her eclectic influences into focus. She began writing songs in 2019, having long imagined a future as a jazz singer before realizing that pop was where she wanted to be. Her self-titled 2022 debut embraced that freedom, drawing from jazz fusion and indie rock as readily as soul and disco. In the years since, she and longtime collaborator, producer, and co-writer Aaron Holthus have refined her artistic identity, developing a more cohesive sound while giving her increasingly personal stories room to breathe.

That evolution is especially apparent in the music she’s shared along the way. On 2024’s “Witness,” Adelide reimagined the Garden of Eden as a modern queer romance, while the biting synthpop of “Shake It” took aim at the men who make women uncomfortable in public. Later singles “Too Good For You” and “You’ll Be Fine” ventured into darker territory, examining a devastating assault from opposing perspectives. Through it all, Adelide has embraced the possibilities of pop music as a vehicle for difficult truths, allowing irresistible melodies and deeply personal storytelling to coexist.

“The Way Up is a living and breathing picture of the most defining moments of my early adulthood. I moved through a series of toxic relationships, found love, dealt with addiction in my family, and got in a serious car crash. This record deals with the past in the present tense, reliving these core events because I never stopped living inside of them in the first place.”

Those experiences take on distinct musical identities across the EP. “Can’t Feel Alive” confronts the suffocating grip of a toxic relationship, while “Let Go” embraces the difficult work of reclaiming one’s self-worth. The music meets that emotional weight with movement, its sultry synths and buoyant rhythms making room for both the hurt and the exhilaration of moving forward. “Circles” captures the dizzying pull of meeting the right person while still tangled in old relationship patterns, its looping structure mirroring the cycles Adelide was struggling to break. “Upstream” channels the disorienting experience of loving her brother through addiction, its surging musical currents mirroring the exhausting swing between control and chaos. Closing track “Lachesism” confronts the strange expectation that surviving a catastrophe should leave someone with a tidy lesson to share. Each song opens another chapter of her life, capturing the complexity of experiences whose consequences continue to unfold long after the events themselves.

As the stories grew more difficult, the act of writing them began to change, too.

“I used to wait to write about my experiences until I felt like I processed them fully and was able to come to some sort of conclusion for myself. Music was where I could reclaim the certainty that is so often elusive in real life, where I could go back and say all of the things I wish I was clever or brave enough to say in the moment. As I get older, I’ve become less afraid of working things out through songwriting and figuring out how I feel as I go. I’m happy to be messy, to present imperfection, to let people into the truth of my life as it happens.”

Adelide’s musical instincts are just as integral to this newfound creative freedom. A melody-first songwriter, she builds her songs around groove and harmony, drawing inspiration from the likes of Prince, Patrice Rushen, Steely Dan, and Japanese city pop. She channels her soul and disco influences throughout, pairing their irresistible rhythmic pull with the sparkling textures and sophisticated polish of contemporary pop. That vision extends beyond the music: Each of the EP’s six songs has its own one-shot, one-take music video captured on Super 16 film, adding another dimension to Adelide’s artistry and the stories she’s bringing to life.

On the title track, Adelide brings the record’s search for perspective into her life as an artist, confronting the emotional whiplash of an industry where success can be fleeting and recognition painfully unpredictable. Its questions about fame and self-worth reach beyond the music business, asking what remains when the applause fades and we’re left to reckon with the lives we’ve built.

The music industry’s endless cycles of wins and losses can only tell Adelide so much about how far she’s come.

“I’m learning that I actually love getting older, and I love the perspective that comes with time and distance. Aging is often something we’re taught to dread, but it is such a gift to be able to look at my younger self with a more keen eye, to love her and grieve for her, to be frustrated and disappointed by her, and to let it all inform how I move through the world. Growing old is a luxury that I don’t take for granted, and I want to be unafraid of sharing my experiences every step of the way, even if I don’t know where I am headed next.”

Adelide is still making sense of her past, but she’s already claimed the right to enjoy her present.

The record’s musical allure only deepens once you know the stories it holds. Adelide’s melodies are inviting from the first listen, her grooves sensual and full of life; return to them, and the difficult memories beneath their brightness give those same sounds unexpected emotional weight. That’s what makes the EP so rewarding: It offers the immediate pleasure of gorgeous pop music while allowing us to hear an artist making sense of her life in real time.

On The Way Up, every irresistible beat carries that freedom forward, inviting us to dance through the unfinished chapters of our own lives and embrace the people we’re becoming. Stream the EP exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and get to know the artist in our intimate conversation below!

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:: stream/purchase The Way Up here ::

:: connect with Adelide here ::

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Stream: ‘The Way Up’ – Adelide

A CONVERSATION WITH ADELIDE

Atwood Magazine: Adelide, for those who are just discovering you today, what do you want them to know about you and your music?

Adelide (Kayla Schwartz): I’m a songwriter based out of Brooklyn and I love soul, disco, yacht rock, and bedroom/indie pop. In my music, you might hear some classic 70s/80s influences, presented with a modern alt-pop spin. If you like sparkly, dreamy, retro sounds with LOTS of synthesizers, you’ve come to the right place!

Who are some of your musical north stars, and what are you most excited about the music you’re making today?

Adelide: I love so much music that it’s always hard to pick, but I always come back to artists like Patrice Rushen, Minnie Riperton, Prince, Simon & Garfunkel, and city pop artists like Mariya Takeuchi and Hiroshi Sato. I’m also a huge Steely Dan girl through and through (don’t @ me!).

I used to think I had to fit into a box genre-wise to be heard, and I felt self-conscious about drawing from so many different places in my music. But these days, I’ve grown to love a somewhat eclectic approach to music-making, and I’m excited to finally be free of the pressure I put myself under to find one definitive label.

The Way Up is your sophomore EP, arriving four years after your self-titled debut. How do you feel this record introduces you and captures your artistry today, especially compared to Adelide?

Adelide: The best way to describe my first EP is “throwing spaghetti at a wall.” For most of my life, I thought that I would be a jazz singer, but I eventually realized that I actually wanted to make pop music. Beyond that, I really had no idea what direction I wanted to go in, so I tried a lot of different things to figure out my voice. While my debut is very near and dear to my heart, it was more of a sampling of sounds and less of a cohesive project.

After putting out my debut, I teamed up with my collaborator/producer/co-writer Aaron Holthus and we spent the following 4 years putting out singles and really dialing in the musical vibe and aesthetic. The Way Up takes bits and pieces of everything I’ve ever put out and distills it into the sound I wanted all along.

AND every song on the EP has its own one shot, one take music video that goes with it, so I think more than ever before, I’ve been given an opportunity to build out my visual identity and the world of these songs.

You’ve described The Way Up as an ode to putting the worst of young adulthood behind you and coming out stronger on the other side. At its core, what is this EP about, for you?

Adelide: The Way Up is about all of the crazy things that happened to me in my twenties. It’s about the people I loved, the mistakes I made, the relationships that failed, and the events that shaped me. If there was a montage of my 20s, these would be the images that flash on screen.

Musically, The Way Up brings together soul, disco, and modern pop influences. What were your sonic goals for this record?

Adelide: I wanted this record to have the sparkle and polish of modern pop music, and with the influence of soul and disco primarily coming through in the grooves, not necessarily in the sound of the record. I wasn’t aiming for a retro sound as much as a modern reinterpretation of retro ideas.

“Upstream” explores the challenges of loving someone struggling with addiction. What’s the story behind this song?

Adelide: In 2020, my brother developed a very intense drug addiction. I always heard people say addiction is a family disease, but I had convinced myself for the first four years of his journey that if I continued to ignore his illness, it couldn’t hurt me. In 2024, everything came to a head after a series of very unfortunate events and I was thrust into the chaos of his addiction. I wasn’t prepared for this and of course it completely consumed me, as addiction often does to the families of addicts.

When I finally had a chance to sit with everything that had happened after the worst of it was over, “Upstream” tumbled out of me in one sitting. Sonically, it captures the waves of feeling in and out of control that defined that period of my life. Luckily, he has been clean for a year and we have a great relationship – he knows this song is about him and he’s still my biggest fan!

“Circles” sees you singing about a connection you can't seem to escape, even when you're trying to fight it. What’s this song about, for you?

Adelide: Obviously relationships can get messy, but wow did I have my fair share of insanely toxic situations in my early adulthood! I ended up finding love at exactly the wrong time, so it was not an easy road and I really had to fight my typical toxic cycles to realize that the right person was there all along. There was a magnetic pull that I couldn’t avoid and it made me feel crazy, pulling me into a dizzying loop that is mirrored in the structure of the song.

Closing the EP is “Lachesism,” which draws from the aftermath of a near-fatal car accident. What was it like putting that experience into music, and what does this song mean to you now?

Adelide: “Lachesism” comes from an incredibly vivid memory of someone asking me shortly after the accident what I had learned from this traumatic experience, as if there was a piece of wisdom or advice that might rub off on them so they too would gain a new perspective on life. It was completely insane, wildly inappropriate, and made me so uncomfortable and angry that the interaction haunted me for months.

The accident fundamentally changed me, and it was important to me that when the time came to write about it, I would be able to fully express everything that I went through. What I realized in writing “Lachesism” is that this experience cannot be boiled down to just one song. I think there’s a lot more to say about the accident, but this was a good start and now I feel like I’m not afraid of going back into those memories.

As a lyrically forward artist, do you have any favorite lyrics across The Way Up?

Adelide: To be honest, lyrics are often secondary to me, in that I want to make sure I’m loving the groove, harmony, and melody of a song before I tackle the words. The lyrics have to fit into everything else vs. the other way around. Of course lyrics are very important to me, but I have to admit that I will rarely sacrifice a good melody or rhythmic idea for a lyric – sue me!

That said, there are some lyric moments on this EP that I do love. Verse two on “The Way Up” is a personal favorite. It describes the fleeting nature of success, viral fame, and the emotional turbulence I have gone through as an artist moving through intense cycles of wins and losses:

Look how you light up the crowd
But when nobody can see you
Well, do you feel important now?
The jury is out
But are you still the one they’re talking about?

And even though it’s not a lyric per-se, I also love the title of “Lachesism” – what a great word to describe this desire some people have to go through something disastrous in order to gain perspective and direction on their lives. It was coined by author John Koenig in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which is a dictionary he created to give names to powerful emotions many of us feel but can’t find words for.

Do you have any definitive favorite songs or personal highlights from this EP?

Adelide: My personal favorite is the title track, “The Way Up.” All of the other songs are about an event or a person, but “The Way Up” is the one that I keep living inside of day after day, so my relationship with it keeps changing. It’s about my experience being an artist in a notoriously unfriendly and difficult industry, and since I don’t plan on quitting any time soon, it’s also a reminder to keep proving myself wrong.

What do you hope listeners take away from The Way Up, and what have you taken away from creating this music and now putting it out?

Adelide: This record was a really big step for me in gauging my growth as a person in the past 10 years. Despite my flaws and the mistakes that I’ve made, I am proud of where I’ve ended up so far, and I’m proud that I’ve believed in my vision enough to make this music.

I hope that people dance to these songs, and I hope that people know that even when the subject matter gets serious or dark, I’m dancing through it too.

In the spirit of paying it forward, who are you listening to these days that you’d recommend to our readers?

Adelide: I have so many talented friends whose music I admire so deeply! Analog Dog and Heat Treatment are making incredibly groovy, disco-inspired music that I can’t get enough of. Aubrey Haddard just put out an incredible record I am loving right now, and you should get in on the ground floor of Good Boy Nikko if you like really fun city-pop/bedroom pop vibes. And last but certainly not least, there has been a wave of posthumous releases from the late, great R&B singer Melvin Knight that I come back to constantly. Highly recommend!

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