Renny Conti’s new album Split Second was born from a period of upheaval: within a single month, he went through a breakup, lost his brother, and left his New York apartment, spending 2024 couch-surfing before life steadied in 2025. Writing poured out that year, processing the chaos and its aftermath.

Renny grew up outside San Francisco, the son of working actor parents, and started playing music with his older brother as a teenager, moving through punk and metal bands before turning solo while studying film in college. His sound shifted toward emotive, folk-tinged indie after his first major heartbreak. A string of self-released albums led to his 2023-recorded, 2025-released self-titled debut, which brought indie buzz and a deal with Mom+Pop.

Split Second, co-produced with Adrian Olsen in Los Angeles, layers acoustic guitars and plainspoken vocals with orchestration and distortion. Many songs were written after his brother’s death from addiction, exploring the difference between losing someone to death versus to distance. The title track captures the instant when accumulated change suddenly becomes visible. Across the record, from “Mona Lisa” to “San Francisco, 2005,” Renny traces grief, love, and memory across California and New York, asking: how did we end up here?