Shannon Lay’s seraphic voice and fingerpicking has long been a guiding spirit — a compassionate steward of tender hearts and minds. For the last decade, her music has tendered a retreat from one’s worries, and created a refuge out of delicate and minimalist arrangements.

Beginning in 2024, Lay teamed up with Los Angeles recording engineer and producer Rob Shelton of Altamira Sound in Alhambra, and began writing songs on the spot, with various local musicians joining them to flesh out the tracks. Their first collaborative effort became the single “Mirrors,” a soft-rock meditation released in April that year, which positioned Lay’s voice over a rich full-band arrangement. “As soon as we finished that song, I knew I wanted that sound and feeling to compose the entire next record,” Lay says.