Floating Room’s sophomore album False Baptism is an uber-confessional crusher that neither singer/guitarist Maya Stoner nor her multi-instrumentalist bandmate/boyfriend Kyle Bates was in a rush to release, though it’s been finished for about a year.
Stoner wrote Floating Room’s 2016 debut, Sunless, in the aftermath of an abusive relationship. That album’s self-described “gray pop” grapples with her confusion and distress amidst a wash of heavy-lidded synth and warbling guitars.
“That record was more like shell-shock, like not being totally clear about what happened,” explains Stoner. “I was subconsciously putting off [releasing the new record] because I didn’t really wanna talk about the meanings of the songs… I was also feeling kind of self-conscious about putting out another album that’s slightly related to the same depressing shit I was already writing about.”