Katie Bejsiuk - The Woman In The Moon

Black Vinyl

Released by Double Double Whammy

The Woman on the Moon gently nods to the pre-band days of Free Cake—when it was just Katie and her guitar—but with a musical evolution cultivated from years of self-inquiry during which her confidence, direction, and self-possession bloomed. Whereas Free Cake buoyantly focused on the ecstatic wonders and wounds of youth in real time, Katie Bejsiuk pans out with wisdom and retrospection that comes with age. The Woman on the Moon is composed of 12 exquisite and refined songs that evoke the sensory through introspective lyrics and salve the heart with Katie’s tranquilizing, cadenced vocals that devoted fans have clung to for over a decade.

Written mostly while she was living in upstate New York between 2019 and 2021, The Woman on the Moon vividly documents memories and moments that define archetypal phases of womanhood: “Women are complex, powerful harbingers of both profound ugliness and unparalleled beauty. These songs are centered around navigating the landmines of girlhood and adolescence, learning how to deeply love another human being and also myself, and following my personal North Star vs. the projected timeline for adulthood. It’s also about what the relationships with the women in my life really look like—the joy and mirroring of self there, but also the unbreachable distance and instances of violence.”

Recorded between April and August 2021, The Woman on the Moon was a challenging creative endeavor for Katie, as there were myriad personal upheavals that delayed the process: she separated from her husband for a period, was estranged from her sister, quit her job, and moved twice. All the while, Katie slowly recorded The Woman on the Moon on her laptop, stealing away during quiet moments, sometimes in the middle of the night. “The process of creating this record is bringing me to the ‘me’ of right now,” she says. “It has helped me move through huge life changes, and helped me access who I am. It was a transformative process.” Katie dropped all preconceptions of what she believed was the “correct” way to record and took it on herself. She learned as she went along—not only the nuances of recording, but also how to trust herself by quieting the noise and getting to work. She was joined by a plethora of old and new faces, including Free Cake collaborators Francis Lyons, Heeyoon Won, Colin Manjoney, Meghan Center, and Peter Gill (Friendship); and for the first time with Will Henriksen, Amy Oelsner (Amy O), Jason Calhoun, and Jon Samuels.