California-based songwriter and producer A.O. Gerber has shared her first new song since 2020’s debut album Another Place To Need. The new song is called “Looking For The Right Things”, and she says:
“I wrote this song in 2017 in a moment of exasperation, when my desire to show up as my honest self and let someone else show up as theirs felt impossibly difficult. That refrain, “Looking for the right things,” was a sort of anxious plea — this looping frustration over the distance between intention and reality, the desire for closeness and the complexity of actually allowing it. We tried to record this song for my first record and we couldn’t get the production right (irony!). As the years went on, I tried again and again to re-work it, and the repetition of that refrain started taking on new meaning. There’s anxiety in it, yes, but there’s also gentleness, self-nurturance, and even some hope — this feeling that it’s worth it to stay open, stay tender, stay messy.”
Despite being born from a feeling of exasperation and hopelessness, there is a balmy and beautiful atmosphere to “Looking For The Right Things”. The title is repeated dozens of times in the song, which strips it of its weighty origin and instead turns it into a mantra for positivity. This feeling is accentuated by the shifting pastel-coloured synths, deft percussive elements and Gerber’s warming vocal, which are subtly expansive, suggesting a search far and wide and in all sorts of places. She might not know where the “right things” are all the time, but Gerber’s moral compass is guiding her, and she’s going to have an illuminating journey in the process of finding them.
Watch the Erik Schute-directed video for “Looking For The Right Things” below or find it on streaming platforms.
“Looking For The Right Things” is out on Father/Daughter (US) and Hand in Hive (UK). You can find A.O. Gerber on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
