Today Orla Gartland releases her much anticipated Why Am I Like This? EP and announces a European tour in November, including a headline show at The Scala, London.
Why Am I Like This EP is a collection of inward-facing songs written over the four years Dublin-born Gartland has resided in London. As she explains:
“Each of these songs explores something I've learnt about myself in my late teens through to my early twenties - these super turbulent, super formative years.”
The EP features the focus track Inevitable which is being shared on Soundcloud today to mark the EP release and tour announcement, with the accompanying music video following next Friday 31 May. The track is a live favourite despite being a break-up ballad of sorts, Inevitable shows Gartland exploring the sad and slow decay of a relationship from the inside out.
Why Am I Like This? EP also includes the previous singles Why Am I Like This? (February 2019) and Flatline (April 2019). The former was aptly coined “existential pop” and received phenomenal support being the artist’s fastest-growing track to date - with over a million Spotify streams and counting. Why Am I Like This? dealt head-on with social anxiety, delivered in Gartland’s refreshingly stripped-bare honesty. It’s a style of ‘confessionary pop’ that has seen Gartland compared to the likes of icon Stevie Nicks. Its follow-up Flatline offered an insight into the misery of one-sided friendships and was a return to Gartland’s unique ‘pop’ sound, where universally relatable and melancholy-tinged lyrics are juxtaposed with colourful, multi-layered indie-pop. A sound that has been compared to artists such as St. Vincent, Regina Spektor and HAIM.
Gartland has received support from key tastemakers such as The Line of Best Fit, Pop Justice and 405, among many others. To date her music has been streamed over 8 million times on Spotify alone, with 180k YouTube subscribers and thousands of loyal online supporters.
This year alone, Gartland has toured Europe extensively with Dodie including a date at Roundhouse, London; played a sold-out headline UK/Ireland tour which included two Omeara, London dates, and recently performed Live at Leeds festival.
