Singer-Songwriter Hayden Arp Shares New Single “Black Hole” From Upcoming Debut LP ‘With Eliza’

Singer-songwriter Hayden Arp announced his upcoming debut album With Eliza back in June with his reflective lead single “Passenger”. With the album’s November 18th release date encroaching, Arp has unveiled a new single “Black Hole”.

“Black Hole” is from a collection of songs that were written back in 2018. Arp’s patience and careful consideration created opportunity to explore and find new direction with his sound. “‘Black Hole’ certainly was the hardest song on the album to make, and took the longest time to finish”, Hayden shares.

“It has three distinct sections that never repeat, and switches styles a number of times. The rap section in the middle is something I felt very committed to from the beginning, but also very nervous about. It took me years to figure out what it was I wanted to say, and to get a recording that felt right. I only finished it during the summer of 2022. Thinking back on it now, that process is very much in line with the central idea of the song: that I sometimes have trouble figuring out what I want to say when I think too much about the audience“.

Opening with a string quartet comprised of former classmates from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, “Black Hole” is a journey, both sonically and lyrically, as Hayden weaves together the themes of road trips and relationship quarrels – both reoccuring themes from With Eliza.

“Black Hole” also references a road trip, which is a recurring theme across the With Eliza album. At the beginning of the rap section, the sonic space is thrust into a car itself, blending in recordings of the song played through Arp’s own car speakers, as well as a turn signal turned into a hi-hat.

“I actually brought a little portable microphone into my car while working on this song, to capture the sound of the song being played through my car speakers. I hit record and drove around my neighborhood with the song playing over the speakers. Later I blended that audio back into the original. So much of the album’s narrative takes place in a car, and I wanted to have at least one moment that actually sounded like you were in one.”

Building off the innovative approach, the accompanying music video for “Black Hole” is a 360-degree visualizer.

Listen to the single below and check out the Q&A premiere of “Passenger” for more insight on the upcoming album: