Claire Rousay

Los Angeles-based experimental artist claire rousay crafts intimate compositions centered on interpersonal relationships, queerness, and the small textures of everyday existence. Often improvisational in nature, her recordings and performances blend droning electronics, field recordings, and whispered ASMR-like vocals, qualities prominently displayed on the widely praised 2021 release a softer focus. At times she channels her affinity for emo and pop-punk through song-based work, notably in the 2022 collaboration never stop texting me with her close friend more eaze. The next year found her contributing to Saddle Creek Records’ Document series, after which she moved to Thrill Jockey for the 2024 album sentiment, an effort shaped more explicitly by indie rock and containing some of her most confessional writing to date.

Originally from Winnipeg, rousay relocated with her family to San Antonio at age ten. Growing up in a strict evangelical Christian home, she played drums in church, later left high school, and joined an indie rock band. After immersing herself in jazz and free improvisation, she began performing solo as a percussionist. In 2017 she played two hundred shows and issued multiple cassettes and CD-Rs, among them blip and the 2018 titles Neuter and DIVIDE, both of which appeared on established D.I.Y. imprints such as Kendra Steiner Editions and Already Dead. Following her transition in 2019, her first releases under the name claire rousay comprised Several Erasures, Aerophobia, and the field-recording project t4t.

Throughout 2020 she issued improvised collaborations with Alex Cunningham, Carol Genetti, Jacob Wick, and Lisa Cameron, while solo efforts such as a heavenly touch and Both—her debut vinyl LP on Second Editions—extended her focus on quotidian sounds and environmental recordings. Using a text-to-speech program she created the twenty-minute breakup piece it was always worth it, a work that might be characterized as emo-ambient. The 2021 album a softer focus served as her first release for Chicago’s American Dreams Records and quickly became one of her most celebrated recordings, earning placement on year-end lists from Pitchfork and additional outlets. She launched her own Mended Dreams Records imprint in partnership with American Dreams, issuing the two-CD set A Collection along with the Patrick Shiroishi collaboration Now Am Found and further titles.

An Afternoon Whine, another project with longtime friend and collaborator more eaze, came out on the French label Ecstatic. The duo also recorded the hyperpop- and indie-rock-oriented never stop texting me and the more atmospheric a crying poem with Bloodz Boi, both issued by Orange Milk in 2022. That same year Shelter Press released everything perfect is already here, consisting of two fifteen-minute solo pieces, while wouldn’t have to hurt—an album addressing rousay’s mental-health challenges—appeared as a benefit for the LGBTQ suicide-prevention organization The Trevor Project. Matador put out Sunset Poem, an EP containing rousay’s remixes of tracks from Circuit des Yeux’s album -io. In 2023 she partnered with Saddle Creek once more, contributing the songs “Sigh in My Ear” and “Your First Armadillo” to the label’s ongoing Document series, and joined Helena Deland for the joint single “Deceiver.” The following year rousay signed with Thrill Jockey and delivered sentiment, a decidedly song-oriented album that foregrounds acoustic guitar, string arrangements, Auto-Tuned vocals, and diaristic, vulnerable lyrics, along with guest contributions from Lala Lala and Hand Habits.