Prewn

Level Up presents one of the hottest names on the acclaimed Boston label Exploding In Sound!

For fans of: Mitski, Big Thief, PJ Harvey, Pile …

Prewn is the project of Izzy Hagerup, who creates a kind of garage freak-folk built on sharp contrasts. Quiet, almost restrained guitar melodies are suddenly cut through by torrents of torn distortion, while the vocals move between hushed whisper and tense, almost trembling confession. The songs sound like they were born directly from sleepless nights, obsessive thinking, and the kind of inner turmoil that can’t be shaken off. Prewn builds songs like tiny psychological studies—fragmented, anxious, and full of internal tension that surfaces in ominously quiet pauses. On this year’s album System, released by Boston’s Exploding In Sound Records, that tension is even more palpable. The arrangements are more disciplined, the rhythm often feels intentionally cut short or held too long, and the melodies break at points where most songwriters would go for the safer, expected solution.

"Her voice is unmistakable – spidery, strange, carnal – and her pen is equally bizarre and enrapturing. Rickety, goosebump-inducing cello-rock." - Stereogum