Oct 26, 2022

By Caleb Campbell

Photography by Philip Alexander

Over the years, Los Angeles-based musician Sonja Midtune has made her name on self-described “sad girl music,” evoking nostalgic and autumnal singer/songwriter fare on her latest EP, 2021’s Dreams Melt Away. However, her latest efforts explore a new direction, bringing forth vibrant and synth-laden strains of indie pop. As she explains, “I’m just tired of writing sad songs. I was fed up with myself and wanted to have more fun with my music, so I made music that was more up-tempo, more flavor, with the ‘volume stuck on high’.”

Next month, Midtune is set to introduce this new chapter of her music with her forthcoming EP, Golden Girl, coming November 11th. However, ahead of the EP’s release, she’s shared another new single from the record, “Haunt You Back,” premiering with Under the Radar.

Though far from the acoustic meditations of her “sad girl” era, Midtune’s latest single offers another look into her softer side, packing her warm instrumentation into a quietly evocative and biting indie gem. The track finds her vocals tinged with echoing production and watery synth textures, enveloping her in golden-hued bursts of blissful melodies. Meanwhile, the track’s lyrics show a darker edge, with Midtune imagining turning the tables on a past connection that has been haunting her一“Can’t get to heaven with a graveyard key/Bones go in the ground but your soul stays here/Time tick-ticking like a heart attack/When I go down I’m gonna haunt you back.”

Midtune says of the track, “‘Haunt You Back’ might be the most spiteful song I’ve ever written. There are a lot of hidden meanings. I was driving through Hollywood, late at night a few months ago, and randomly started thinking about ghosts. My mind landed on one person in particular that I would not like to spend eternity haunting with… The idea actually creeped me out so much that I realized how much this person was poisoning me in real time. So, the song is about taking the power back, imagining that if I did get stuck eternally haunting, I’d make it eternally miserable for this particular individual, as they’ve done unto me whilst living.”

Check out the song below. Golden Girl EP is out everywhere on November 11th.